MCG and SCG to host standalone WBBL games for the first time

The MCG and the SCG are set to host standalone WBBL video games for the primary time within the competitors’s historical past, as Cricket Australia seems to be to push the ladies’s sport into the highlight within the early a part of the Australian summer time. CA launched the WBBL fixtures on Thursday, with the ultimate 5 matches of the 56-game home-and-away season set to be performed on the main venues of the Adelaide Oval, the MCG and the SCG from Friday, November 24 to Sunday, November 26.

The MCG and the SCG haven’t hosted WBBL matches for the reason that competitors grew to become a standalone occasion in 2019-20 whereas being performed within the months of October and November, separate from the lads’s BBL in December and January. Alistair Dobson, the pinnacle of Huge Bash Leagues, stated the transfer to play standalone WBBL video games on the main stadiums is a giant step for the competitors.

“We see the evolution of the WBBL persevering with to display that it is the finest cricket league on the earth with the most effective gamers on the earth, and seeking to begin to play video games within the greatest and finest stadiums is a very vital a part of that,” Dobson stated. “Doing it on a smaller scale, when you like, this yr with three or 4 matches at totally different venues is an efficient method of beginning to construct momentum as a part of a longer-term journey. What that appears like within the medium to long run is all a part of what we’ll discover out, nevertheless it’s a very apparent and pure subsequent step for us.”

There have been 12 WBBL matches performed on the MCG beforehand, together with the 2015-16 finalhowever all 12 have been performed as lead-ins to males’s BBL video games. The SCG has additionally hosted 9 WBBL matches beforehand as lead-ins to BBL video games, however none since December 2018.

However Australia’s two most iconic cricket venues will host standalone derbies within the coming season, with Melbourne Stars taking part in Melbourne Renegades on the MCG on November 25. Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder then face off on the SCG on November 26 because the second of a WBBL double-header, with Hobart Hurricanes and Adelaide Strikers additionally taking part in on the SCG earlier within the day.

The MCG famously hosted the women’s T20 World Cup final in 2020 in entrance of a document crowd of 86,174, though a crowd of that dimension for the WBBL isn’t a practical expectation. The WBBL will endeavour to maximise attendance on the MCG and SCG, and Dobson is hopeful that there can be sufficient folks wanting to show as much as encourage extra WBBL video games on the larger venues sooner or later.

“We’ll choose the success of these video games in numerous methods,” he stated. “We would not actually put a quantity on it from an attendance perspective. Clearly, we’ll work actually onerous with our golf equipment and the venues and all our companions on getting folks there, however equally now it is concerning the expertise of the gamers – and the expertise of the followers – which can be there.

“I believe we’re seeing world wide for the time being [that] if you put nice cricket on in huge well-known stadiums, folks need to flip up. We’re seeing it within the UK for the time being [with the women’s Ashes]. We noticed it within the WPL, and it is an apparent one from a WBBL perspective to offer it a run as nicely. The gamers are excited.”

The vast majority of the event will stay on the smaller boutique venues which have change into synonymous with the WBBL, just like the North Sydney Oval and the Junction Oval in Melbourne. Thunder will host video games at Cricket New South Wales’ new high-performance facility, Cricket Central, at Sydney Olympic Park.

There may even be fewer impartial video games, because the WBBL seems to be to maneuver in direction of a fully-fledged home-and-away competitors after a number of years of getting festival-type weekends, with a number of groups taking part in a number of video games at one venue in a single metropolis.

“There’s been a powerful message from [the players] for quite a few years that decreasing impartial video games, taking part in extra usually and residential, all these different issues that I believe are actually key developments for this schedule is predicated on quite a lot of robust suggestions from gamers who’ve an actual sense of possession and legacy of this competitors that they really feel actually captivated with it and need to do something they’ll to make it succeed as a lot as attainable,” Dobson stated.

The WBBL can have way more clear air this season in Australia after being performed within the shadow of the lads’s T20 World Cup in Australia final summer time. It can run concurrently in opposition to the lads’s 50-over World Cup in India, however there can be no males’s worldwide cricket in Australia through the event.

The competitors may even stay a 56-game season – plus the finals – with no plans for the time being to cut back the season regardless of the men’s BBL being reduced to a 40-game season, plus the finals.

The WBBL may even have its first-ever abroad draft this season, with the format and date to be introduced within the coming week.