Cricket Australia unveiled a 10-year action plan to invest in, increase grassroots participation, and boost commercial revenue in women’s cricket. The plan included condensing the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) season and introducing a new state-based T20 competition. Since its inception in 2015–16, the WBBL has had nine seasons with a 56-game regular season. Now, it has switched to a 40-game season to better align with the men’s BBL final. Instead of playing in 14, teams will now play in 10 regular season games. Club salary caps are not going to change.

The new state-based T20 competition, which still has some details to be finalised, is expected to run alongside the 50-over Women’s National Cricket League.

According to the cricket.com.au website, the new competition means that there won’t be a general decrease in women’s matches, and the tournament will give domestic cricket players more top-tier playing opportunities.

The new competition will result in female domestic players getting paid more next season. For those with contracts in both the WBBL and state competitions, the average salary for female domestic players will increase by 8% to AU$163,322.

With an emphasis on maximizing attendance for women’s internationals and the WBBL at the main venues, CA has committed to increasing the number of games played in Australia’s top stadiums.

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