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- The WBBL season starts on Thursday when the Sydney Sixers play the Melbourne Stars.<\/li>\n
- A new pay deal means the players will be earning more money than ever before, and plans are afoot for the winning team to compete in Champions League-style tournament next year.<\/li>\n
- West Indian superstar Hayley Matthews (Melbourne Renegades) and England\u2019s Nat Sciver-Brunt (Perth Scorchers) are two of the big-name overseas recruits.<\/li>\n
- In late November, WBBL games will be played at some of Australia\u2019s biggest sports stadiums: the MCG, Adelaide Oval and SCG.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ahead of the latest edition of the Women\u2019s Big Bash League starting on Thursday, here\u2019s a close look at some of the main players, the key themes and a few pointers to the future of the women\u2019s game here and overseas.<\/p>\n
The captain<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Hayley Matthews has already put in her nomination for the innings of the season; a spectacular century to guide the West Indies to a win over Australia at North Sydney Oval that was as brilliant as it was unexpected.<\/p>\n
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Hayley Matthews feasted on Australia\u2019s lapses with the ball and in the field.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n
That performance, and a string of others that have seen her win eight consecutive player-of-the-match awards in Twenty20 games, made Matthews a logical choice to step in for Sophie Molineux as captain of the Melbourne Renegades.<\/p>\n
At 25, Matthews represents the best and brightest of the women\u2019s global game. She will be among the most-watched talents at this edition of the WBBL. And the evidence of her recent West Indies displays suggests that by adding the captaincy to her duties, the Renegades can leap into finals contention after finishing second-last in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, the leadership of the team has definitely helped me to take responsibility of my game,\u201d Matthews has said.<\/p>\n
The stadiums<\/strong><\/h3>\n
When Australia\u2019s best players came home from the inaugural women\u2019s Indian Premier League earlier this year, they spoke in awed tones about the experience of playing to packed venues.<\/p>\n
It was, for members of the Australian team that had won the T20 World Cup in front of 86,000 spectators at the MCG in March 2020, like getting that sort of adrenaline rush night after night.<\/p>\n
So it is that the WBBL is dreaming big this season, scheduling a trio of matches as a \u201cStadium Series\u201d in the final round, at the Adelaide Oval, the MCG and the SCG on November 24, 25 and 26.<\/p>\n
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Katy Perry with the triumphant Australian team after they won the T20 World Cup final at the MCG.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n
For Ellyse Perry, this is the next step for the competition: already the best broadcaster property in women\u2019s sport in Australia, the tournament must strive to convert those audiences into attendees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the really obvious evolution of the WBBL is to start playing more fixtures at the top stadia in the country, and attracting really big crowds with that,\u201d Perry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot has been made of the attraction the Matildas garnered throughout the World Cup and what they were able to achieve from that point of view was unbelievable and unparalleled and would be really hard to match for a long period of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think it\u2019s set the standard for all competitions to make sure we\u2019re pushing to fill stadiums.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, research commissioned by CA had found that while the audiences for the WBBL and BBL were healthy, they were far more casual in nature than their football-code equivalents.<\/p>\n
Bridging that gap will be key to getting crowds to turn up.<\/p>\n
The draft stink<\/strong><\/h3>\n
There was no bigger name missing from the inaugural overseas draft or the WBBL than Nat Sciver-Brunt, by far England\u2019s most damaging cricketer of the moment.<\/p>\n
After previously playing for the Melbourne Stars, Sciver-Brunt was deemed unavailable by the ECB due to her recovery from a knee problem.<\/p>\n
When, some weeks later, Sciver-Brunt\u2019s recovery was progressing better than first thought, the Perth Scorchers swooped in to sign her after the draft, having had salary cap room freed up by the withdrawal of another England player, Danni Wyatt, due to fatigue.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sequence that stuck in the craw of Meg Lanning, who is making her own comeback from personal health issues to lead the Stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a club, as the Stars, I certainly feel like we didn\u2019t get the chance to exercise our retention rights that we would have had for her had she nominated for the draft instead of coming in this way,\u201d Lanning said this week.<\/p>\n
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Meg Lanning in the WPL final earlier this year.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP Photo<\/cite><\/p>\n
\u201cNot only does that impact us this year, but moving forward as well now because Perth have retention rights to her. It\u2019s frustrating because I think that the goalposts seem to shift a little bit.\u201d <\/p>\n
While a curious sequence, it did not break any competition rules. In fact, the Stars had also made a direct overseas signing of their own outside the draft, securing the services of Sophia Dunkley via an avenue that allows players to avoid the draft and choose their preferred club, albeit at a reduced salary.<\/p>\n
The winners<\/strong><\/h3>\n
As a consequence of the pay deal peacefully struck between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association earlier this year, WBBL contracts have jumped in value.<\/p>\n
The top tier of players will earn better than $100,000 for this tournament due to a salary cap that has doubled in value.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kim Garth of the Melbourne Stars, Heather Graham of the Hobart Hurricanes, Jemma Barsby of the Adelaide Strikers, Jess Jonassen of the Brisbane Heat, Hannah Darlington of the Sydney Thunder (L-R) Georgia Wareham of the Melbourne Renegades, Ellyse Perry of the Sydney Sixers, and Alana King of the Perth Scorchers.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n
Combined with the overseas player draft, these terms have deepened the well of the competition\u2019s talent still further, while also sending a strong signal to the rest of the sporting ecosystem about the benefits of choosing cricket.<\/p>\n
At a time when AFLW audiences have trended down, and the nation\u2019s netballers are in pay dispute with a cash-strapped national governing body, it means that female cricketers at home and abroad have emerged as winners even before a ball is bowled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic advancement for the competition, it\u2019s also a trend for competitions around the world now,\u201d Perry said. \u201cIf you look at the Hundred [in England] and also the WPL [in India], there\u2019s really great opportunities for female cricketers to earn a really great amount of money playing in these competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The future<\/strong><\/h3>\n
It was during the dual Ashes series in England earlier this year that this masthead reported early talks about the formation of a women\u2019s Champions League to be contested by the best performing clubs from the WBBL, the WPL and the Hundred.<\/p>\n
Those talks have progressed, and now only an agreed calendar spot needs to be found for the tournament to start as soon as 2024. Talks about that schedule room are likely to happen when chiefs of the sport\u2019s governing bodies in Australia, England and India meet towards the end of the men\u2019s ODI World Cup next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a players\u2019 perspective, why not?\u201d Alyssa Healy said when asked about the concept. \u201cI watched the men\u2019s one 10 years ago now, watched the Sixers boys go over there and do something pretty special. So it\u2019d be a fantastic initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019d be a gap in [the schedule] somewhere. At the moment, there\u2019s probably some space in around the women\u2019s IPL that could probably be utilised, but then you\u2019re fighting up against the big [men\u2019s] IPL, so it\u2019d be interesting to see where that discussion lands.\u201d <\/p>\n