Administrator(s) Cricket Australia Participants 8 | Cricket format Twenty20 | |
Dates 5 December 2015 (2015-12-05) – 24 January 2016 (2016-01-24) Tournament format(s) Double round robin and knockout finals Champions Sydney Thunder (1st title) | ||
The 2015–16 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL|01 was the first season of Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament ran from 5 December 2015 to 24 January 2016. Each WBBL team consisted of a squad of 14 players and were aligned with the men's teams in the Big Bash League.
Contents
In the grand final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the minor premiers Sydney Thunder defeated cross town rivals the Sydney Sixers to win the inaugural Women's Big Bash League.
Points table
Teams qualified for the semi-finals
Teams eliminated after Group Stage
Fixtures
Format of the group stage is a double round-robin tournament, where each team will play each other team twice. Games are grouped into weekends, where four teams may play in one city over that weekend. This means that teams will host matches in their opponent's home city, or in a neutral city. Because there are 56 games played over 7 weekends, it is common to have multiple matches in a day (up to five), and matches being played simultaneously at different grounds.
There are 8 double header fixtures with the men's Big Bash League, and the semi-finals and final will also be played as a double header.
Most runs
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 24 January 2016
Most wickets
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 24 January 2016.
Audience
A total of ten matches were televised on free-to-air in the first season of Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) on One HD and Channel Ten. The average TV ratings for these matches are given below.
Initially only eight matches (seven regular season double-headers and the grand final) were scheduled to be televised on One HD. Due to higher than expected viewership, Channel Ten decided to move the Melbourne Derby on 2 January, the Sydney Smash on 16 January and the grand final to the primary channel, and also added coverage of the two semi finals on One.