The fixtures for the tenth season of the WBBL have been announced with the Gabba added to the stadium series
The WBBL faces a potential squeeze on overseas player availability with the tenth season of the tournament starting just seven days after the T20 World Cup finishes in Bangladesh, but the reduced length of the competition will see a higher proportion of games in the evenings at primetime with greater use of technology.
Nominations are currently open for the overseas draft which is expected to take place in early September – some clubs have already taken advantage of the new option to sign a player on a multi-year deal before the draft – and CA remains confident it will have a strong hand of overseas names, but the increasingly busy schedule may yet see some top stars consider their options.
England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt, who made a late entry into last season’s competition with Perth Scorchers, told the BBC she won’t be making herself available this year.
The WBBL has been trimmed to a 40-game regular season with three finals in a bid to manage the workload of the game’s leading players, but this season it has faced schedule pressure at both ends. Australia and India start a three-match ODI series four days after the final on December 1 while England face South Africa from November 24 which overlaps with the finals although Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk have committed to full seasons with Melbourne Stars and Brisbane Heat.
“Clubs are working really hard in the market at the moment with players and agents,” Alistair Dobson, the head of the BBL, told ESPNcricinfo as the WBBL fixture list was unveiled. “Obviously the calendar for players in the women’s game is really busy at that time of the year, particularly this year.
“We are excited about the players who have signed and think over the next month or two we’ll get a sense from players as to how they are preparing for the World Cup and their appetite to come quickly to Australia, whether that’s at the start of our competition, or perhaps a couple of games in which is certainly possible as well. We know the competition is still one of, if not the, most appealing for players around the world and we are expecting big names to be there again.”
Gabba joins stadium series
The tournament’s stadium series has been expanded and brought forward as Cricket Australia looks to replicate the crowd growth experienced in the WPL and the Hundred.
A standalone match will be played at the Gabba for the first time – the WBBL was last played there in 2019 as part of a double-header with the BBL – while there will again be two games at the MCG and SCG. Adelaide Oval will also stage its third game of the season having hosted an opening-day double-header on October 27, which includes defending champions Adelaide Strikers launching the tournament with a rematch of last year’s final against Brisbane Heat.
