Australia will play Sri Lanka in a blockbuster Twenty20 international in Perth on Sunday, October 31 to open the 2010-11 season with all the action and excitement of Twenty20 sure to catch the attention of fans early in the season.

The match will be followed by a three-game one-day series, with matches in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane leading into the drawcard event of the summer, the Ashes series.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said the limited overs matches early in the season would help build the hype and raise awareness that the international season had arrived.

“There’s no doubt that Twenty20 cricket is a very popular format with the fans and opening the season with a big game against Sri Lanka will provide a great platform to launch the season from,” Sutherland said.

“West Australians love their cricket and I have no doubts that a massive crowd will be out to see Australia’s first match of the season at home against an entertaining Sri Lankan team likely to include names like Sangakara, Malinga and Mendis.

“I don’t think we’ve ever played one-day internationals so early in a home season so we hope this will have people talking cricket a lot earlier than they might normally would be.”

With a 17-day break between the last one-day game against Sri Lanka and the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, Sutherland said that period would give players sufficient time to go back and represent their state in the Sheffield Shield to prepare for the battle against the old enemy.

“The limited overs matches will provide plenty of early excitement, but we’re also very conscious that we need to give our Test players sufficient time to prepare for the big task of regaining the Ashes,” he said.

“Having the international players back during that period will be a huge boost to state cricket as well as providing the players with some great preparation in the world’s strongest first-class competition heading into the first Test in Brisbane.”

The five-Test 3 Ashes will be the feature of the summer with matches in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney before the hosts take on the old foe in two Twenty20s and a seven-game one-day series to round out the summer.

Sutherland said that with the ICC Cricket World Cup directly after the Australian summer, every limited overs match between now and then would be crucial to the side’s preparation to defend the crown in the subcontinent.

“It’s a very busy period for the Australian cricket team.”