By Roy Ward
As she looked at nearly 20,000 fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground, cricketing great Lisa Sthalekar had a realisation about the nascent Women’s Big Bash League.
“It was a Sydney Smash game and the SCG is my home ground and to have that many people watching the girls play was special,” recalled Sthalekar of the match in the second WBBL season.
“I thought, ‘We are on to something good here’.”
The WBBL is celebrating its 10th birthday.Credit: Getty Images for Cricket Australia
Sthalekar, now one Seven’s cricket commentators, came out of retirement for the first two seasons to experience the groundbreaking tournament which was a first for women’s T20 cricket.
On Sunday, the WBBL begins its 10th season and its impact on women’s cricket has been profound, with the evolution from WBBL01 in 2015-16 reflecting the transformation from part-timers to elite professionals.
Lisa Sthalekar of the Sydney Sixers in 2017.Credit: Getty Images
“Growing up you would get called a tomboy [for playing sport] but that has gone out of the vernacular now. It is cool to be an athlete as a female,” Sthalekar said.
“You can’t be what you can’t see, so by having that constant light to shine on the women’s players and female broadcasters, all of a sudden, it was just part of cricket that men and women play at a high level.”
According to Cricket Australia, the average player now earns eight times as much as they did in WBBL01, with pay leaping from $5700 to $48,734 this campaign.
The average female domestic cricketer earns $163,000 from their state and WBBL teams, and CA contracted players earn more which, CA says, makes them Australia’s best-paid domestic athletes.
The average TV audience, streaming not included, was 134,000 last season which CA said made it the most watched sports league in October-November.
Perhaps the best legacy of the opening decade is its impact on girls, with registrations in the Cricket Blast program (for under-10s) tripling.
‘I vividly remember we had a trip to Perth and played three games in four days, two of them on the same day, and then took the red-eye home so we could all get to work on Monday.’
Jess Jonassen
Brisbane Heat captain and WBBL leading wicket-taker Jess Jonassen (with 162) was 21 in the opening season.
She remembers the frustrations around the crammed schedules. “You look back at the photos and our clothes, they didn’t fit, they were all baggy,” Jonassen said.
“Most players were juggling full-time work. I vividly remember we had a trip to Perth and played three games in four days, two of them on the same day, and then took the red-eye [flight] home so we could all get to work on Monday. We just found a way because we wanted more cricket.
“Now every game is on Seven or Fox. The idea of a women’s franchise tournament was so foreign, now it has become the norm.”
Job done: Jess Jonassen and Beth Mooney celebrate victory for the Brisbane Heat at Drummoyne Oval in 2019.Credit: Getty
Jonassen can see the WBBL’s decade of impact in her youngest teammates Sianna Ginger (19 years) and Lucy Hamilton (18).
“We had our launch and Sianna Ginger’s mum came up to me and asked if I remembered when I first met Sianna,” Jonassen recalled.
“We played a couple of games up in Mackay in our second or third season and Sianna was one of our ball girls that night. Now she is dominating, and it’s highly likely she will make her debut this season.
Sianna Ginger of the Heat bowls during the T20 Spring Challenge.Credit: Getty Images
“It’s pretty crazy. Then you think of Lucy, and we joke around that when I made my debut for Queensland, she was two.”
With greater professionalism has come more powerful hitters. A record 279 sixes were smashed last season while the average first-inning score was 154.5 runs, also a record.
Some might suggest boundaries have been brought up, but Jonassen reckons they are actually few metres longer, and she and Sthalekar credit playing more stadium games on more reliable pitches as the real difference maker.
Ash Barty spent some time with the Brisbane Heat in the WBBL in 2015.Credit: Getty Images
“You have girls that are incredibly powerful and super fit as well,” Jonassen said. “But then equally, we’re playing on better surfaces, which allows you to trust the bounce of the ball and to swing through the line.”
Jonassen remembers a special teammate from that first season, future Wimbledon and Australian Open winner Ash Barty, who was on a hiatus from tennis.
“We played two games against Melbourne Stars at Junction Oval,” Jonassen said. “Meg Lanning tore us apart and Ash Barty was running around in Heat teal. You won’t find too many cross-coders these days but she was an exceptional athlete, we had players who dedicated their lives to cricket and she came in and looked so natural.”
Sthalekar challenged those in charge of the WBBL to keep pushing it into big venues.
“We’ve seen that women’s sport can fill stadiums,” Sthalekar said. “While our AFL-type stadiums are bigger than most, the depth and excitement about WBBL is such that, in 10 years time, the Sydney Sixes should be playing all their games at the SCG and selling it out and same for other teams around the country.”
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