Premier opportunity
Talks to join Brisbane grade competition
A TEAM representing North Queensland is in advanced discussions to be included in the state’s premier cricket competition.
Plans are in the works for a North Queensland cricket side to enter the Brisbane-based Queensland Premier Cricket competition in coming seasons.
The plans centre on the establishment of a regional cricket team, made up of players hailing from Cairns to Mackay, to compete in the South East Queensland competition alongside teams from Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Ipswich.
The new team would play most of their home games in Cairns, with the possibility of playing other fixtures in Townsville and Mackay.
Details of the potential North Queensland team come just days after it was revealed the Australian men’s and women’s cricket teams will be coming to the region later this year.
Queensland Country icon Kevin Maher, who has been looking into the structure of premier grade cricket across Queensland as part of a state cricket committee, said it would be massive win for cricket in the region, but nothing had been finalised yet.
“It’s early days but the longterm plan would be to have a statewide competition,” Maher said.
“It might not be quite like the Intrust Super Cup, but perhaps a regional competition where you’re either knocked out or progress – a bit like the old Amco Cup used to be in rugby league and the FFA Cup in soccer.
“That’s all under discussion at the moment, but we’ll have another meeting later this month and recommendations will be put to the board in March.”
Maher said people could speculate all they liked as to what a statewide competition might look like or what format it would follow, but nothing would be set in stone until it was approved by the Queensland Cricket board.
“It’s a costly exercise, so to do it, do you play it as a oneday competition or a T20 competition?” he said.
“It’s very costly to move teams around just for a T20 game, which is three hours.
“Just the format and the complete structure of it is yet to be decided, but it is something that’s on the table, which would be pretty exciting for regional cricket in Queensland.”