WBBL overhaul as CA launches major women's strategy

The Weber WBBL season will be shortened and a new state-based T20 competition will be launched this summer, while Cricket Australia has set out an ambitious 10-year program of investment in women's cricket.

The Women and Girls Action Plan announced today sets ambitious goals for grassroots participation and infrastructure, as well as increasing commercial revenues and attendance at the elite level.

The WBBL will be a 40-match regular season, bringing it in line with the men's KFC BBL, with approximately two weeks shaved from previous tournaments, while there will be no change to clubs' salary caps, putting it in remains at the forefront of attractive proposals. for stars of international caliber.

View Australian Cricket's Women and Girls Action Plan here

The introduction of a state-based T20 competition, comprising the six states plus the ACT Meteors, means there will be no overall reduction in the number of women's games, with the tournament providing more top-level playing opportunities for domestic cricketers.

The tournament, which is yet to finalize some details, is expected to take place alongside the 50-over Women's National Cricket League.

The additional match payments will increase women's average domestic salary by eight percent to $163,322 (for a player with a WBBL and state contract).

The WBBL has had a 56-match regular season in each of the nine seasons since its introduction in 2015-2016.

Each team will now play ten regular season games instead of fourteen, with each club playing three others twice.

It is understood that there will be no change to the four-team, three-match WBBL finals format that has been in place since WBBL|07 in 2021.

Of the 43 matches under the new structure, 23 will be broadcast free-to-air on the Seven network and simulcast on Fox Cricket, including all finals. The remaining 20 matches will be shown on Fox Cricket with a number of games also streamed on cricket.com.au.

This summer's tournament is expected to start in late October, after the Women's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

The schedule will once again feature more matches in the main stadiums, with the action plan focusing on filling the main venues and growing audiences for women's internationals and the WBBL, as well as creating more playing opportunities and higher player wages.

CA is targeting 600,000 fans attending women's cricket in Australia each summer by 2034. The combined number of WBBL and international women's visitors last summer was approximately 120,000.

Administrators will look to grow total women's football revenues to $121 million by 2034, including initiatives such as a full women's merchandise line and a special media rights deal for women's cricket.

Currently, only five percent of Australian cricket's revenue comes from the women's game, underscoring its enormous growth potential.

The plan calls for a fourfold increase in the number of girls aged 5 to 12 participating in cricket, to 100,000, with $500 million invested in women-specific infrastructure across the country.

Off the field, the plan aims to achieve at least 40 percent female representation in the Australian cricket workforce, including leadership roles, board membership and community cricket roles.

Ellyse Perry said the “public interest in women's sport is now unquestionable” and welcomed the 10-year commitment.

“Australian cricket has been at the forefront of the growth of the women's game, providing some of the best opportunities for players with resources and rewards and it is reassuring to know that this commitment will not only continue but significantly increase over the next decade be expanded,” says Perry. said.

“With viewing audiences increasing, public interest in women's sport is now unquestionable and we would like to see large stadiums filled with fans for our international and WBBL matches and more girls inspired to play cricket.

“It is also extremely important that the increased interest in women's sport is reflected in sponsorship and broadcast deals, and I hope this plan will continue to drive this growth so that women's cricket continues to flourish.”

A host of Australian and overseas stars, including Meg Lanning, Ashleigh Gardner and Heather Knight, have made calls for the WBBL to be shortened in recent years, with the firm belief that a shorter tournament would be more attractive to overseas players who now also have the opportunity have to shorten the WBBL. playing in various T20 franchise leagues around the world, easing the burden of what is an increasingly busy calendar for Australia's top players, who are on tour more than ever before.

In recent seasons, both India and England players have been required by their home boards to arrive late or leave the WBBL early, depriving teams of key stars for the finals, while clashes with international tours limit player availability.

But while CA-contracted players are busier than ever, and select other Australian players are getting more and more opportunities in overseas domestic competitions in New Zealand and England, the only state cricket currently being played in Australia is the 50-over Women's National Cricket League , which sees the six states and the ACT each play 12 matches per season.

That means Australian women cricketers play far fewer days of cricket each season than their male counterparts, who contest the Marsh Sheffield Shield in addition to the Marsh One-Day Cup.

It was essential to ensure that these players did not lose playing opportunities due to a shortened WBBL.

While the men's BBL started with 28 regular season matches and gradually expanded to 56 in 2018-19 before being reduced again to 10 matches per side last season, the WBBL started with a full regular season of 56 matches when it was reduced to 2015-2016 in 2015-2016. was launched. .

Since WBBL|01, the women's calendar has become increasingly busy, with two new teams added to the ICC Womens Championship, a quadrennial ten-team round-robin competition that determines World Cup qualification in the current cycle, in addition to an ICC tournament every year . Inclusion of T20 cricket in the Commonwealth Games, and an increased number of additional bilateral tours.

The WBBL was the first tournament of its kind for women, but was followed by The Hundred in 2021 (its predecessor, the Kia Super League, started in 2016) and the much-hyped arrival of the Women's Premier League in India last year.

There's also the annual FairBreak Invitational alongside the fast-growing women's editions of the Caribbean and Pakistani competitions, all vying for a place on the calendar and competing for the world's best talent.

CA previously hosted a state-based women's T20 competition from 2009-10 to 2014-15, with Victoria winning three of the six titles before being replaced by the WBBL in 2015-16.

The ACT Meteors are the biggest winners of the new competition.

The lack of an ACT-based Big Bash club has historically made it harder for Meteors players to find spots on WBBL lists.

Last season, only four of the sixteen ACT players had a place on a Big Bash team and of those, only Strikers star Katie Mack is currently under contract for WBBL|10.

The new competition will give the remaining ACT players the opportunity to play T20 cricket at an elite level and potentially attract the attention of WBBL talent scouts.

In total, of the 105 state-contracted cricketers across the country in 2023-24, 29 were not contracted to a Big Bash club for WBBL|09, although four of them were eventually signed as local replacement players during the tournament.

The new league will provide an opportunity to these cricketers in the shortest format.

The busy international schedule also means that players on CA contracts are unlikely to be available for much of the domestic season, if at all, giving many players the opportunity to take on more responsibility than they normally would get spoken in a WBBL XI.