New Zealand and Australia are to meet in a new annual one-day competition, the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.

Simultaneous news conferences were held in both countries on Wednesday to announce the new event.

Former Kiwi Test captain Walter Hadlee and his son, ex-test paceman Dayle, were in attendance at the news conference in New Zealand while the Chappell brothers, former Test skippers Ian and Greg, featured in Australia.

The inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, a three-game series, will take place in December immediately after New Zealand's two Tests in Australia in November.

The 2005 series will be held when Australia tour New Zealand and from then on the annual trans-Tasman contest will rotate between the two countries.

The chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, Martin Snedden, said the series would be named the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in recognition of the contribution both families had made to cricket in their respective countries.

"There is a very close bond between the two countries and that bond has materialised in the creation of trans-Tasman rivalries in all of our major sports," Snedden said in a statement.

"I am confident the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy will become as eagerly anticipated as other great annual sporting events such as the Bledisloe Cup (rugby union) series."

Australia and New Zealand cricketing fraternities have not always been the best of friends, with Australia refusing to play their Antipodean rivals in the early years of New Zealand's elevation to Test status from 1930.

A two-day victory by Australia in a one-off Test in Wellington in 1946 led to them again snubbing the Kiwis until Test relations between the two countries resumed in 1973-74.

Dayle Hadlee and his brother, all-rounder Richard, played in the first one-dayer between the two nations in 1974.