Heat-Strikers haute-striking The Gabba game

Image: The Gabba, John Robert McPherson, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) fixtures announced on July 9^th by Cricket Australia will feature the Brisbane Heat taking on Adelaide Strikers at The Gabba in Woolloongabba, Australia, in a night fixture, the first time they will have played in prime time under lights at the venue.

‘BRISBANE HEAT’ stated that The Gabba match on November 9th is a repeat of the WBBL grand final won narrowly by the Strikers when they held off the Heat in the final over of the decider at the 53,500-capacity Adelaide Oval in North Adelaide, Australia.

The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), known for sponsorship reasons as the Weber WBBL, is the Australian women’s domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women’s Twenty20 Cup which ran from the 2007-2008 seasons through to 2014-2015. The competition features eight City-based franchises branded identically to the Men’s Big Bash League.

Jolimont (Australia)-based Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the ‘Australian Board of Control for International Cricket’.

The Brisbane Heat (WBBL) is an Australian women’s Twenty20 cricket team based in Albion, Queensland (Australia). The Heat competes in the Women’s Big Bash League and has won two championships, winning back-to-back titles across WBBL|04 (2018-2019 Women’s Big Bash League seasons) and WBBL|05 (The 2019-2020 Women’s Big Bash League seasons).

The 6,500-capacity Allan Border Field is a cricket ground in the Brisbane suburb of Albion in Queensland (Australia). The Australian Cricket Academy has been based at the oval since 2004 using it as a base for the development of elite cricketers throughout Australia. It serves as the home ground of the WBBL team Brisbane Heat.

The Adelaide Strikers (WBBL) is an Australian women’s Twenty20 cricket team based in North Adelaide, South Australia. They compete in the Women’s Big Bash League and won their first championship in WBBL|08 (the 2022-2023 Women’s Big Bash League seasons).

The 5,000-capacity Karen Rolton Oval is a cricket ground in Adelaide, South Australia, named after the Australian former cricketer Karen Rolton. It is located near the corner of West Terrace and Port Road, opposite the new Royal Adelaide Hospital in the Eastern end of Park 25 of the Adelaide Park Lands. It serves as the home ground of the Adelaide Strikers (WBBL).

The 42,000-capacity Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as The Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname ‘Gabba’ has been derived from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located.

‘BRISBANE HEAT’ further stated that the Heat will also play three home games at the Allan Border Field taking on the Melbourne Renegades (October 30^th), the Melbourne Stars (November 22^nd) and the Sydney Sixers (November 24^th).

This is the first season of the condensed WBBL season bringing it into line with the KFC Big Bash League (Australian men’s professional club Twenty20 cricket league) that delivered a streamlined 40-game regular season last season to much acclaim.

The Gabba will join the likes of the 48,000-capacity Sydney Cricket Ground in Moore Park, Australia, the 100,024 Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne, the 20,000-capacity Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) Ground in Perth and the Adelaide Oval which hosted the WBBL matches last Summer as Cricket Australia look to enhance the reach of the competition as it celebrates its 10th season.

The Brisbane Heat had an enviable WBBL record at The Gabba in the early double-header days of the Big Bash, winning seven out of their eight games, before the competition moved to its own standalone timeslot in October and November in WBBL|05.

The new structure for Weber WBBL|10 and beyond will deliver enhanced scheduling and player availability delivering a better competition for the fans locally and globally.

The WBBL|10 will be more accessible than ever before under Cricket Australia’s new Media Rights Agreement with the Seven West Media (one of Australia’s leading integrated media companies) and the Foxtel Group (Australian pay television company).

The regular WBBL season concludes on November 24^th.

The three-match WBBL|10 Finals series will follow culminating with the final on December 1^st hosted by the team that finishes top of the table.

The more compacted season means the WBBL will not take a match to Mackay (City in Australia) this Summer although the growth in demand for fixtures at the Great Barrier Reef arena remains at an all-time high.

The Queensland Cricket (the governing body of cricket in Queensland, Australia) head honcho Terry Svenson said that the move to play the WBBL at The Gabba represented a pivotal moment in the growth of the competition, while also adding that Mackay remained a strong option to host the WBBL matches again in the future – “We’re incredibly pleased to have the chance to showcase the Heat and the WBBL at The Gabba for the first time in their own right. This is an important step in the growth of the WBBL to give our players and the club a platform to perform and entertain, so we encourage our members and the fans to get behind us as we seek to make The Gabba a fortress and put on a great show. Mackay remains an important region for the Heat and Queensland Cricket, however, broadcast requirements and the condensed season this time around meant we couldn’t get the WBBL games into the Great Barrier Reef Arena. On the plus side, the venue is hosting nine days of international cricket this season, the most ever.”

Concluded Svenson, “No doubt, that is disappointing for the Heat fans locally, but we will continue to work with Cricket Australia, Mackay Cricket, Harrup Park (a premier sporting and entertainment venue in Mackay) and the Mackay Regional Council to align on taking future matches to the Great Barrier Reef Arena.”

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