Cricket Australia reveals full domestic schedule for the 2024-25 summer

Earlier in May, Cricket Australia (CA) announced a new national women’s T20 competition, now dubbed as the ‘Twenty20 (T20) Spring Challenge,’ and on July 25, they revealed the full domestic schedule for the 2024-25 season. This schedule includes both the T20 Spring Challenge and the 2024-25 edition of the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL), the premier 50-over competition.

The new-look women’s domestic season will start in September, with the T20 league serving as a warm-up for the 10th edition of Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), scheduled for October-November.

The T20 Spring Challenge, a nine-team T20 competition, will be held across Sydney and Adelaide. This tournament was created to ensure there would be no overall reduction in women’s domestic games following the shortening of the WBBL. The competition features teams aligned with the eight Big Bash clubs along with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Meteors.

The tournament will begin on October 11 with four games on the same day: Sydney Thunder vs. Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers vs. ACT at Sydney’s Waverley Oval, and Melbourne Renegades vs. Hobart Hurricanes and Adelaide Strikers vs. Perth Scorchers at Karen Rolton Oval.

Each team will play four matches before the top four advance to the semi-finals and final. A total of 21 matches, including both semi-finals and the final, will be played. All 18 preliminary games will be held over seven days, with the semi-finals on Saturday, October 19, and the final on Sunday, October 20. All the play-off games will be held at Cricket NSW’s Cricket Central in Silverwater.

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Schedule for T20 Spring Challenge:

Meanwhile, the 2024-25 Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL), Australia’s 50-over domestic cricket tournament, will run from September 24 to March 2, 2025. The 2024-25 WNCL curtain raiser will take place on 24th September 2024, featuring Western Australia taking on the Tasmanian Tigers at the iconic WACA Ground in Perth, starting at 7:30 AM IST. Following the initial phase, the league will take a break from 7th October to 13th December for the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL). The WNCL action will resume on 14th December 2024 with a clash between the Tasmanian Tigers and New South Wales at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, commencing at 4:30 AM IST.

As the year draws to a close, post the Christmas and New Year break from 23rd December to 11th January 2025, the final leg of the league will kick off on 12th January 2025, with ACT Meteors facing Victoria at EPC Solar Park in Canberra, starting at 4:30 AM IST. The season will culminate in the grand final on 2nd March 2025, where the top teams will battle it out for the championship title.

Peter Roach, Cricket Australia’s head of cricket operations and scheduling, emphasized that the outstanding performances of the world-champion Australian Men’s and Women’s teams are underpinned by the strength of domestic competitions. He highlighted the T20 Spring Challenge will create more opportunities for elite female domestic players.

“The outstanding performances of our world champion Australian Men’s and Women’s teams is underpinned by the strength of our domestic competitions, which now includes the T20 Spring Challenge which will create more opportunities for elite female domestic players,” Peter said.

Peter noted that elite domestic cricket is the backbone of Australian cricket’s ongoing success, and this new competition, added to the already strong WNCL and WBBL, will allow more players to gain top-level experience and showcase their talents.

“Elite domestic cricket is the backbone of Australian cricket’s ongoing success, and this competition added on top of the already strong WNCL and WBBL competitions will allow more players the opportunity to gain top-level experience and showcase their talents,” he further stated.