A new-look women's domestic season will get underway in September, while the new T20 league will provide the ideal warm-up to WBBL|10
Schedule locked in for new T20 Challenge, 2024-25 WNCL
The new women's domestic T20 tournament will be staged across Sydney and Adelaide in the lead-up to Weber WBBL|10 in October and will be dubbed the 'T20 Spring Challenge', Cricket Australia has confirmed.
CA today revealed the full domestic schedule for the 2024-25 summer, including both the T20 Spring Challenge and the 2024-25 edition of the Women's National Cricket League.
The new nine-team T20 competition – created to ensure there would be no overall reduction in women's domestic games following the shortening of the WBBL – features teams aligned with the eight Big Bash clubs along with the ACT.
The tournament will begin on October 11 with four games on the same day, as Sydney Thunder and Brisbane Heat play at North Sydney Oval, followed by Sydney Sixers v ACT at the same ground.
View the full T20 Spring Challenge schedule here
Melbourne Renegades will play Hobart Hurricanes at Karen Rolton Oval, followed by Adelaide Strikers v Perth Scorchers.
Each team will play four matches before the top four play off in the semi-finals and final.
All 18 regular season games will be played across seven days, before the semi-finals on Saturday, October 19 and the final on Sunday, October 20. All finals games will be held at Cricket NSW's Cricket Central homebase in Silverwater.
The other venue currently included in the schedule is Sydney's Mosman's Allan Border Oval – not to be confused with Brisbane's Allan Border Field.
The tournament will coincide with Australia's T20 World Cup campaign in Bangladesh, meaning the majority of CA contracted players will not be available.
However that, alongside the absence of overseas players, will create opportunities for others to take on key roles, and for fringe WBBL squad members to impress before WBBL|10 kicks off on October 27.
Meanwhile, Tasmania will launch the 50-over WNCL season and their campaign for a fourth consecutive title when they travel to play Western Australia at the WACA Ground on September 24.
The 2024-25 WNCL season will culminate in the final on Sunday, March 2, marking a bumper weekend of white-ball finals action with the men's One-Day Cup decider to be played on March 1.
Two WNCL rounds will be played before the competition breaks for the T20 Spring Challenge and WBBL|10, with the action to resume on December 14.
Australia's top players will likewise be unavailable for most, if not all, of the WNCL season.
A hectic summer for Alyssa Healy's team sees them meet New Zealand in a home T20I series from September 19 immediately before their departure for Bangladesh.
They have a home ODI series against India commencing on December 5, just four days after the WBBL final, and from there will travel to New Zealand for a three-game ODI series finishing on December 23.
The fourth and fifth rounds of the WNCL will coincide with the multi-format women's Ashes, which will run from January 12-February 1.
The final two rounds of the regular season, plus the final, will all be played in the gap between the end of the MCG Ashes Test on February 1 and Australia's T20I tour of New Zealand in late March.
However it is expected those games will clash with the third edition of India's Women's Premier League.
"The outstanding performances of our world champion Australian Men's and Women's teams is underpinned by the strength of our domestic competitions, which now includes the T20 Spring Challenge which will create more opportunities for elite female domestic players," Peter Roach, Cricket Australia's head of cricket operations and scheduling, said.
"Elite domestic cricket is the backbone of Australian cricket's ongoing success, and this competition added on top of the already strong WNCL and WBBL competitions will allow more players the opportunity to gain top-level experience and showcase their talents."
Broadcast and streaming details for all competitions will be confirmed ahead of the season.
Additional fixtures and tour matches will be announced shortly, including the Prime Minister's XI and Governor-General's XI matches.