Hurricanes looking to WNCL dominance to end WBBL drought

Elyse Villani is confident the Hobart Hurricanes can finally translate Tasmania's dominance of one-day state cricket into T20 success in purple in the WBBL this season.

The Tigers have won the last three National Women's Cricket League titles, a record that stands in stark contrast to the Hurricanes, who will go into their 10th season having made finals just once since WBBL|02.

The impact of overseas imports and the availability of Australian-contracted players have a clear influence on Big Bash success, however Villani wants Tasmania to better leverage the advantages that come with having almost a complete overlap of domestic players between the teams.

"The first thing that we've done is we've actually spent a lot of time in the Hurricanes' space over the preseason," Villani told cricket.com.au in the lead-up to the domestic season.

"We've been speaking about our identity, how we want to play, and actually just investing that time to work out what we want to stand for this season. 

"In the past, we've been guilty of just being too 50-over focused in the preseason – obviously, it is a very different competition – and then just getting together like a week before the tournament starts, which hasn't really allowed us to knuckle down on a few things. 

"By really talking about how we want to play the game, who we want to be as a group, it just means that when the tournament comes around, whoever comes into our group, it'll be really easy to onboard them to the style that the Hurricanes want to play. 

"I just feel like, now that we've got that clarity around who the Hurricanes are, I think that that's the first step that we've taken, and it's a really important one."

The club has finalised its squad for the season and the only non-Cricket Tasmania-contracted players on the Hurricanes' list are Zoe Cooke (ACT) and imports Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Chloe Tryon and Suzie Bates (who will come in at the back end as a replacement player).

The last five WBBL title winners – Brisbane Heat, Adelaide Strikers (both twice) and Perth Scorchers – are all also one-state clubs, who have similarly strong local resources to draw on.

"I think it does (help)," Villani said. 

"I don't think we've used it to our advantage yet. 

"I'm hoping that this season is the season that we really see that as an advantage, being able to just get together and have those discussions a bit more over the preseason has been really helpful. 

"Talking to bowlers about plans and ideas, and talking to batters as well, and just sharing our knowledge base has been really critical … I do feel it is an advantage if used well and I think that we're on the right track."

Eight Tasmania/Hurricanes players travelled to Queensland to play in the KFC T20 Max competition in August.

That, combined with the new T20 Spring Challenge competition that is now running in the lead-up to WBBL|10, has provided Hurricanes players a chance to put into practice the improvements they have worked on during the preseason.

"Just being able to play more T20 cricket, that's where you learn the most, out in the middle," Villani said. 

"It's really hard to replicate that in the nets. 

"It's also really hard to be able to work on something in preseason and then just automatically be able to bring it out in the toughest domestic competition going around in the world (in the WBBL). 

"So having that advantage of playing more games and understanding our games individually, I think, has been really, really good for the group."