Photo Credit: Brisbane Heat
Queensland Cricket and the Brisbane Heat will help fly the flag for Road Safety in the State for the next two years after extending its partnership with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) through until 2025.
The extension will take the long-standing partnership between QC and TMR to almost a decade, with Brisbane Heat players and Queensland Cricket promoting road safety messaging since 2016.
The partnership includes messaging at Big Bash games, with the StreetSmarts Innings Break Show a feature at all home BBL matches, as well as branding and activations on the StreetSmarts Regional Tour, and the StreetSmarts T20 Secondary Schools competition.
Today’s partnership renewal also announced the introduction of the Road Safety Cup, an annual trophy contested between the Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder conducted across the Weber WBBL and KFC BBL competitions.
This season, the Cup will be contested between the two clubs in Sydney on Monday at North Sydney Oval in the WBBL while the corresponding BBL clash will be at the Gabba on Wednesday 27 December.
Heat player Jimmy Peirson and Thunder contracted player Gurinder Sandhu helped launch the new competition today at an event at Allan Border Field, with special ‘0’ branded playing shirts to represent the vision of zero road deaths.
WBBL and BBL Heat players Usman Khawaja, Matthew Kuhnemann, Jess Jonassen and Redmayne also attended the sponsorship renewal event.
QC Chief Executive Officer Terry Svenson welcomed the opportunity for the Brisbane Heat to continue spreading road safety messages to Queenslanders.
“Using the profile of the Brisbane Heat in the BBL and WBBL to help keep our fans safe on our roads is a very worthwhile endeavour.
“We’re grateful to our colleagues at the Sydney Thunder for joining with us for such an important campaign and look forward to making the inaugural Road Safety Cup matches ones to remember on and off the field.”
“The partnership between Queensland Cricket and TMR provides us with multiple opportunities to interact with cricket fans and stakeholders and remind them that road safety starts with all of us. Our staff cover the entire State and we aspire to be a safe driving organisation.”
Svenson said today’s sponsorship extension would take the partnership to nine years with the prospect of further expansion.
“Queensland Cricket is a not-for-profit organisation, so our partnerships with government ensure that their sponsorship commitments are ploughed back into the community through our reinvestment in cricket at the grassroots level,’’ he said.
“We look forward to continuing this long-standing partnership with TMR for many years to come and committing to assist with drive awareness of road safety through our players and staging of successful events,” he said.
Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey also welcomed the partnership renewal.
“I’m delighted to continue our work with Queensland Cricket to promote the importance of road safety across Queensland.
“The lives lost on our roads is devastating and often avoidable, so I am dedicated to supporting initiatives that help to bring road safety sharply into focus.
“The addition of the Road Safety Cup to our partnership is a great example of this, utilising the popularity of the BBL and WBBL to promote road safety and help work towards our long term vision of zero lives lost on our roads.
“We have a chance to build on the fantastic work that we have already established with Queensland Cricket over many years, and I applaud their efforts to help us reach Queenslanders to promote road safety in innovative ways.
“Cricket is such a big part of summer in Queensland, and it’s a great opportunity to remind every Queenslander that they can make our roads safer every time they use them.
“I look forward to seeing the Brisbane Heat bring home the inaugural Road Safety Cup.”
