While this summer's Ashes series will ensure bumper public and commercial interest, behind the scenes Cricket Australia knows there are challenges it must address.

That's why, in part, it will hold an inaugural ‘‘state of the union'' week-long conference at the Aitken Hill events centre in Melbourne's north, beginning today.

Built initially as a training centre for BHP, Aitken Hill these days holds conferences and seminars for major business and sporting organisations.

CA expects about 180 people to attend through the week, including state association chief executives, board members and CA officials, to hear guest speakers and importantly work on ensuring cricket retains what many fear is a diminishing hold as the number one sport of summer.

Issues including the health of one-day cricket, the development of the Twenty20 brand and how to attract youngsters from an increasingly multi-cultural society will all be on the agenda.

‘‘Preceding this conference, we have done a lot of research,'' CA public affairs manager Peter Young says.

‘‘There is a national survey that went out to Australian cricket employees, we have done surveys of our major relationships, the big message coming back has been that the single biggest issue Australian cricket faces is how to engage young people.''

As simple as it sounds, Young said cricket could no rely upon young boys being introduced to the sport when they received a cricket bat "under the Christmas tree".

‘‘That has really changed. The passion of cricket, we have to go out and earn that in competition with significant influences that didn't exist when you were a boy and when I was a boy,'' he says.

‘‘Kids these days have got the whole electronic strata of interests and issues, some aren't physically active, there is an undeclared epidemic of childhood obesity and, even if kids are physically active, there are more and more choices for them than the old days when kids played cricket in summer and a brand of footy in winter.''

Young said cricket was also determined to lure more girls and women to matches.

He said, for example, research showed there was an imbalance in percentage of about 65-35 male-to-female ratio in attendance at the traditional Melbourne Boxing Day Test. In comparison, the AFL grand final was closer to an even spread.

‘‘We are conscious of that. One of the things we are very conscious of, Twenty20 is getting an audience that is closer to 50-50,'' he said.

‘‘Girls and women do line up to go to Twenty20 matches in a way they don't line up to go to one-day internationals or Test cricket.

‘‘The reason for that it is a bite-sized chunk of entertainment. You don't have to be there all day, or spend five days doing it.''

As backpagelead.com.au has discussed in depth, the future of the 50-overs game appears bleak, to the point CA has discussed split innings formats and even the possibility of batsmen having two lives in a bid to spice up contests.

Australia and New Zealand will host the 2015 World Cup, with concerns the growing interest in Twenty20 - another issue entirely - will over-shadow what was once the sport's showpiece event.

‘‘The research we have done, one-day cricket is Australia's most popular format but there are very clear signals the public are saying it's getting tired and needs refreshing,'' Young said.

The conference will conclude on Friday, with the CA board to meet immediately after to discuss any recommendations.