In the spotlight: WBBL|08 steps into prime time

The WBBL will claim more of the prime time spotlight this season, as the women's T20 league returns to a national, festival-based competition.

The full schedule for the eighth edition of the Weber WBBL was today unveiled by Cricket Australia, with regular Thursday night matches a new feature of the competition.

View the WBBL|08 schedule in full

WBBL|08 will begin with a bang when Brisbane Heat host rivals Sydney Sixers under lights in Mackay on Thursday, October 13, and a total of 17 matches will be played in prime time – more than any previous season – while another 15 will be played in twilight slots.

The competition will still retain its 'festival weekend' structure, with the regular season to conclude on November 20 and a week of finals to follow.

For the first time in three years, matches will be staged in all six states as well as the ACT, with a total of 14 metro and regional venues to host games.

"The WBBL evolving into more of a prime time competition is exactly what it merits and it's a great evolution for the competition," Cricket Australia's Head of the Big Bash, Alistair Dobson, told cricket.com.au.

"I think those festival weekends have proven really popular, and I think the players really enjoy them and fans love being able to see lots of cricket on one weekend.

"But equally, in previous years we've had smaller festivals midweek, which is what we've been able to largely avoid this year and been able to move those midweek games into more standalone matches.

"More than ever, we've got one-off matches on an individual night, which just lends itself to sort of bigger crowds and bigger audiences.

"Ultimately, I think it's one of the strongest schedules we've had, if not the strongest since we moved to a standalone season."

In welcome news for Melbourne Renegades and Melbourne Stars fans, the clubs will host matches in Victoria for the first time since 2019, with games to be played at Junction Oval, Ballarat's Eastern Oval and Moe's Ted Summerton Reserve.

COVID-19 disruptions saw WBBL|06 played entirely in a Sydney hub, while no games were played in Victoria or New South Wales last summer due to border closures.

Sydney fans will be able to watch the Sixers and Thunder at North Sydney Oval and Blacktown International Sportspark, while the Thunder will also host a game at Canberra's Manuka Oval.

"We're all really excited about the prospect of each club having matches back in front of their home fans, it's been a couple of years of pretty heavy disruption," Dobson continued.

Dobson said while the AFLW's move to an August-November season had no impact on scheduling, there had been careful consideration put into how the WBBL would work alongside the men's T20 World Cup, which will be staged in Australia from October 16 to November 13.

Crucially, there are no clashes between WBBL|08 matches and Australia's World Cup games.

"Ultimately, (the World Cup) hasn't caused us too much disruption, partly because the venue mix is pretty separate and equally, the Australian matches in the World Cup are something we've been able to avoid," Dobson said.

As has been the case in previous years, fans in Australia will be able to watch all 59 matches live and free on either the Seven Network or cricket.com.au.

Of those, 24 will be televised on free-to-air on Seven and simulcast on Foxtel, while the remaining matches will be shown on Foxtel and Kayo Sports and also live streamed on cricket.com.au. Games will also be broadcast on ABC Radio.

The move towards more prime time matches follows the success of last year's final at Optus Stadium, where 15,511 people saw Perth Scorchers claim their maiden WBBL title, smashing the previous highest attendance at a standalone WBBL match of 5,650 in Mackay in WBBL|04. A combined average audience of 535,000 tuned into the decider across TV and streaming platforms, eclipsing the 506,000 audience for the WBBL|04 final.

Other highlights of the WBBL|08 schedule include Brisbane Heat's return to the redeveloped Allan Border Field for the first time since 2019, while Adelaide Strikers will host Melbourne Stars at Nuriootpa's Centennial Park after a three-year absence.

Contracting for WBBL|08 is well underway as clubs finalise their lists for the season. While an overseas draft has been introduced for the KFC BBL, contracting has continued as usual for the women's competition.

Dobson said there was no guarantee the WBBL would follow suit in coming seasons, given the tournament's track record of attracting the world's best talent.

"We're certainly open to innovation around contracting in the WBBL like we are with the BBL, (but) it's a slightly different dynamic in the WBBL in that it's less about finding new mechanics to bring the best players in, because we already know that they love coming," he said.

"The first question we would need to answer is 'what's the problem we're trying to solve with a different contracting mechanic?'

"From a BBL perspective, it's about trying to find ways to continually encourage the best players from around the world to come and play whereas the WBBL doesn't quite have that problem - that's not to say we're going to take that for granted, so in the future, there might be consideration (of a draft)."