Grand old grounds are just the meal ticket as WBBL makes next move

For some of Australia’s finest cricketers the Women’s Premier League in India was an experience like no other and proved the benefits of focussed promotion and investment.

Stars Tahlia McGrath, Phoebe Litchfield and Jess Jonassen

Star Australian all-rounder Tahlia McGrath remembers thinking that her $75 meal allowance as the “best thing ever”.

“I’d go to Subway and pocket the rest,” McGrath said. “I thought; ‘I am bloody earning a ton here’.”

There was a time too when cricketers were happy with their $1200 yearly retainer.

Teammate Jess Jonassen remembers those days.

“How good is this?” Jonassen remembers of her first cricket pay cheque when she was at school. “I get to earn money playing cricket and it’s a thousand bucks … but it basically works out being $100 a month.”

A member of the Australian team since 2012, the Brisbane Heat left-arm spinner has been part of the “majority” of the transitions since, from when Cricket Australia started tabling contracts worth $5000, $10,000, $15,000 to now becoming the highest paid contracted female athletes in the country with an average wage of $150,000.

But Australia’s best also now have a blockbuster opportunity to play in the Women’s Premier League – where Australian all-rounder Ash Gardner picked up $550,000 and Beth Mooney collected $350,000 for a few weeks’ work earlier this year.

It was not just the money but the attention on the WPL in India that blew away the Australians.

“If the first year is anything to go by, the second year is just going to be absolutely insane,” Jonassen said.

McGrath, a World Cup winner, T20 World Cup champion who led the Adelaide Strikers to a maiden Women’s Big Bash League title last summer, remembers driving from the Mumbai airport back to her hotel and was wowed by her team’s visibility across the city and on the television.

McGrath, who played for the UP Warriorz in the Women’s Premier League, said the interest in their teams was next level.

“We were on billboards, in TV commercials, like it’s just crazy how much attention there was. We’d walk out of the hotel and get recognised because they’re like cricket mad, passionate fans,” McGrath said. “It’s just a whole other level. And I mean, part of that is because they market it so well. You’re so visible on the TV ads, on billboards. They’re promoting it so well – it was a crazy experience.”

Jonassen, who played for the Dehli Capitals, said she wasn’t surprised by the impact the WPL had.

“It‘s no wonder that it generated so much attention because they just got like the players out there, the franchise out there, because they had the hands on deck, they had the budget, they had the people, and yeah, they just did a really good job,” Jonassen said.

“I was so surprised how it sort of just came together so well in such a short space of time, like from the very end of the tournament, um, dating back to when the draft was, it was only a six week period. It was; it’s pretty insane when you sit back and think about it.”

The experience shows that there is more work to do domestically for the sport in Australia.

Jonassen said she would love for our female domestic cricketers to be full-time.

“Genuine full-time cricketers, I’d love for them not to have to worry about also working part time or casually unless they actually want to, not because they have to or need to,” she said.

“And then yeah, I’d love for a lot of our domestic girls to be able to also get those opportunities in other domestic leagues around the world, not just sort of the international superstars, but there’s so much homegrown talent that deserves to get their names out there as well.

“Obviously there have been significant changes from an international point of view and getting that way in the domestic land, but still a fair bit of work to do with the amount of hours and time and energy that those girls sort of put in as well to cricket.”

With the Women’s Big Bash starting on October 19 it’s expected to be its biggest yet. Women for the first time will be playing stand alone matches on some of cricket’s grandest grounds.

Outside the Twenty20 World Cup, the clashes will be the first WBBL stand-alone matches at the SCG or MCG.

Young star Sydney Thunder batter Phoebe Litchfield, 20, said she was looking forward to the opportunity to finally play on the iconic SCG ground.

“People have asked me: ‘What’s your favourite part about the SCG and I’m like: ‘Well, I’ve actually never played there’,” she said. “And they were shocked with that answer. So yeah, it’s really cool that we get to play in those big stadiums and hopefully Cricket Australia can market it well and we can get some big, big crowds.”

Adelaide Oval will host a double-header on November 24. There will be a Melbourne derby played at the MCG on November 25 followed by another two matches at the SCG the following day.

Jonassen said they were also hoping for a WBBL match at the Gabba but it has not been scheduled for this season.

“We were pushing quite hard to try and get a game at the Gabba as well this year from Brisbane Heat point of view too … hopefully that’s in the future as well,” Jonassen said. “We always get some really strong support, particularly in Brisbane as part of the Brisbane Heat. I think it’s an awesome opportunity to be able to play at those venues, those tier one venues and the potential to get sellout crowds of 30,000 or whatever it is, that’d be huge.

“Obviously seeing that the men do it as well and I guess it still always comes back to the marketing of it and making sure that everyone knows that things are on … but I think you stem from all the work that’s been put in during the last eight years of WBBL. I’d be very surprised if we don’t get very good crowds at those venues.”

While women’s cricket has been played at Adelaide Oval before, McGrath says the team is looking forward to their game there.

“Our home ground is Karen Rolton Oval and we sell that out and you get 2000 people and we love playing there but we’re so excited for a game at Adelaide Oval,” she said. “I mean who doesn’t love Adelaide Oval? Hopefully they market it well and get a really good crowd there and it just creates a really good atmosphere, a really cool experience. I know the Strikers girls have literally marked that one on their calendars that they’re looking forward to.”

Jonassen said she was 14 years old when she realised there was an Australian women’s cricket team but also remarked how times have changed.

Recently she was in a cricket store in Queensland when she overheard a father saying he wanted to buy his son a new piece of equipment.

“I don’t know what they were buying, but this guy was in there with his son and he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we just want to get this because we’ve seen Georgia Voll wears it at Sandgate’ and Georgia Voll is a domestic player in Queensland and this dad is just buying something that she uses because she’s been a gun player for that club,” Jonassen said. “And it’s like instead of saying, ‘Oh, I want to just use this because that’s what Steve Smith uses or what Marnus (Labuschagne) uses’, it was like a domestic female cricketer having an impact on a young boy.”

Times are changing, but both McGrath and Jonassen see and know that investment is key in cricket’s lower level competitions to keep the sport growing.

“Like T-Mac said before, when you’re getting better resourced and have better facilities and all those sort of things, that investment into the game to be able to put a better product out,” Jonassen said. “So then you’re putting a good product out there, you’re generating more exposure. And then that sort of just is that cycle that then the more exposure, the better broadcast deals, the better investment into the game, and then it just keeps it exponentially growing.”

For the first time in WBBL history, the MCG and SCG will host stand-alone regular season matches, including the Melbourne Derby on Saturday, November 25 and the Sydney Derby on Sunday, November 26.

Foxtel and streaming platform Kayo will broadcast every match, including 35 exclusively.