Western Rivers Cup wrap-up
Big plans for indigenous carnival
The inaugural champions of the Western Rivers Cup have reclaimed their trophy after a four-year drought.
The Maranoa Hurricanes defeated back-to-back champions SWIN Seamers at Captain Cook Oval at the weekend.
South-West Indigenous Network runs the tournament and chairman Peter Jackson thought the men’s final was very competitive.
“We usually pick a representative men’s Seamers squad to take on the Queensland Indigenous side but we will have to wait because the competition was so close,” he said.
The representative squad will be announced later in the week.
The Warrego Tornadoes have become the second winners of the women’s division after defeating defending champions, the Balonne Volcanoes.
With more than 200 players competing in Toowoomba across the weekend, Jackson said plans were already in motion to make next year’s competition even bigger.
Part of those plans included selecting both men’s and women’s representative sides.
“The South-West Indigenous Network want to make this the biggest indigenous cricket carnival in Queensland,” Jackson said. “We are well and truly on our way to doing that.”
Over the past five years of the Western Rivers Cup, Jackson said teams had become more competitive and players were taking it more seriously.
“The experience the communities are bringing to the competition is getting up there,” he said.
“It’s very important those teams represent their community but it’s also an opportunity for them to play against some really good Aboriginal teams from across southern Queensland.”