Cricket season is well and truly under way. The Matador Cup, Tests against South Africa and ODIs against New Zealand plus the Sheffield Shield and the WNCL are all underway or completed, but the thing I’ve been waiting for the most this summer is about to begin – it’s the Big Bash, more specifically, the WBBL.
The first edition of the WBBL was ground-breaking in 2015-16, becoming the first recognised international ‘premier’ women’s T20 league and replaced the existing and relatively unpromoted Women’s National T20 Cup.
» WBBL live stream: how to watch every game this season
» 2016-17 WBBL Fixtures: The complete schedule for WBBL|02
» Women’s Big Bash League on The Roar
After being announced in Feburary 2015, the WBBL began to grow through the off-season until the season started and almost instantly it became a hit with the opening match between the Melbourne Stars, led by Aussie captain Meg Lanning, taking on the Brisbane Heat at Junction Oval with 1,500 people in attendance.
On the following day at the very suburban Howell Oval in Penrith a crowd of well over a 1000 people turned up for the first Sydney Derby which was significantly higher than expected.
As the season grew and the exposure grew the ratings skyrocketed and the attendances grew with crowds reaching as high as 12,000 people.
The WBBL has already left an impact and proved that woman’s cricket isn’t just a novelty as a curtain raiser for the men’s competition but it is in its own right a highly professional and competitive league that commands as much respect if not possibly more than the mens league.
The 2016 WBBL begins just over a week before the men’s competition in a format that will embrace women’s cricket yet again with a free “carnival” of cricket to be played at North Sydney Oval across this weekend with every side playing in a Channel Ten televised match including the first dedicated prime time free-to-air main channel women’s sporting event to be broadcast.
This weekend of cricket has been marked off in my sports calendar (yes I do have one of them) for months and it’s not even the excitement of being able to see my mighty Sixers team try to go one better this season on the Sunday, it’s the fact that the WBBL is back.
I have to admit that I am much more excited for the WBBL season than I am for the main thing this year and to me that is good for the game because the WBBL is bringing fans across who in the past have had no interest in the women’s game.
Prior to the WBBL’s formation, NSW hosted just one match scheduled per season prior to a men’s match and this again left women’s cricket in the lurch because it was obviously second string to the men’s game.
However even in these games the times were changing with people turning up cheering on the girls in the matches and one thing that always sticks in my mind was the queue of kids that were waiting by the boundary fence for Ellyse Perry to get her and autograph.
One kid sticks in my memory – they were asked who was their favourite player/idol was and the response was Ellyse Perry, now that might not seem so out of the ordinary but what really made it special for me was the fact that it was a boy idolising a female cricketer. This shows how much the women’s game as an influence on the whole game of cricket, for boys and girls alike.
Looking again now at this weekend, the WBBL is about to stamp its foot as being equal to the BBL and the attendances on Sunday will prove how good the competition is and the idea by Cricket Australia to create a free carnival will be a masterstroke of genius (if the weather holds up), because it will bring families through the gates of the historic North Sydney Oval.
This decision will help grow the game because kids and families can get a fantastic understanding and connection to players and help them choose a favourite player, something which I’m still yet to do with my mighty Sixers WBBL side.
One final point I think that is important to recognise on Saturday and Sunday is that the ladies won’t just be on the field playing, there will be one very important person standing in the middle and that is umpire Claire Polosak who is the only female umpire on the CA umpires panel and is listed by the ICC as one of four female umpires who officiated at the 2016 WT20 tournament in India recently.
I could sit here and ramble on about how good the WBBL is for cricket for some time to come, but all I’ll say now is watch this space – there’s an exciting tournament ahead.
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