Administrator(s) Cricket Australia Defending Champions Sydney Thunder | Cricket format Twenty20 | |
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Dates 10 December 2016 (2016-12-10) – 28 January 2017 (2017-01-28) Tournament format(s) Double round robin and knockout finals Champions Sydney Sixers (1st title) | ||
The 2016–17 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL|02 was the second season of Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament ran from 10 December 2016 to 28 January 2017. Each WBBL team consisted of a squad of 15 players and was aligned with one of the men's teams in the Big Bash League.
Contents
There was greater live television coverage, through Network Ten, with 12 games screened live throughout the season, including 4 stand-alone games on the opening weekend. This included the Sydney Thunder vs Melbourne Stars match, which was shown on Network Ten's primary channel during prime time - a first for stand-alone women's sporting match in Australia. The remaining 47 games were streamed live through Cricket Australia's Live app and Website, and the WBBL Facebook page.
Points table
Fixtures
Format of the group stage was a double round-robin tournament, where each team played each other team twice. Games were grouped into weekends, where three-four teams sometimes played in one city over that weekend. This meant that teams hosted matches in their opponent's home city, or in a neutral city. As there were 56 games played over 7 weeks, it was common to have multiple matches in a day (up to five), and matches being played simultaneously at different grounds.
There were 14 double header fixtures with the men's Big Bash League, and the semi-finals and final were also played as a double header.
Audience
A total of twelve matches were televised on free-to-air in the second season of Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) on Network Ten.
Due to strong ratings during the 2015-16 Women's Big Bash League, 10 of the matches were shown on the network's primary channel, including a match from the first stand-alone round of the WBBL in prime-time - a first for stand-alone women's sport in Australia.
Following are the television ratings for 2016–17 WBBL season in Australia.