The Women’s Big Bash League is an Australian T20 competition featuring global female cricketers in as many as eight different teams. WBBL is basically Women’s BBL, which is the female version of the Big Bash League that is usually played in December and January every year.
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WBBL 2020 is the sixth season of the tournament is played annually since 2015. The season will begin in October 2020 and the Final will conclude the competition in November 2020.
Eight teams that have been playing since the inception of the league will be competing for more than a month for the title. The eight teams are Perth Scorchers Women (PSW), Brisbane Heat Women (BHW), Adelaide Strikers Women (ASW), Hobart Hurricanes Women (HHW), Sydney Sixers Women (SSW), Sydney Thunder Women (STW) Melbourne Renegades Women (MRW) and Melbourne Stars Women (MSW).
Also see: WBBL Fixtures 2020
The first edition of the WBBL was played by the same eight franchises that continue to contest the tournament. The first-ever season was played way back in 2015 and has been a huge hit not only in women’s cricket calendar but in the T20 calendar.
It has unearthed a few young girls for the Australian women's cricket team and has given them the experience of rubbing shoulders with some global superstars from countries like India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to name a few.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WBBL 2020 will be played in empty stadiums and will be the first edition ever to be played without physical crowds.
The tournament will follow a double round-robin format with all eight teams playing every other team twice in the league stage. Every year, the two games against each side and played on a home and away basis but the edition in 2020 will lack the spice of home and away games.
The league stage will have a total of 56 games which will begin on October 25 and will go on till November 22. All eight teams will play on the opening day in four different games. Defending champions Brisbane Heat Women will play against Perth Scorchers Women on Day 1 of the tournament.
The top four teams on the points table at the end of the league stage will feature in the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals will play the Final while the losers will be knocked out of the tournament.
The Women’s Big Bash League will be streamed live on 7Sports Channel and Cricket Australia Live app.
All the 59 games of the tournament will be played in Sydney. Five different venues have been made available to stage the competition. The venues are North Sydney Oval, Hurstville Oval, Sydney Showground Stadium, Drummoyne Oval and Blacktown International Sportspark.
WBBL has a plethora of international stars and some local flavour in 2020. The eight elite cricketers, who will be leading the eight teams are Meg Lanning (MSW), Amy Satterthwaite (MRW), Sophie Devine (PSW), Jess Jonassen (BHW), Suzie Bates (ASW), Rachael Haynes (STW), Ellyse Perry (SSW) and Corinne Hall (HHW).
The second-highest run-getter of WBBL 2019, Beth Mooney will be representing the Scorchers this season while the highest wicket-taker of 2019, Molly Strano will be in action for the Renegades. Third on the list with most wickets in 2019 was Belinda Vakarewa. She will don the purple for the Hurricanes in 2020.
Apart from these, the fans will also get to see superstars like Elyse Villani, Katherine Brunt, Nat Sciver, Mignon du Preez, Lizelle Lee, Lea Tahuhu, Amelia Kerr, Megan Schutt, Heather Knight, Tammy Beaumont, Shabnim Ismail, Dane van Niekerk, Marizanne Kapp, Alyssa Healy and Hayley Matthews in action.
