Photo Credit: Queensland Cricket
Queensland Cricket will unveil a new-look T20 focus for the KFC Queensland Premier Cricket competition for the 2022-23 season.
The revamp will feature the men’s Sci-Fleet Motors First Grade competition and men’s Alan Pettigrew Shield Second Grade competition moving from November to a new early season time slot.
The 2022-23 Kookaburra T20 competition will see each First Grade team play eight T20 matches, as well as a Finals series, between 19 August and 4 September.
The Second Grade competition will feature each club playing five games as well as Finals.
Matches will be played on Friday and Monday nights as well as on Saturday and Sunday, with venues including the newly redeveloped Allan Border Field and Premier club grounds.
The switch to earlier in the season follows feedback from Premier clubs and Queensland Cricket High Performance, with a view to providing more high level T20 playing exposure for players towards the start of the season.
The change also enables State and National contracted players to have greater opportunities to play T20 matches with their clubs and ensure a strongly competitive environment.
Queensland Cricket General Manager – High Performance, Bennett King, said the move followed detailed discussions with Premier Cricket clubs and feedback from Queensland coaching and playing staff.
“The switch to the earlier slot will give the State contracted players the chance to play more games earlier in the season, as well as enable Premier Cricket players with T20 potential to test themselves and develop their skills further,’’ he said.
“In the past few seasons, there have been a number of players make the transition directly from Premier Cricket to the BBL for instance, and the greater exposure they can have to a strong competition, the better off they will be.”
“We saw during this season’s BBL that when the Heat needed to source a squad of replacement players due to a COVID-19 outbreak, the Queensland Premier Cricket players were competitive when called upon to play. Ideally, we give those players, and others with the potential to play in the BBL, the chance to build upon those experiences in the coming summer.”
The Gold Coast Dolphins won this year’s Kookaburra T20 competition, defeating the Sunshine Coast Scorchers in the Final at the Gabba.
The existing Katherine Raymont Shield T20 women’s First Grade competition will stay in its existing time slot as it aligns with the Women’s Big Bash League.
Each women’s First Grade team will play fourteen T20 matches, including night matches, prior to the Finals round at Allan Border Field in December.
Queensland Cricket has also changed the age limit of its Lord’s Taverners competition for 2022-23.
It will now be run as an Under-17 competition featuring the Queensland Premier Clubs as well as Wide Bay and Darling Downs & South-West.
The change from Under-16 to Under-17 age group will better complement the Queensland Cricket Youth Pathway system.
