Australia [ Images ] will host its first Twenty20 [ Images ] international in the coming season, and also play a one-day series and a one-off Test with a Rest of the World team.

Cricket Australia had already decided to run a Twenty20 competition between domestic state teams after a trial last summer, but announced on Friday they had agreed to add an international match between Australia and South Africa [ Images ] after the game proved a massive instant hit with fans.

The one-off 20-over match will be played at Brisbane [ Images ] on January 9 at the end of a hectic Test schedule and before the start of the triangular one-day international series between Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka [ Images ].

"Our experiences to date show that the public have certainly enjoyed their first taste of twenty-over cricket and want to see more," Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said in a statement.

"It's an exciting and different format that is sure to entice some big crowds."

In a packed itinerary that will follow Australia's Ashes tour of England [ Images ], the world champions will also host seven Test matches as well as play in three separate one-day competitions.

The highlight of the season will be the October series between Ricky Ponting's [ Images ] men and the Rest of the World. The teams will play each other in three limited-overs internationals in Melbourne [ Images ] before a six-day "super" Test in Sydney [ Images ].

The Australians will also play a three match Test series against the West Indies [ Images ] in November, in Brisbane, Hobart and Adelaide, then a three-Test series against the South Africans in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.

Squeezed between those will be a three game one-day series in New Zealand [ Images ] for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, with the dates and venues still to be decided.

The annual trianglar one-day series with Sri Lanka and South Africa starts mid-January with the top two teams advancing to a best-of-three fnals series in Febuary.