Qld Cricket boss Max Walters opens up about the Gold Coast’s growing importance to the game
WITH the Gold Coast still savouring its first taste of elite cricket, Queensland Cricket chief executive Max Walters has opened up about the city’s growing importance to the game.
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WITH the Gold Coast still savouring its first taste of elite cricket following Saturday night’s T20 international at Metricon Stadium, Queensland Cricket chief executive Max Walters has opened up about the city’s growing importance to the game.
METRICON DEBUT
Despite heavy rain shortly before Saturday’s T20 between Australia and South Africa, Walters said the crowd of 12,866 proved fans would get behind the three looming Big Bash fixtures on December 22, and January 1 and 5.
“I thought it was good. Obviously the rain probably lost us 5000 or 6000 people but I thought it was a great experience,” he said.
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“It’s a beautiful ground under lights for cricket now that the wicket’s in there, you can really get the perspective of the whole thing. I think it augers well for the future.
“The plan is to use Metricon in both Cricket Australia’s strategy and Queensland Cricket’s strategy, from the point of view of the Brisbane Heat. That’s a deal that’s been done (with the BBL) for the next three years and hopefully thereafter.”
DOLPHINS DEVELOPMENT
With the Gold Coast Dolphins’ headquarters at Bill Pippen Oval to be upgraded to Tier 2 standard in the coming years, Walters said it shaped as a key piece of infrastructure for female cricket in particular.
“Bill Pippen Oval is part of the overall Queensland Cricket strategy for sure. What we’re trying to do is develop a number of grounds (to become) like Allan Border Field and Bill Pippen Oval falls into that category as a Tier 2 ground.
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“Tier 2 grounds mean we can attract high-level, elite women’s games and more junior carnivals and so on and even possibly Sheffield Shield games. That helps very much with the increased content for women’s and girls’ cricket.”
COAST INVESTMENT
The emergence of Dolphins stars Michael Neser, Max Bryant, Matt Kuhnemann and Xavier Bartlett into QC pathways has justified the governing body’s investment in Coast cricket, according to Walters.
“Jeff Pfaff (Dolphins president) runs an outstanding club and they’ve been very good producers of talent from that area. A Premier Grade club has that dual responsibility to produce or bring in young elite players and also provide participation for the lower grades.
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“When there’s elite cricket in an area, that prompts young girls and boys to play cricket. We work closely with the Dolphins through Jeff Pfaff and we’ll be shortly having more participation staff on the Gold Coast, so it’s a very, very important area for us both in terms of elite cricket and participation for youngsters to start playing cricket.”
THE BBL DREAM
While the BBL will remain an eight-team competition in the short term, Walters said it was only a matter of time before the Coast joined the expansion conversation.
“The current Cricket Australia strategy and Queensland Cricket strategy is to develop the full home-and-away season with the same number of franchises, but if that goes gangbusters then attention will turn to new franchises.
“We’re hoping to build the Brisbane Heat franchise by taking it to the Coast. Down the track, and that would be three or four years away, it’s anybody’s guess what might happen (and) the two no-brainers for (expansion) consideration in Queensland would be the Gold Coast and north Queensland.”
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