WBBL makes stadium comeback as fixtures unveiled

The Weber WBBL will return to Australia’s biggest stadiums this November, with the MCG, SCG and Adelaide Oval to host a blockbuster final weekend of the regular season.

Cricket Australia has unveiled the 59-game schedule for WBBL|09, which will begin at North Sydney Oval on Thursday, October 19 when Sydney Sixers host Melbourne Stars under lights and conclude with the final on Saturday, December 2.

A huge last weekend before finals will kick off at Adelaide Oval on Friday, November 24 when the Heat play the Thunder before Adelaide Strikers host Perth Scorchers.

The Stars and the Renegades will meet in a Melbourne Derby at the MCG on Saturday, November 25 – the first WBBL match at the iconic ground since the league moved to a standalone window in 2019.

The SCG will host its first standalone WBBL matches on Sunday, November 26 when the Sixers and Thunder go head-to-head in the Sydney Smash, on a day which will also see the Hurricanes play the Strikers.

"As the best cricket league in the world and with the best players in the world, looking to start to play games in the biggest and best stadiums is a really important part of (the league’s evolution)," said Alistair Dobson, CA's general manager of Big Bash Leagues.

"Doing it on a smaller scale this year with three or four matches at different venues is a good way of starting to build a momentum as part of a longer-term journey.

"What that looks like in the medium-to-long term (remains to be seen) but it's a really obvious and natural next step for us."

The ongoing women’s Ashes in the United Kingdom has attracted record-breaking crowds to top-tier venues, with the highest attendance for a bilateral women’s game broken three times in the space of a week across T20Is at Edgbaston, The Oval and Lord’s.

"When you put great cricket on in big, famous stadiums, people want to turn up," Dobson said.

"We're seeing it in the UK at the moment, we saw it in the (Women’s Premier League) and it’s an obvious one from a WBBL perspective to give it a run as well."

While the KFC BBL has been reduced to 44 games this season, the WBBL remains at 56 regular-season games plus three finals.

The competition has shifted away from the ‘festival weekend’ structure that has been a bedrock of the WBBL schedule since it went standalone in 2019, in a move aimed at ensuring teams play more home matches, more games in prime time and fewer neutral games.

WBBL|09 schedule 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.

It means teams will be travelling more frequently than in previous seasons, but Dobson said the players had embraced the change.

"It's been a strong message from (the players) for a number of years that reducing neutral games and playing more often at home (is what they want)," he said.

"As the competition continues to evolve and players and teams play more regularly in their market one of the (outcomes) of that is players travelling more regularly, which is a pretty regular thing in the BBL and will become more of a factor in the WBBL.

"The players in their feedback have embraced that, they've been clear that that's something they're prepared and comfortable to take on in exchange for playing in front of their home fans more often."

The tournament will also benefit from a clearer schedule on the home front, with no men’s internationals to be played across that period due to the World Cup in India, while there is minimal overlap between WBBL|09 games and the Australian men’s round matches.

"We've got a strong Friday night presence this year on Seven and Fox and a really strong Sunday afternoon presence as well combined with more than 20 prime time games," Dobson said.

Other notable changes include:

- Sydney Thunder have a new home at Cricket Central at Sydney Olympic Park, and will no longer host games in Blacktown

- There will be no regional Victorian games in Ballarat or Moe this season but the Stars will take home games to Casey Fields and Ringwood’s Jubilee Park in Melbourne’s east

- Brisbane Heat will return to Mackay, to play the Strikers on November 11

- Perth Scorchers will play all their home matches at the WACA Ground

- Sydney Sixers will play six home games at North Sydney Oval and one at the SCG

The Seven Network will again broadcast 24 matches, including all three finals, with Foxtel and Kayo to show all 59 matches live.

The WBBL has introduced a draft for overseas players this season, with further details to be revealed in due course.