MCG and SCG to host standalone WBBL video games for the primary 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 appears to be like to push the ladies’s sport into the highlight within the early a part of the Australian summer season. 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 boys’s BBL in December and January. Alistair Dobson, the pinnacle of Big Bash Leagues, mentioned the transfer to play standalone WBBL video games on the main stadiums is an enormous step for the competitors.
“We see the evolution of the WBBL continuing to demonstrate that it’s the best cricket league in the world with the best players in the world, and looking to start to play games in the biggest and best stadiums is a really important part of that,” Dobson mentioned. “Doing it on a smaller scale, if you like, this year with three or four matches at different venues is a good way of starting to build momentum as part of a longer-term journey. What that looks like in the medium to long term is all part of what we’ll find out, but it’s a really obvious and natural next step for us.”
There have been 12 WBBL matches performed on the MCG beforehand, together with the 2015-16 final, however 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.
But 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 report crowd of 86,174, though a crowd of that measurement for the WBBL isn’t a sensible expectation. The WBBL will endeavour to maximise attendance on the MCG and SCG, and Dobson is hopeful that there shall be sufficient folks wanting to show as much as encourage extra WBBL video games on the larger venues sooner or later.
“We’ll judge the success of those games in different ways,” he mentioned. “We wouldn’t really put a number on it from an attendance perspective. Obviously, we’ll work really hard with our clubs and the venues and all our partners on getting people there, but equally now it’s about the experience of the players – and the experience of the fans – that are there.
“I feel we’re seeing world wide for the time being [that] while you put nice cricket on in huge well-known stadiums, folks wish 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 provide it a run as effectively. The gamers are excited.”
The majority of the tournament will remain at the smaller boutique venues that have become synonymous with the WBBL, like the North Sydney Oval and the Junction Oval in Melbourne. Thunder will host games at Cricket New South Wales’ new high-performance facility, Cricket Central, at Sydney Olympic Park.
There will also be fewer neutral games, as the WBBL looks to move towards a fully-fledged home-and-away competition after several years of having festival-type weekends, with a host of teams playing several games at one venue in one city.
“There’s been a robust message from [the players] for numerous years that decreasing impartial video games, taking part in extra typically and residential, all these different issues that I feel are actually key developments for this schedule relies on loads of sturdy suggestions from gamers who’ve an actual sense of possession and legacy of this competitors that they really feel actually keen about it and wish to do something they’ll to make it succeed as a lot as doable,” Dobson said.
The WBBL will have much more clear air this season in Australia after being played in the shadow of the men’s T20 World Cup in Australia last summer. It will run concurrently against the men’s 50-over World Cup in India, but there will be no men’s international cricket in Australia during the tournament.
The competitors may even stay a 56-game season – plus the finals – with no plans for the time being to scale 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.
Alex Malcolm is an Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo