Domestic 50-over competition to feature at least 16 day-night games in 2026-27, twice as many as last season
Many of Australia’s World Cup winners are set to feature in September’s opening round of the Women’s National Cricket League, which will feature more matches under lights than ever before in its 2026-27 season.
But Cricket Australia has acknowledged windows for its leading women to feature in domestic cricket, outside the WBBL, are diminishing given their schedules are becoming as busy as the men’s.
The WNCL will begin on September 29 with many of those who lifted the T20 World Cup trophy at Lord’s expected to play ahead of Australia’s home international season beginning October 9 with a three-ODI series against Bangladesh.
The T20 Spring Challenge competition follows before the WBBL begins late October. The WNCL does not then resume until December, meaning some domestic players will play as few as two 50-over games before Christmas due to early-season byes.
A further challenge for CA’s scheduling guru Peter Roach was the women’s Australia A tour of India in September, designed to prepare the next rung of players for a tour there in 2027-28.
Those involved in only the white-ball fixtures of that A trip could be back in time for the first WNCL round. But the four-day game in Dharamshala overlaps with the start of the domestic season, an identical issue faced on the men’s side with their own Australia A tour of India slated for September-October.
The Weber WBBL|12 season runs through November and finishes in early December, while a bulk of leading players then play in India’s Women’s Premier League in January. The ICC has scheduled a Champions Trophy in February, while New Zealand will complete the second (ODI) leg of a tour to Australia they are slated to begin (with three T20Is) in October.
A multi-format tour of South Africa follows for Sophie Molineux’s world champions.
“It’s a growing challenge that we’ve got more A cricket and international cricket being played across the breadth of our summer,” said Roach.
“As the women’s game has grown, that challenge has become more prominent and the WPL as well you could include as ‘international’ content. We try and balance that across the season, so no teams are affected more (than others).
“As the years go by, it’s becoming a little bit more like the men where finding opportunities for them to compete in domestic cricket – where it used to be the norm, and used to be unusual for them not to be playing, now it’s probably the opposite.
“Teams expect their (players) in Australia’s best XI not to be playing. That was probably the interesting thing about the A tour – there were more concerns from teams around losing that next band of players than actually their (Australia regulars).”
At least 16 WNCL games will be day-night events, twice as many as last season. It is understood more could be added to the schedule in Queensland and Tasmania.
Work is also underway on light towers at NSW’s Cricket Central, which is expected to host night cricket as soon as the work is completed, which Cricket NSW has flagged for October 2026.
The addition of lights to Junction Oval is the main factor in the increase, with all six of Victoria’s home games to be played as day-nighters.
“This is a competition that we use … ideally to prepare players to perform well in international cricket, and we know that the big games in international cricket are generally day-night in one-day cricket, or night games in T20,” said Roach.
“Giving (players) the opportunities wherever we can to play night cricket is an absolute priority.”
The Spring Challenge also features three night games (more could be added if the Cricket Central lights are ready by the finals on October 20-21) in its third season.
The nine-team T20 competition (featuring the eight WBBL sides plus ACT) was introduced in 2024 to ensure there would be no overall cut in women’s domestic games after the number of WBBL games was reduced under a broadcast deal.
The future of the competition is uncertain amid CA’s push to privatise W/BBL teams next year.
“We know it’s valued in terms of providing opportunities for players,” said Roach. “Because there are a few more teams, the talent is spread a little bit wider, so the opportunities are spread at the same time.
“Certainly in preparation for the WBBL, it’s seen as a valuable tool by WBBL teams and the states for that. What the future holds, we don’t know. There’s obviously a bit going on in the T20 space at the minute, so we’ll wait and see where that goes.”