Hartley dropped from Queensland's Matador Cup squad

Queensland have jettisoned the longtime-wicketkeeper Chris Hartley from their squad for the Matador Cup, as part of a succession plan to expedite the development of the younger gloveman Jimmy Peirson.

Having played for the Cricket Australia XI in last year's tournament, Peirson will step in for Hartley, who largely struggled with the bat a year ago in a team that failed to contend for the tournament decider.

Hartley, who is still expected to take the gloves for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield and also captain whenever Usman Khawaja is absent, is believed to have been told of the decision a few weeks ago.

The limited-overs captaincy has meanwhile been handed over to the 25-year-old allrounder Jason Floros, who did not play a single game in the tournament last season.

"Flo captained the boys well on a few occasions during the pre-season and has done some good things in the past in that role for the Queensland Academy of Sport in the Futures League and for Wynnum-Manly in the Premier competition,'' Queensland coach Phil Jaques said. "We're pretty comfortable giving him this responsibility and opportunity.

"It's good for Usman that he is back in the Australia set-up and we're pleased to welcome Joe Burns back into the Queensland ranks in the wake of his Australia 'A' efforts. We all hope some strong performances can help him win back his position at the top of the order for Australia."

"We've had a pretty consistent pre-season. The boys are nice and fit after working well with [strength and conditioning coach] Paul Chapman since he came on board earlier this year.

"We've been able to get good playing time into the majority of the squad as well as some other players around the group and are looking forward to a few final tune-ups against Auckland on the Gold Coast this week."

Queensland squad Jason Floros (capt), Joe Burns, Ben Cutting, Luke Feldman, Cameron Gannon, Peter George, Marnus Labuschagne, Chris Lynn, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Nathan Reardon, Matthew Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Mitch Swepson.