Bush bash to bring big hitters to Cahill Park

A new cricket league is set to take the region by storm, with big hitters ready to light up the night

BIG HITS: Valley Raptors T20 cricket team co-owners Lance Pollock and Ian O'Brien with Bush Bash League organiser Kent Reimers. Picture: Dominic Elsome

CRICKET: Get ready - the bush bash is coming to town.

A new cricket league is set to take the region by storm, with big hitters ready to light up the night.

The Darling Downs Bush Bash league will bring T20 cricket to the regions, and co-ordinator Kent Reimers said it was a way of reinvigorating T20 cricket in the area.

"T20 cricket is blossoming around the world, but locally it was really struggling,” Reimers said.

"Instead of making it a club based thing, it's a commercial based thing where six people have purchased teams.”

Ian O'Brien and Lance Pollock came together to found the Valley Raptors, and Pollock said it was a "no brainer”.

"As soon as I heard about the concept, I knew we had to have a team in the Lockyer,” Pollock said.

The Raptors have secured former Queensland Country Coach Lenny Martin to coach the team.

Players nominate and enter into a draft to be held on August 16, with six captains already chosen and being drafted tonight.

Reimers said the draft would make the league more competitive.

In a win for the region, one of the five rounds will be played at Cahill Park.

Reimers and O'Brien said a recent grant to the complex meant new lights would be installed in time for the rounds, and the Raptors would be the first T20 side to play a night game in the Lockyer Valley.

Lance Pollock said the league wasn't just about getting players into T20, it would provide cricket fans an exciting evening of entertainment.

"That's part of the concept, it's to promote cricket and get people watching cricket - not just reading about it in the paper,” he said.

The league will kick off in mid-September and run through to the end of October.