Contract freeze: NSW and Victoria fume over new women’s domestic Twenty20 league

Cricket Australia has launched a new women’s T20 competition, but two states are far from thrilled. DANIEL CHERNY reports on the source of growing unease that has resulted in contract delays.

Victoria is one of the states not happy. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Women’s state cricket contracts have been put on hold amid unrest from NSW and Victoria over the structure of the new domestic Twenty20 league announced earlier this week.

Cricket Australia unveiled its fresh state-based T20 league on Tuesday as part of a 10-year action plan for women’s cricket, however key elements of the competition remain unresolved.

Chief among the outstanding issues is how many teams will participate. While an email to players from the Australian Cricketers’ Association on Tuesday outlined that the tournament would be a round-robin competition featuring all six states as well as the ACT - as is the case with the 50-over Women’s National Cricket League - that is yet to be finalised.

The hold-up comes from the nation’s two most populous states, who are understood to be frustrated with the situation. At the heart of the issue is the fact Victoria and NSW are the two states with multiple Women’s Big Bash League teams.

Sammy-Jo Johnson after taking a wicker for the NSW Breakers. Picture: Getty Images

The T20 state competition was added to the calendar to supplement a reduced WBBL season, the latter having been trimmed from 14 matches per club to 10.

Yet while the new tournament broadly means more games and money for the female playing cohort as a collective, there are concerns within NSW and Victoria about diminishing opportunities for their fringe female players, many of whom are listed with the state’s respective WBBL clubs and will effectively have to vie to play in one team during the state competition.

NSW and Victoria both contribute two teams each to the WBBL, and both states have pushed for similar representation in the new domestic women’s T20 league. Picture: Getty Images

Though Big Bash and state contracts are supposed to be negotiated separately - contract “bundling” is an express offence under CA rules - there is an enormous overlap of players representing WBBL teams based in the state in which they are contracted for the WNCL.

A similar phenomenon exists in men’s domestic cricket.

The upshot is that the one-team WBBL cities - Hobart, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide - would field overwhelmingly similar teams across the WBBL and state T20 competition, which NSW and Victoria are concerned leaves them at a disadvantage.

That NSW and Victoria are also net exporters of players to the other states and ACT has amplified the frustration of having fewer professional matches for teams based in the two largest states.

Victoria’s Rhiann O’Donnell of Victoria celebrates a wicket. Picture: Getty Images

The solution being pushed by NSW and Victoria is for them to each be able to field two teams in the new league, an idea that has faced considerable opposition.

The women’s state contracting deadline was due for Monday however players remain unable to sign new state deals while the structure of the T20 league hangs in the air.

It’s understood however that the WBBL contracting period will open in the coming days.

The shortened WBBL had been more than a year in the works and comes as a result of an increasingly packed calendar for top female players, both Australian and overseas. Most of the leading Aussie players had supported a tighter WBBL.

Broadcasters have also been supportive of the more compact competition, hopeful that off-peak games with little commercial appeal will be reduced.

Originally published as Contract freeze: NSW and Victoria fume over new women’s domestic Twenty20 league