The Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition.
The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007-08 season through to the 2014-15 season. The competition features eight city-based franchises, branded identically to the franchises in the men's Big Bash League. A number of matches during the competition's inaugural 2015-16 season were broadcast by Network Ten, a free-to-air network. The naming rights sponsor for the WBBL is Rebel Sport. The current champions are the Sydney Sixers.
Video Women's Big Bash League
History
Women's International Cricket League
In early 2014, the formation of an international women's Twenty20 competition, based around the franchise model of the Indian Premier League was announced. Headed by former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar and Australian businessman Shaun Martyn, it was proposed that the six teams, based in Singapore, would all be privately owned, and players earning over $US40,000 per season.
There was strong support from top female players for the concept, and support was sought from the International Cricket Council, while former international cricketers Geoff Lawson and Clive Lloyd were on the board of the organisation.
The concept was dealt a blow in early June, when the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that they would refuse to release centrally contracted English players. At the same time, Cricket Australia announced it would also refuse to release its players for the tournament. Both organisations expressed concern that the tournament was not being centrally run by a national cricket board, but a private company.
Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup
Before the establishment of the Women's Big Bash League, Cricket Australia conducted a national Twenty20 competition, the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup. The tournament ran in conjunction with the Women's National Cricket League, the Australian national women's limited overs competition, with the final being played as a double header with the Twenty20 Big Bash and the Big Bash League.
The competition ran from 2009-2010 season to the 2014-2015 season, with some exhibition games being held in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009. The competition was wound up after the 2014-2015 season to make way for the Women's Big Bash League.
Maps Women's Big Bash League
Establishment
Former Australian national captain Belinda Clark revealed on 19 January 2014 the planning for a women's BBL was in its early stages but it could become a reality very soon. They are considering it for the huge rise in television ratings in the BBL 03 season and the rise in women's cricket popularity.
On 19 February 2015, Cricket Australia announced that a Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) would commence in season 2015/2016, with teams aligned to the current men's competition. The teams will share the names and colours of the existing men's BBL teams, meaning that there will be two teams from each of Sydney and Melbourne while one team from each of Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart. The format and draw of the tournament are yet to be revealed.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said in a media release, "We see T20 as the premium format of the women's game and the WBBL is an exciting concept that will increase the promotion and exposure of women's cricket". Sutherland also said, "Our existing female domestic competitions are arguably the strongest in the world, with the continued success of the top-ranked women's team, the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars, a testament to that". Cricket Australia executive Mike McKenna said, "Our goal is to see cricket become the sport of choice for women and girls across the nation, whether as participants or fans". On 13 October 2015, 100 of Australia's elite cricketers joined together to pledge $20 million towards the growth of cricket in Australia, to help grassroots level Cricket, support former players and develop further opportunities for female cricketers.
Current teams
The competition features the same eight city-based franchises that are in the Big Bash League. Each state's capital city features one team, with Sydney and Melbourne featuring two.
a Meg Lanning won't be participating in the 2017/18 WBBL season due to injury.
b These players have not played a sufficient number of recent international matches and do not count towards the cap of 5 Australian/international players per match.
Tournament results
Team performances
- Notes
- ^1 Finals host is determined by the Men's Big Bash League
- ^2 W = Winner; R = Runner-up; SF = Semifinalist
Media coverage
2015/16 Season
The 2015/16 season initially planned to have 8 of the 59 matches (including the final) air live on Australian free-to-air network One. TV ratings success encouraged the Ten network to also add coverage of the semi-finals and move two of the remaining three matches to its main channel (Ten). ITV4 sought broadcast rights also.
The high TV ratings for the Women's Big Bash League convinced Network Ten to move the broadcast of the WBBL Melbourne Derby clash between Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades from One to Ten, their main broadcast channel.
The WBBL commentary team was led by Andrew Maher with former Australian players Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar. The Free-To-Air broadcast of the WBBL covered the following games:
- Saturday 19 December 2.30pm AEDT Live on ONE - Brisbane Heat vs Adelaide Strikers
- Sunday 20 December 11.30am AEDT Live on ONE - Sydney Sixers vs Perth Scorchers
- Thursday 31 December 2.30pm AEDT Live on ONE - Adelaide Strikers vs Perth Scorchers
- Friday 1 January 2.30pm AEDT Live on ONE - Hobart Hurricanes vs Brisbane Heat
- Saturday 2 January 1.30pm AEDT Live on TEN - Melbourne Stars vs Melbourne Renegades
- Saturday 9 January 2.30pm AEDT Live - Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Thunder
- Saturday 16 January 1.30pm AEDT Live on TEN - Sydney Sixers vs Sydney Thunder
- Thursday 21 January 2.30pm AEDT Live on ONE - Sydney Thunder vs Perth Scorchers (Semi-Final 1)
- Friday 22 January 2.30pm AEDT Live on ONE - Hobart Hurricanes vs Sydney Sixers (Semi-Final 2)
- Sunday 24 January 1.30pm AEDT Live on TEN - Sydney Thunder vs Sydney Sixers (Final)
2016/17 Season
Network Ten broadcast 11 games in the 2016/2017 season. The commentary team was again led by Andrew Maher and featured Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar alongside Jason Bennett and Pete Lazer. The following WBBL matches were televised on Channel Ten and One.
- December 10: Adelaide Strikers vs Melbourne Renegades (2:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- December 10: Sydney Thunder vs Melbourne Stars (6:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- December 11: Perth Scorchers vs Hobart Hurricanes (11:10am on TEN and TEN HD)
- December 11: Sydney Sixers vs Brisbane Heat (2:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- December 31: Adelaide Strikers vs Perth Scorchers (2:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- January 1: Melbourne Stars vs Melbourne Renegades (2:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- January 8: Hobart Hurricanes vs Brisbane Heat (2:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- January 14: Sydney Sixers vs Sydney Thunder (2:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- January 21: Hobart Hurricanes vs Melbourne Stars (12:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
- January 24, 25: WBBL semi-finals (3:10pm on ONE)
- January 28: WBBL final (2:10pm on TEN and TEN HD)
All the WBBL games were also able to be watched live and free, streamed via the internet on the WBBL page on Facebook and the WBBL page on Cricket.com.au
2017/18 Season
A total of twelve matches were televised on free-to-air in the third season of Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) on Network Ten, including four on the opening weekend. The remaining 47 matches were live streamed on the Cricket Australia or MamaMia websites as well as the Cricket Australia Live App for mobile.
- Notes
- ^1 The Super Over of match 42 drew ratings of 296,000 nationally, and 185,000 in the 5 metro cities.
- ^2 Both semi finals were broadcast on Network Ten's secondary channel ONE.
2018/19 Season
It was announced in April 2018 that, as part of the new cricket broadcast rights deal made by Cricket Australia, 23 matches of the tournament will be aired live on the Seven Network and on the new Fox Sports dedicated cricket channel. The remaining 36 matches not televised will be live streamed on the Cricket Australia website.
See also
- Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup
- Women's National Cricket League
- Women's cricket in Australia
- Australia women's national cricket team
- Big Bash League
- Cricket Australia
- Cricket in Australia
References
External links
- Official website
- Schedule & Fixtures
- Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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