CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr PIKE (Bowman) (17:02): It is a very good time to be a cricket tragic in the Redlands. Redlands Tigers T20 Max side backed up last year's premiership by finishing as minor premiers in the Queensland Cricket 20-over competition. This is an outstanding achievement.

I want to congratulate James Bazeley, Sam Heazlett, Jimmy Peirson, Mac Wright and all who contributed to this amazing result. Winning a premiership at this level is hard work. One bad over can finish a season.

While the Tigers were bundled out in a close semi, their success over the last two seasons says something much bigger about the strength of this club and the quality of its players, coaches and the culture that has been built there over many years. As patron of the Redlands Tigers, I could not be prouder of what this club continues to achieve. The timing could hardly be better because this season was also marked by another significant milestone for the Tigers, with the first games being played under new lights at the Peter Burge Oval at Wellington Point.

I was very proud to help secure Commonwealth funding for this project through the former coalition government's SEQ City Deal and the SEQ Liveability Fund, working alongside the Queensland government and Redland City Council. Peter Burge Oval is already regarded as one of the great suburban cricket grounds in Queensland. Now, with competition standard lighting, we can take it to another level.

The lights mean more than night cricket. They mean better training opportunities. They mean more opportunities for juniors and our women's teams.

They give the Tigers the capacity to attract bigger games and bigger events to the Redlands. This is exactly the sort of investment that I want to see in my community: all three levels of government working together to achieve a strong result for an amazing club. The Tigers are producing great cricketers.

They're giving young people a pathway through the sport and building a stronger local sporting community. The lights are on, the trophies are in the cabinet and I suspect nobody at Tigerland is planning on slowing down. I know that there's also a state government funded project to build new women's change rooms at the Ron Field Oval, which is about to get underway.

All I can say is bring on this season's two-day and one-day competitions. I know the member for Bonner will be cheering on the Wynnum Manly side, our arch rivals, but I'm sure the Tigers are going to be taking home the trophy again this year. Congratulations to everyone involved in another brilliant T20 campaign and congratulations to the entire Redlands Tigers cricket family on what is a new and exciting chapter for this great club.

Go the Tigers!