For the first time in the history of the UniSport Nationals T20 Cricket competition, The University of Queensland (UQ) has won the Championship hosted on the Sunshine Coast for 2024.
Since its inception, this UniSport competition has always been won by a Sydney-based university. The UQ Cricket team was ready to make this year count after being unable to compete in 2023 due to player availability.
Team captain James Guy wanted to make sure they trained harder than any other team ahead of the competition.
“The men trained up to five times a week in the lead-up to the competition. We were ready to go, and the week went all to plan. Creating history is an unbelievable feeling.”
Max Gadd was one of the few from the 2022 squad who returned to compete in 2024 and was determined to improve.
“We formalised our whole training process in the lead-up with our coach Nic ‘Coey’ Coe ensuring we were prepared with a private practice game against Bond University before the competition.”
“I’ve rung up a bunch of friends and family to tell them that we are the first Queensland team to win it! It feels good to take it off The University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney.”
In the final match, UQ faced the University of Western Australia. UQ put in a very strong bowling performance, holding the opposition to a humble 9/65. UQ managed to chase the target down in 12.5 overs – comfortably finishing 5/68 to take the title.
New recruit and Sports Achievement Scholarship recipient Brayden Meegama made his mark in the squad with a strong spin bowling display.
“This was my first year competing in this competition, and it is a great honour to be part of UQ’s first win.”
The 2024 UniSport Nationals T20 Cricket event was also a platform for selectors to pick 16 players for the Australian University Men’s Team that will compete in India from 25 November to 5 December 2024. The inaugural cricket tour will consist of the Australian ‘UniRoos’ team competing in a series of matches against Indian Universities.
UQ is proud to have three players selected to represent Australia: James Guy, Matthew Holmes and Angus White.
All three selected players made notable achievements throughout this tournament: James was the first captain to lead a QLD university to victory in this tournament, Matthew tied for most wickets taken (nine) and Angus tied with the most 6s (nine).