Countries Australia First tournament 1996–97 Next tournament 2017-18 | Administrator Cricket Australia Last tournament 2016-17 | |
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Format Limited-overs (50 overs per side) | ||
The Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) is the national competition for women's cricket in Australia.
The league competition involves the six member teams playing each other in two 50-over limited-over matches, with the side finishing at the top of the table after the preliminary rounds earning the right to host the best-of-three finals series. The winner of the finals series wins the Ruth Preddey Cup. From 2007–08 onwards the finals series as reduced to a single match as Twenty20 matches were introduced.
The first WNCL took place in 1996–97, replacing the Australian Women's Cricket Championships which had taken place in a two-week tournament format since 1930–31. The Ruth Preddey Cup was introduced to those championships in 1972–73. The competition was expanded to include ACT in the 2009–10 season and Tasmania in the 2010–11 season.
In the 2008–09 season, a Twenty20 competition was introduced for Australian domestic women's teams. The competition was expanded to include ACT and Tasmania in the 2009–10 season.
The Australian Capital Territory participates in the Women's National Cricket League despite not being members of the national association.
Teams
a Each team has used several venues to host matches. For a full list, see list of cricket grounds in Australia.