Century Cricket hopes to bring private tournament with $100k prizemoney to Mackay

A one-of-a-kind national 100-ball tournament featuring international stars has set its sights on a regional hub as its host venue. Discover the details.

Mackay’s no stranger to major cricket events.

Come Saturday night, and Women’s Big Bash, Sheffield Shield, One Day Cup, and Australia A cricket will have all graced Great Barrier Reef Arena’s pristine turf in the past few months alone.

But the region’s biggest scalp could be yet to come, with the privately-owned Century Cricket Competitions eyeing Mackay’s Great Barrier Reef Arena precinct to host their new landmark national tournament.

The tournament would be a three-day festival of cricket with games played in the rarely seen 100-ball format, and with a whopping $100,000 in prize money to be shared among the winning team and finalists.

“Think IPL, but for amateur cricketers on a smaller scale,” said Century Cricket’s executive director Nick Fitzpatrick of the tournament.

For the past three years, Century Cricket Competitions, formerly known as Brisbane Premier League, has run a Queensland-based tournament.

This year it expanded from eight teams to ten, allowing for the inclusion of the Great Barrier Reef Arena-owned Great Barrier Reef Rays.

Noah McFayden sends one down for the Rays. Picture: Supplied.

The tournament also previously allowed for three players from outside Queensland per side, but this would be abolished in favour of luring as many international and interstate players as possible.

The group also runs a tournament in Adelaide, and plans to launch a junior tournament in Melbourne this December.

But next year’s competition, slated for a weekend in August, would be a truly national event with the potential to encompass teams from Adelaide, Melbourne, and possibly India.

“We’re looking to draw on the success of open tournaments in the USA that are running under a similar model underneath Major League Cricket,” Fitzpatrick said.

“In T20 cricket (in Australia), under the Big Bash there’s a gap, we’re trying to slot into that.”

An abundance of present and former high profile athletes have a stake in Century Cricket Competitions and/or its privately-owned franchises; including Ian Healy, Usman Khawaja, Luke Hodge, Darren Lehmann, Travis Head, Ryan Burton, Chris Lynn, and Jimmy Maher.

Successful businessman Stuart Giles, who is one of the founding members of America’s new Major League Cricket tournament, also holds a majority stake in Century Cricket Competitions.

Ben Laughlin, who was the first player in Big Bash history to reach 100 wickets, and Nick Larkin both featured for the Rays in last year’s Brisbane competition.

Big Bash great Ben Laughlin in the field for the Rays. Picture: Supplied.

The upcoming under-21 competition in Melbourne will also feature Fawad Ahmed and Zimbabwe Test cricketer Solomon Mire as open-age ‘trailblazer’ players.

It’s hoped the lure of $100,000 in prizemoney will help attract an abundance of similar, if not higher profile, players.

A draft will also be staged which local cricketers can nominate for, paving the way for Mackay’s best talents to potentially rub shoulders with some of the game’s finest.

Century Cricket had been scouring the nation in search of a suitable venue to host next year’s tournament, and liked what they saw in the Great Barrier Reef Arena precinct.

“There’s no other ground in Australia that’s got four (grounds) under lights in the one complex,” said Tanya Comino, Century Cricket’s national competitions manager.

Fitzpatrick agreed.

“The facilities up here are phenomenal, there’s not a better facility in Australia for that type of tournament,” said Fitzpatrick.

Beth Mooney batting against India at Great Barrier Reef Arena in 2021, the venue also has a history of hosting women’s international cricket. Picture: Albert Perez/Getty Images

“You’ve got the country club there with a beer garden where you can look out both ways, the platform where you can see all three fields.

“It’s great in Brisbane, but the benefit of coming somewhere like this is it will be a feature event … we’ll try and make it a real showpiece event in a regional area.

“A lot of the players we’ve spoken to love the idea of getting away to a destination event, you’re all away from home is one spot, so you can do team dinners and events and things like that.

“I feel like it would bring a real vibe and a buzz here for three or four days.”

Players, coaches, and owners alone would see an influx of 200 people into the Mackay region for the weekend, and that’s before you consider friends, family, and spectators that would also come.

It’s understood the tournament would require support from Mackay Regional Council if it’s to be held in Mackay, but Fitzpatrick and Comino said early meetings had been positive.

The pair hope Century Cricket can have a decision finalised before Christmas.

If the tournament is to be held in Mackay as hoped, it would further bolster Great Barrier Reef Arena’s hopes of bringing Olympic cricket to the region in 2032.