Cricket Australia has announced the schedule of the upcoming Women’s Big Bash League, which kicks off on the 25th of October.
The elite women’s cricket tournament will feature a full 59-game season, with all the matches to be played in Sydney, across 5 different stadiums. In addition to this, a WBBL village will be set-up in the coming days to accommodate the players and staff from all the eight teams.
Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, this year’s @WBBL season will be played entirely in a Sydney hub. Great News is that all 59 Matches are intact. #WBBL06 | #WBBL2020 pic.twitter.com/wz6N3eUvbq
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) September 4, 2020
The first day of the WBBL season 6 promises to be a blockbuster, with all the 8 teams facing off against each other on opening day. This includes the Sydney Smash – to be played between the Sydney Strikers and Sydney Thunder, and the Melbourne derby featuring the Stars and Renegades. The month-long tournament will be played in five stadiums – North Sydney Oval, Hurstville Oval, Drummoyne Oval, Showgrounds Stadium, and Blacktown International Sports Park.
Breaking News 🚨
The #WBBL 2020 Fixtures are here: 👇 pic.twitter.com/XGUvyoPaR6
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) September 24, 2020
Sydney Thunder captain, Rachael Haynes, said in an interview to cricket.com.au, “First and foremost it’s just really positive that the WBBL is going ahead, I know our domestic players have been working extremely hard over the preseason so it’s great they’re going to have some high-quality games to participate in. And from our perspective, we’re just really looking forward to being involved.”
Cricket Australia has also announced the formation of a WBBL Village, similar to the ones for the contingents at the Olympics. The Sydney Olympic Park will be turned into a high-class athletes precinct, and exclusive privileges will be afforded to the league in terms of exclusive use of hotels, high-performance facilities, and dining venues, among various other facilities.
The group stage of the tournament will carry on till the weekend of November 21-22, with semi-finals and finals scheduled between November 25th and November 29th. In a first, the WBBL will feature at least 7 high school students, with Sydney Thunders acquiring the services of eight players under the age of 20. Their youngest is the 17-year-old Phoebe Litchfield.
Rachael Haynes, said in conclusion, “A lot of effort is going in behind the scenes to give it a real village-type atmosphere and it’ll be nice in some respects to be in one spot with all the teams around and hopefully we can put on a really good show for the public.”
Your average cricket enthusiast. Loves to write about what he loves to watch.
