Women Tigers get big WNCL home block after WBBL; jam packed men’s schedule on cards

Tasmania’s female cricketers will get to celebrate four consecutive WNCL games either side of Christmas and New Years, while the men’s schedule includes six Sheffield Shield games before BBL. LATEST >>

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TASMANIA’S female cricketers will have four consecutive WNCL matches on home soil either side of Christmas and New Year this summer.

Cricket Australia released its domestic schedule for the 2021-22 season on Wednesday, which returns to a full allotment after Covid-19 wiped out a handful of matches from the men’s competition last year.

The WNCL will again be held blocks to provide a lead in and preparation for the women’s Ashes series and ICC Women’s World Cup, with the Tigers to play half of their 50-over fixtures in a row at Blundstone Arena.

Tasmania will face powerhouse NSW in a pair of matches to kickstart their WNCL campaign on October 1 and 3, before returning to familiar surroundings in Hobart once the WBBL is completed.

“I think what’s really exciting, we’ve got four games here at Blundstone, it’s a great a great ground to play, and I think with our team we’ve got a very successful season to come and we’re really excited to showcase what we can do,” said Naomi Stalenberg, who is nursing a dislocation on her left hand following a training mishap.

Naomi Stalenberg in action during a WNCL match against Queensland at Blundstone Arena last season. Picture: Chris Kidd

“It’s a very exciting time for women’s cricket with a very exciting season to come.”

The men will again face a jam packed schedule, which features six Sheffield Shield matches prior to the Big Bash, two of which will unfold at Blundstone.

The Tigers will also play the last three of their seven One Day Cup matches at home.

Tasmania only hosted two Shield games last season following the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and Jordan Silk said the players were prepared for whatever circumstances are thrown at them this summer.

“We’ve grown to be more flexible I think as humans over the last 18 months so you know whatever gets sort of thrown at us we’ll just adapt and run with,” Silk said.

“There’s not much really we can control, so wherever we end up playing, whether we’re in hubs or bubbles or whatever, it’s not something we haven’t done before.”

Tigers players celebrate a wicket during a Sheffield Shield match last season. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

TIGERS FIXTURES

SHEFFIELD SHIELD

R1 Queensland v Tasmania (Riverway Stadium) Sep 28-Oct 1

R2 Victoria v Tasmania (MCG) Oct 15-18

R3 Tasmania v Western Australia (Blundstone Arena) Oct 26-29

R4 Tasmania v South Australia (Blundstone Arena) Nov 7-10

R5 NSW v Tasmania (SCG) Nov 17-20

R6 Western Australia v Tasmania (WACA) Nov 28-Dec 1

R7 Tasmania v NSW (Blundstone Arena) Feb 7-10

R8 Tasmania v Victoria (Blundstone Arena) Feb 17-20

R9 South Australia v Tasmania (Adelaide Oval) Mar 5-8

R10 Tasmania v Queensland (Blundstone Arena) Mar 16-19

ONE DAY CUP

South Australia v Tasmania (CitiPower Centre) Sep 13

Victoria v Tasmania (CitiPower Centre) Sep 15

Queensland v Tasmania (Riverway Stadium) Oct 3

South Australia v Tasmania (Karen Rolton Oval) Oct 6

Tasmania v Western Australia (Blundstone Arena) Oct 31

Tasmania v NSW (Blundstone Arena) Feb 12

Tasmania v Victoria (Blundstone Arena) Feb 22

WNCL

NSW v Tasmania (Hurstville Oval) Oct 1

NSW v Tasmania (Hurstville Oval) Oct 3

Tasmania v South Australia (Blundstone Arena) Dec 16

Tasmania v ACT (Blundstone Arena) Dec 19

Tasmania v Queensland (Blundstone Arena) Jan 7

Tasmania v Queensland (Blundstone Arena) Jan 9

Western Australia v Tasmania (WACA) Feb 14

Tasmania v Victoria (Lilac Hill) Feb 16

Players had say in Tigers securing Shipperd

THE Tigers playing group had a major say in Cricket Tasmania sounding out Greg Shipperd to return to the organisation in an interim role.

Former Victorian coach and current Sydney Sixers coach Shipperd, who spent 11 years at the helm of the Tigers, has been appointed to a consultant role, with Ali de Winter stepping into the head coaching gig until a replacements for Jeff Vaughan is found.

Vaughan earlier this month landed an assistant coaching role with the national team and will depart next week while Hurricanes coach Adam Griffith is headed to the IPL in September.

A global search has begun, with Head of Pathways and Talent de Winter told he could be in control of the men’s senior program until the start of the Big Bash.

“When we engaged with the players after the news of Jeff Vaughan, Greg Shipperd was a name that I kept hearing,” CT GM of high performance Simon Insley said.

Former Victorian coach Greg Shipperd has been appointed as interim coach consultant until the Tigers find a fulltime replacement for Jeff Vaughan. Picture by Colleen Petch.

“So I gave Greg a call and he’d already been reached out by a couple of people in the playing group asking if he was going to apply for the main job.

“Pretty quickly we understood that Greg was keen to help out, and then we’ve just been working through the logistics of what that looks like.

“With Ali, we were really excited when he said that he wanted to put his hand up, he wants to help link the program together, but he wants to focus on the pathway long term.”

Insley confirmed both Shipperd and de Winter were not applying for the full time position.

“One of the things when we had the interim rolling out is we wanted people who weren’t going to go for the main job, main reason is we don’t want someone to be pressurised with short term results vying for a job, and trying to build relationships with players.”

Opener Jordan Silk was one of the senior players who contacted Shipperd.

Silk has played under Shipperd at the Sixers — who have won the past two BBL titles — and has no doubt his wealth of experience will provide the playing group with stability.

Jordan Silk, who has played under Greg Shippered at the Sydney Sixers, said the former Tigers coach is a perfect fit for an interim role for the Tigers. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

“Certainly someone I thought of instantly when we needed to fill that role and I thought if we were going down the path of an interim, then I thought Greg would probably be a perfect fit,” Silk said.

“He’s obviously going to bring a lot of success with him, obviously I’ve played under him for a couple years now at the Sixers and won a few titles there.

“Invaluable to bring someone like that in with that experience and I think with this group, we talk about trying to win titles now, to get someone like that into sort of harness that and bring that out of us is really exciting.”

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