da brdice： The prospect of following in the footsteps of Queensland’s mostsuccessful captain was welcomed today by his heir, XXXX Queensland Bullsopening batsman Jimmy Maher.
Queensland Cricket20-May-2002The prospect of following in the footsteps of Queensland’s mostsuccessful captain was welcomed today by his heir, XXXX Queensland Bullsopening batsman Jimmy Maher.Maher, 28, was today named to take over from Stuart Law as the Bullscaptain for the 2002-2003 cricket season.Maher, who tasted the captaincy for the first time last season when heled the Bulls in one Pura Cup and four ING Cup games, said he was notperturbed at the prospect of replacing Law, the man in charge of allfive of Queensland’s first class championship titles.”It’s a daunting task to follow but we’ve got a great squad, with agreat set-up and system, and hopefully we can continue to do well witheverything we throw our hand at,” he told a media conference today inthe Captains’ Room at Queensland Cricket Headquarters.”It’s a huge honour to be invited to captain Queensland and one that Iam delighted to accept,” he said.”We’ve enjoyed plenty of success over the past decade thanks to a lot ofhard work by a lot of people and I’m keen to carry that on. We’ve got anew coach in Terry Oliver, some great young players coming through andso I’m confident there is plenty for us to look forward to,” he said.Maher was recommended as Law’s replacement by the Queensland selectionpanel of chairman Andrew Courtice, Dirk Tazelaar and Paul Jackson, aheadof other well-credentialed candidates such as Matthew Hayden, MartinLove, Andrew Symonds and Wade Seccombe.Maher said it was reassuring that Law would continue his playing careerwith the Bulls following his decision to stand down as captain afterguiding Queensland to their third Pura Cup title.”It will be fantastic. I know Allan Border helped Stuey in the firstcouple of years after Lawy came on board (as captain) and I’ll be usinghis experience and wisdom as much as possible,” he said.”It’s not going to be a Jimmy Maher-run show. I’m the sort of personthat will listen to a lot of people’s ideas, whether they’ve played onegame or a hundred games.”The conferral of the captaincy on Maher continues a bumper year for theNorth Queensland product, who is awaiting the birth of his first childwith wife Deb next month.Maher was the joint Pura Cup player of the year with Victoria’s BradHodge last season, won the Ian Healy Trophy as the Bulls’ player of theyear, produced his second 1000-plus run season for the Bulls in a rowand made his return to the Australian one-day team for the tour of SouthAfrica where he won man of the match awards in his first two matches.Maher was recently awarded an ACB players’ contract for 2002-2003 andwas named in the Australian squad for next month’s TOWER Super ChallengeII one-day internationals against Pakistan at Melbourne’s ColonialStadium and the Gabba on June 19.