Wednesday 5 May 2010
The XXXX GOLD Queensland Bulls have made six changes to their contracted player list for the 2010-11 season.
Queensland Cricket today announced it had reached agreements with 19 players on full contracts with a further five rookie contracted players also confirmed.
The Bulls also have two Cricket Australia contracted players in Ryan Harris and James Hopes.
Former Australian allrounder and Queensland 100-gamer Andrew Symonds has been included on the contract list and will be a T20 player for the Bulls during the KFC Twenty20 “Big Bash” tournament.
Symonds, who played for match payments last season, was one of the stars of the recent IPL tournament for the Deccan Chargers and is due to play T20 cricket in England for Surrey in the near future.
Among the first-time full-contracted players are last season’s Bulls debutants Chris Lynn, Cameron Boyce, Luke Feldman and Ben Dunk as well as Australian Under-19 allrounder Jason Floros.
Lynn, 20, scored his maiden first class century last season and played in the Weet-Bix Sheffield Shield Final alongside fellow young guns Boyce and Feldman, while batsman/keeper Dunk was a revelation for the Bulls during the “Big Bash” tournament.
Dunk and Feldman, who took 33 wickets in eight first class games, are attending the AIS Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence during the off-season along with Floros and paceman Ben Cutting.
There were five players omitted from last season’s list, with Glen Batticciotto, Daniel Doran, Nick Kruger, Greg Moller and Grant Sullivan not offered contracts. Kruger and Doran have nominated for the national transfer pool after the first round of contracts.
The Queensland selectors chose five rookie players to receive contracts, with batsman Alex Kemp returning from last season and four first time selections.
The four new rookies are 19-year-old University of Queensland pace bowler Nicholas Buchanan, 21-year-old right-arm pace bowler Cameron Gannon and 19-year-old leg-spinner Jake Hannan, both from the Wests club, and 20-year-old Gold Coast allrounder Michael Neser.
They have all graduated from the Queensland Academy of Sport program where each played Futures League matches for the QAS last season, with Gannon taking a hat-trick in the first game.
Buchanan was a member of the Australian Under-19 side that won the ICC World Youth Cup in New Zealand while Hannan was a member of the extended 30-man squad that prepared for the championships.
Neser is a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium-fast bowler who is originally from South Africa. He played in the Gold Coast Dolphins team that won the XXXX GOLD First Grade Final.
Lynn, the winner of the 2009-10 Peter Burge Medal as the best player in first grade cricket, will enjoy a golden opportunity during the winter when he travels to India to participate in the long-standing MRF Pace Program where he will bat against some of the most promising young fast bowlers from India and Australia.
