Women's Big Bash League

Women's International Cricket League

In early 2014, the formation of an international women's Twenty20 competition, based around the franchise model of the Indian Premier League was announced. Headed by former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar and Australian businessman Shaun Martyn, it was proposed that the six teams, based in Singapore, would all be privately owned, and players earning over $US40,000 per season.

There was strong support from top female players for the concept, and support was sought from the International Cricket Council, while former international cricketers Geoff Lawson and Clive Lloyd were on the board of the organisation.

The concept was dealt a blow in early June, when the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that they would refuse to release centrally contracted English players. At the same time, Cricket Australia announced it would also refuse to release its players for the tournament. Both organisations expressed concern that the tournament was not being centrally run by a national cricket board, but a private company.

Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup

Before the establishment of the Women's Big Bash League, Cricket Australia conducted a national Twenty20 competition, the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup. The tournament ran in conjunction with the Women's National Cricket League, the Australian national women's limited overs competition, with the final being played as a double header with the Twenty20 Big Bash and the Big Bash League.

The competition ran from 2009-2010 season to the 2014-2015 season, with some exhibition games being held in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009. The competition was wound up after the 2014-2015 season to make way for the Women's Big Bash League.

Establishment

Former Australian national captain Belinda Clark revealed on 19 January 2014 the planning for a women's BBL was in its early stages but it could become a reality very soon. They are considering it for the huge rise in television ratings in the BBL 03 season and the rise in women's cricket popularity.

On 19 February 2015, Cricket Australia announced that a Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) would commence in season 2015/2016, with teams aligned to the current men's competition. The teams will share the names and colours of the existing men's BBL teams, meaning that there will be two teams from each of Sydney and Melbourne while one team from each of Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart. The format and draw of the tournament are yet to be revealed.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said in a media release, “We see T20 as the premium format of the women’s game and the WBBL is an exciting concept that will increase the promotion and exposure of women’s cricket”. Sutherland also said, “Our existing female domestic competitions are arguably the strongest in the world, with the continued success of the top-ranked women’s team, the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars, a testament to that”. Cricket Australia executive Mike McKenna said, "Our goal is to see cricket become the sport of choice for women and girls across the nation, whether as participants or fans". On 13 October 2015, 100 of Australia’s elite cricketers joined together to pledge $20 million towards the growth of cricket in Australia, to help grassroots level Cricket, support former players and develop further opportunities for female cricketers.

Current teams

The competition features the same eight city-based franchises that is in the Big Bash League. Each state's capital city features one team, with Sydney and Melbourne featuring two.

^a Shelley Nitschke and Lisa Sthalekar came out of retirement for WBBL|01 and participated as a player and mentor for their teams.
^b Anya Shrubsole won't be taking part in the first four fixtures for the Perth Scorchers for which Rebecca Grundy would be available for selection but only for the first four fixtures.
^c These players have not played a sufficient number of recent international matches and do not count towards the cap of 5 Australian/international players per match.
^d Danielle Hazell was added into the Melbourne Stars squad after the injury to Kristen Beams finger that ultimately required surgery.
^e Lauren Winfield was added to the Brisbane Heat squad as a replacement international player after injury to Deandra Dottin.
^f On 13 January 2017, Amy Jones and Kim Garth were added to the Sydney Sixers squad to replace Dane van Niekerk and Marizanne Kapp, who had departed for international duty for South Africa.

Team performances

Notes:

2015/16 Season

The 2015/16 season initially planned to have 8 of the 59 matches (including the final) air live on Australian free-to-air network One. TV ratings success encouraged the Ten network to also add coverage of the semi-finals and move two of the remaining three matches to its main channel (Ten). ITV4 sought broadcast rights also.

The high TV ratings for the Women's Big Bash League convinced Network Ten to move the broadcast of the WBBL Melbourne Derby clash between Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades from One to Ten, their main broadcast channel.

The WBBL commentary team was led by Andrew Maher with former Australian players Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar. The Free-To-Air broadcast of the WBBL covered the following games:

2016/17 Season

Network Ten will broadcast many of the games in the 2016/2017 season. The commentary team will again be led by Andrew Maher and feature Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar alongside Jason Bennett and Pete Lazer. The following WBBL matches will be televised on Channel Ten and One.

All the WBBL games are also able to be watched live and free, streamed via the internet on the WBBL page on Facebook and the WBBL page on Cricket.com.au