The iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Sydney Cricket Ground will play host to Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) games this season for the first time since the marquee T20 tournament moved to a standalone window in 2019.As per the schedule for the ninth season revealed by Cricket Australia, MCG, SCG and the Adelaide Oval will host the final weekend of the league season, which begins on October 19. That final window will kickoff on Friday (November 24) in Adelaide with a clash between Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder and will be followed by a Adeliade Strikers - Perth Scorchers clash. The run-in will then shift to the iconic MCG for the Melbourne Derby the following day (November 25) before the Sydney Smash on the Sunday.
Alistair Dobson, CA's General Manager of Big Bash Leagues, said scheduling WBBL games in top-tier venues was in view of the strong turnout at the ongoing Women's Ashes and was essential to the competition's evolution. "The core of the WBBL sits in those iconic venues like North Sydney Oval and Allan Border Field, so the WBBL will continue to be played there long term, but the opportunity to put on some big events is exciting for us," Dobson said.
We will judge the success of those games in different ways... we'll work hard on driving crowds, but it's not the only measure of success for us. We're seeing around the world at the moment that when you put great cricket on in big, famous stadiums, people want to turn up; we're seeing it in the UK at the moment, we saw it in the WPL."
The schedule for the ninth season includes 10 neutral matches, down from 25 last year, while every team will also play a home game inside the first nine days of the tournament. The season as such will continue to feature 59 games (56 league games + three finals) even as the men's Big Bash League has been pruned to 44 games from this season. The WBBL will coincide with the men's World Cup but won't suffer any clashes with home international games. The final will be played on December 2.
