Queensland dominate indoor masters

Cricket Australia’s Indoor Masters Championships wrapped up on Saturday with one state dominant for the second year in a row.

Queensland, fielding teams in every age group, made the Grand Final in every division and won four of out a possible five tournaments.

The tournament - held in Silverwater, New South Wales - was well represented across the states with New Zealand sending a squad for the over 40s.

CA’s Indoor Cricket Manager Paul Milo said the tournament far exceeded his expectations in terms of engagement from the large indoor community.

“Over the past 12 months though, we have worked hard to bring the events more exposure and through various forms of access – especially through social media – we were able to engage with well over 100,000 people for the Masters Championships,” Milo said.

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Milo also said Indoor Cricket was a perfect opportunity for children and seniors to try their hand at the elite levels of cricket.

“Indoor Cricket is perfectly suited to be played by guys or girls socially mid-week, but for those who want to take the next step and represent their state or country, this is available for both boys and girls as young as 10 or 11 and men and women up to the age of around 60,” he said.

“Australia has a proud record at International level and are the number one ranked indoor cricket nation.”

Indoor Cricket accounts for more than 165,000 participants across Australia with CA hosting Masters, Opens and Junior national carnivals annually.

Australia will also host the World Indoor Cricket Federation (WICF) Junior World Series in Brisbane in September and the country's indoor stocks have consistently produced high quality results, showcased by their undefeated streak across the open-age World Cups dating back to 1995.

Current stars such as Michael Clarke, Aaron Finch, Ryan Harris and Steve Smith began their careers with the indoor format of the game.

CA has also committed a large portion of funding to the Indoor format, recently appointing former Australian coach Ross Gregory to the role of High Performance Coach for all national sides.

The 2016 Australian Masters would be held in Mackay, in Queensland’s regional North-East – the first time the championships has headed to a country town since 2009.

It was also announced that the Masters World Cup would be headed to the UK in 2016 giving Australia a chance to regain the Men’s over 30s and 35s titles and defend the Women’s 40s and 45s cups.