Melbourne, Jan. 15: Cricket authorities are expecting Friday's 50-over one-day international between Australia and South Africa on Friday to show which format is more popular among fans -- Twenty20 or the 50-over game.

According to the Courier Mail, Cricket Victoria CEO Tony Dodemaide expects a smaller crowd than the 63,000 who watched the pyrotechnics of Twenty20 specialist David Warner in Melbourne four nights ago, and said the turnout would say a lot about the health of "traditional" limited-overs cricket.

This summer also represents a departure from the triangular format that has been a feature of the Australian calendar for the past 30 years.

"In pure numbers terms, you''ve got to say that in the last two years Boxing Day itself and Twenty20 have been our premium days," Dodemaide said.

"Last year there was a real drop-off in our crowds but, of course, two of our games were right at the end of February, out of school holidays and the football pre-season had started and we had back-to-back games against Sri Lanka and it was probably a dead series by then," Dodemaide added.

"I think we are going to learn a bit after this series, we''ve got the first match of a head-to-head five-match series so it will be interesting to see how the public respond to that," he said.

In Australia cricket fans have voted with their feet and their remote controls; the Channel Nine audience for Tuesday night''s Twenty20 game at the Gabba peaked at 2.682 million viewers.

The International Cricket Council limits countries to three Twenty20 internationals per home summer, a quota Cricket Australia will fill this season, but Dodemaide said he was open to hosting more. (ANI)