State Institute Challenge to showcase innovative one-day match formats

The annual State Institute Challenge will trial a series of innovative one-day match formats when the tournament begins in far-north Queensland on Saturday (23 August).

The series, which features state and territory institute or academy teams, will also include a national Indigenous XI for the first time this year as part of Cricket Australia's High Performance Indigenous cricket program.

Staged in Mackay, Townsville and Cairns over eight days (23-30 August), the tournament will showcase various limited-overs match formats and experimental one-day playing conditions.

The move to play the series in far-north Queensland follows the successful staging of last year's State Institute Challenge in Darwin, and reaffirms Cricket Australia's broader commitment to take the game to new areas after the recent Australia-Bangladesh series in the Top End.

Match formats for the 2003 State Institute Challenge include 20-over matches with 11 players on each side and games featuring two 25-over innings, 40-over matches and 50-over matches.

New innovations include a "free hit" for batsman on the next ball they face if a bowler is no-balled for over-stepping, while bowlers will gain an additional over to their maximum allocation for every two wickets they take.

A new fielding rule will also be trialled whereby the ball is immediately declared "dead" if it hits the stumps during a run-out attempt.

At least one of the 50-over matches will also experiment with bowlers starting the match with a new ball at each end.

Former Test fast bowler Paul Reiffel, a member of Cricket Australia's project umpire panel, will again officiate in several of the matches after participating in the 2002 series in Darwin.

The eight state and territory teams competing in the State Institute Challenge are:

Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
Cade Brown (c), David Jeffrey (c), Scott Cameron, Stephen Frost, Dylan Goodsell, Christian Hanna, Stewart Heaney, Josh Kentwell, Sean Maxwell, Cameron McLeod, Peter Radford, Martin Rice and Michael Shaw.

Indigenous XI
Matthew Bradley (c), Troy Collard, Timothy Dann, Barry Firebrace, Sean Gower, Bernie Lamont, Rus Nasir, Daniel Payne, Martin Rush, Jacob Sarra, Dominic Treacy, Damien Watts and Barry Weare.

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS)
Shawn Bradstreet (c), Aaron Bird, Ed Cowan, Daniel Christian, Brendan Drew, Moises Henriques, Rhett Lockyear, Cameron Nupier, Aaron O'Brien, Ben Rohrer, Daniel Smith, Simon Williams and Liam Zammit.

Northern Territory Institute of Sport (NTIS)
Ian Redpath (c), Ashley Williams (vc), Nick Berry, Martin Brown, Shane Chatto, Paul Cook, Anthony Dent, Ryan Green, Mark Hatton, Tim Knox, Adrian McAdam, Michael Richardson and Ken Skewes.

Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS)
Aaron Nye (c), Steven Farrell, Chris Hartley, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Leloux, Steven Magoffin, Aaron Maynard, Craig Philipson, Peter Reimers, Nathan Rimmington, Chris Simpson and Grant Sullivan.

South Australia (SA)
Nathan Adcock (c), Callum Ferguson (vc), Cullen Bailey, Ben Cameron, Chris Duval, James Harford, Trent Kelly, Michael Miller, Jason Morgan, Jim Plant, Tom Plant, Mohammed Sheikh and Oliver Thomas.

Tasmania Institute of Sport (TIS)
Shane Watson (c), Dane Anderson, Travis Birt, Brent Burgess, Luke Butterworth, David Dawson, Xavier Doherty, Adam Griffith, Ben Hilfenhaus, Gordon Kerr, Scott Kremerskothen, Tim Paine and Matthew Wade.

Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS)
Cameron White (c), Aiden Blizzard, Adam Crosthwaite, Tom Evans, Matthew Gale, Matthew Harrison, Brett Harrop, Matthew Innes, Shane Jones, Josh Mangan, Aaron Mato, Clinton McKay and Peter Siddle.

The draw for the 2003 State Institute Challenge is:

Saturday 23 August
QAS v NTIS   Fretwell Park, Cairns
NSWIS v SA    Gatton St2, Cairns
VIS v TIS   Harrup Park 1, Mackay
Indigenous XI v ACT  Harrup Park 7, Mackay
Sunday 24 August
QAS v SA   Gatton St2, Cairns
NSWIS v NTIS  Fretwell Park, Cairns
VIS v ACT   Harrup Park 7, Mackay
Indigenous XI v TIS  Harrup Park 1, Mackay
Monday 25 August
QAS v NSWIS   Fretwell Park, Cairns
SA v NTIS   Gatton St2, Cairns
VIS v Indigenous XI  Harrup Park 1, Mackay
TIS v ACT   Harrup Park 7, Mackay
Wednesday 27 August (am)
QAS v Indigenous XI  Endeavour 1, Townsville
NSWIS v ACT   Brothers, Townsville
SA v TUS   Wanderers, Townsville
NTIS v VIS   Endeavour 1, Townsville
Wednesday 27 August (pm)
QAS v ACT   Wanderers, Townsville
NSWIS v Indigenous XI Endeavour 2, Townsville
SA v VIS   Brothers, Townsville
NTIS v TIS   Endeavour 1, Townsville
Friday 29 August 
QAS v TIS   Brothers, Townsville
NSWIS v VIS   Endeavour 1, Townsville
SA v Indigenous XI  Endeavour 2, Townsville
NTIS v ACT   Wanderers, Townsville
Saturday 30 August 
QAS v VIS   Wanderers, Townsville
NSWIS v TIS   Endeavour 1, Townsville
SA v ACT   Brothers, Townsville
NTIS v Indigenous XI  Endeavour 1, Townsville

The umpires for the 2003 State Institute Challenge are:

Norm McNamara, Bruce Oxenford, Peter Parker, Shane Reed, Paul Reiffel, Craig Skau, Tony Soulsby, Jim Torpey and Rod Tucker.