Cricket Australia to make changes to new T20 competition after pushback from major states

Australia’s two biggest cricket states have won a significant battle over the new women’s T20 competition being proposed by Cricket Australia. DANIEL CHERNY reports.

Cricket Australia is set to significantly alter the format of its new women’s Twenty20 competition less than a month after it was unveiled following pushback from its two biggest states.

It’s understood that the state-based T20 league, announced as part of a women’s cricket action plan in late April, will now instead feature teams aligned with the eight Women’s Big Bash League clubs, with an additional ACT side to take the competition to nine teams.

It is a victory for administrators in Victoria and NSW, with both states arguing that they should field two teams each in the competition.

The additional tournament came about after CA decided to cut the WBBL from 14 to 10 games per team in the regular season, bringing the event in line with its men’s equivalent.

Along with NSW, Victoria was very much against the original proposal. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

However having only two years ago expanded the 50-over Women’s National Cricket League, CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association wanted to ensure that the shrinking of the WBBL did not lead to a net reduction of women’s cricket, particularly for domestic-only players who do not have anywhere near the workloads of top internationals like Ash Gardner, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy.

A state T20 competition featuring the seven WNCL teams was pitched as a compromise and was announced by CA as part of a spate of women’s cricket initiatives and targets unveiled at the MCG late last month.

But Cricket Victoria and Cricket NSW were both concerned that their respective fringe WBBL players would be robbed of playing opportunities under the format, which would also provide one-team town WBBL sides an advantage in terms of preparation given the considerable alignment between state teams and WBBL outfits in Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia.

Women’s state contracting has been paused as Victoria and NSW railed against the state-based format.

Under the likely new format, teams will play under the umbrellas of their WBBL clubs, although unlike the WBBL proper the tournament will not prominently feature overseas players.

Crucially, domestic players are still set to receive an uptick in pay under the new format, although the finer points were still being thrashed out this week.

Rather than being dotted throughout the season as had been the original plan, the tournament is now likely to be played in a solitary block, although the specifics of the event’s window remain unclear.

The expected presence of an ACT team complicates the landscape given several players from the WNCL’s Meteors are also contracted to WBBL clubs.

Originally published as Cricket Australia to make changes to new T20 competition after pushback from major states