Junior T20 creating new cricket pathway

A new junior cricket pathway is currently being established to close the gap between senior and junior cricket in the South Burnett.

Cricket ball/ summer

THE FUTURE of South Burnett cricket is looking bright with a new pathway between junior and senior cricket currently being established.

With no local representative cricket past U13's, Wondai Wolve's Chris Bodey and Nanango Scorpion's Jay Steinhardt are implementing a three match T20, U17 fixture, aiming to promote junior cricket.

Wondai Wolve's Chris Bodey said there is an abundance of young talented cricketers in the region.

"The idea is to try and get juniors playing against each other and highlight the young talent in the area, as it is the future of South Burnett cricket," Bodey said.

"Most of these guys play in the senior competition but at times it can be intimidating for them playing against adults," he said.

"We have had such a good response and the juniors are just chomping at the bits to get started."

The T20's will be played under lights at Kingaroy's Lyle Vidler Oval and there will be three matches with the first this Friday 7 February.

Two teams have been selected with players form Wondai, Murgon and Cherbourg forming the Northern Stars and players from Nanango, Kingaroy, Kumbia and Blackbutt forming the Southern Bulls.

It will be something different for the juniors according to Bodey who said most of them would never have played under lights.

"We think the T20 will be a very successful format for the young players and it will be a little different with 12 players batting and a rotating field of 12," Bodey said.

"We have noticed that after U13's a lot of the young players are dropping off and not coming back."

"Hopefully a lot of players get behind it and this becomes a permanent annual fixture that will run for years into the future."

Round one of the U17 Northern stars vs Southern Bulls will commence at 6pm 7 February at Kingaroy's Lyle Vidler Oval with round two 21 February and round three 6 March.

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