CRICKET Australia is plotting to deprive England of a crucial competitive advantage on future Ashes tours by introducing the Dukes ball to domestic cricket.

The Dukes cricket ball, used for Tests in England, behaves differently from the Kookaburra used in most countries including Australia and, in the hands of England's pacemen defeated Australia on the two most recent Ashes tours.

Dukes will be trialled in under-age championships and some second-XI games this summer, to see if they can withstand harsh Australian conditions, with the intention of eventually employing them for some rounds of the Sheffield Shield to prepare players for Ashes combat.

CA's senior cricket operations manager Sean Cary said the project was not just based on Australia's determination to improve its Ashes fortunes. In future, CA also wants to help players acclimatise for series in India by introducing before Indian tours the SG ball used there for some Shield games.

''The medium to long-term view is we want our Australian players using different balls in our competitions to help them prepare for international tours where the Kookaburra ball is not used,'' said Cary, a former fast bowler for Western Australia.