Purposeful connection and investment made the WBBL the world‘s best domestic women’s cricket competition, but players and clubs are not resting on their laurels, writes JACOB KURIYPE.
Seven years ago this December, the first ever Women’s Big Bash League match was played and Meg Lanning took out two Player of the Match awards on the same day.
In a double-header at Junction Oval, the Melbourne Stars beat the Brisbane Heat twice with Lanning notching fifties in both matches.
Double match-days for a team were not an anomaly back then for a fledgling league played almost entirely Friday to Sunday by cricketers who often also had Monday to Friday jobs.
There are still cricketers working day jobs outside of playing in the most high profile women’s competition in Australia, but the WBBL has come a long way in a short amount of time.
Twenty-four matches will be televised this year with the remainder available via Kayo. Seventeen of those 24 will be given prime time treatment. For comparison’s sake a total of 10 matches were televised in WBBL 01.
And no one will play two matches in one day. They haven’t for a long time.
Rachael Haynes, was there when the Thunder took its first steps towards trophy glory in WBBL 01 and will farewell the competition at the conclusion of WBBL 08.
It was with trepidation and excitement that she first pulled on Thunder lime.
“It was a bit of an odd feeling, being in different uniforms and creating something new and being part of something for the first time,” she says.
“There’s not often moments in your career where you get to do that, so there was a lot of excitement and buzz around it.
“It was a little bit of the unknown but we had a bit of insight watching the male competition. I remember for a couple of years leading in, we were pushing the administration, ‘Get us in there, get us in there’. We really wanted to be a part of it.”
Erin Burns, playing for the Hobart Hurricanes at the time, remembers it as an eye-opener – one with no guarantees of success but promises of nirvana.
“There was a bit of a buzz about it from an anticipation point of view and also no one really knew how it was going to go in the women’s space,” she says. “Women’s cricket at that point was in its relative infancy if you compare it to where it is today.
“Being able to play at the major venues, a lot of the games were curtain raisers before the boys, it was definitely a real unique experience to be part of because up until that point we hadn’t really been elevated to that real main stage.”
The Thunder finished that season as both WBBL and BBL champions, the women’s final played as a curtain-raiser for the men’s.
It was a formula stuck to across the first four WBBL seasons, with the women regularly playing ahead of the men’s in a gambit to ensure healthy crowds.
It was in WBBL 04 that fans proved with their feet that the tournament could stand on its own as close to 9000 came through the gates at Drummoyne Oval for the semi-finals and final. The decider delivered a crowd of 5,368 while the semi-final double-header produced two classics – the first decided by a diving catch on the ropes on the final ball, the second going to a super over.
“To rock up to Drummoyne Oval and up to that point having never sold out a ground in a solely women’s cricket fixture – that was pretty amazing to come in on the team bus and see people lining up around the gates and down around the corner,” Burns, who joined the Sixers in 2017, recalls.
“That was a really important day for the WBBL because it showcased that women’s cricket is a product worth watching and that people do want to come physically to watch the game as well. For me to just even be involved in that day, being in the team, being on field was incredible.”
The following year the WBBL became a fully fledged stand-alone competition, and in Haynes’ eyes that is when it set itself on its current trajectory, and put the wheels in motion for a near capacity crowd at the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup final at the MCG.
“I remember the players were a little bit anxious about, ‘Are we going to be able to get people to our games and were people really enjoying and engaging with what we were doing?’,” she says of the decision to give the WBBL sole spotlight.
“It was only after we got through those first couple of games and there were young boys and girls in the crowd, young families, it was, ‘Actually, we have made a meaningful connection with the community’.
“For me that was the moment where you go, ‘OK, this is really building to something special’ and then you get to an even bigger moment where there’s a home World Cup in Australia, people are engaged, they know who all the players are in the national team too, and you have that moment at the MCG where 86,000 people turn up.
“All those things that happened leading up to that were little seeds planted to help grow the game and then you have this beautiful flower at the end that’s sort of grown from that. That’s something that’s really stuck with me.
“It was this big build up over time where people backed the competition, they backed women in the game and then you end up with these really big, really special moments.”
Going into WBBL 08 and the tournament remains a story of success.
Last season was the most watched on TV in competition history, with a cumulative average linear audience of 5.36 million. The final was the most-watched game in WBBL history, with a combined average audience of 535,000 across TV and streaming services.
Crowds were strong too, with 15,511 turning up for the final at Optus Stadium – the highest-ever attendance at a stand-alone WBBL match.
Since day dot the WBBL has had an iron clad claim to being the premier domestic women’s cricket tournament in the world, and given the prior number, the future looks bright.
Nevertheless, as she goes into her final season, Haynes says the competition’s ongoing success cannot be taken for granted.
With the Hundred two seasons in and the Women’s IPL expected to debut next year, the WBBL will soon have competition for best-in-class.
“There’s interesting challenges ahead,” Haynes says. “For a long time WBBL has been the leader in domestic T20 competitions in the women’s game and now we’re seeing a lot more playing opportunities popping up.
“All of a sudden there are lots of playing opportunities domestically, which is fantastic, not just for domestic players but for players all around the world. I don’t think we can take for granted that the WBBL will always be the leading female domestic competition.”
“We need to start thinking really seriously and strategically about how we continue to draw out the best players around the world to come out and play.
“Whether that is a bit more flexibility with the contracting given that the tournament runs over a couple of months, or pay, all these sorts of things. I think that’s the next challenge for the competition now.”
For now, she’s simply intent on finishing off her WBBL career the way she started it.
“I’m a competitive beast at heart so I’m not looking at my swan song or anything like that. I’m here to win and be part of the finals.”
Jacob Kuriype