WBBL to be game changer for longevity

In the wake of Sydney Thunder’s victory in the inaugural Rebel Women's Big Bash League final, captain Alex Blackwell was brimming with enthusiasm about her future playing career. 

She is 32 and it is suddenly feasible, fitness permitting, to see her playing well into her late thirties.

Indeed, the WBBL lured Lisa Sthalekar (36) and Shelley Nitschke (39) out of retirement to play for Sydney Sixers and Adelaide Strikers respectively.

Blackwell cheekily suggested that the success of the WBBL might tempt her twin sister Kate to return to the game. You got the feeling she wasn’t joking.

Blackwell has only recently put her career as a genetic counsellor to one side in order to earn her living through cricket. An increase in the value of Southern Stars’ contracts enabled her to do that but now there is a further incentive to keep playing: the opportunity to play on a big stage domestically; to experience the buzz of a domestic final that is televised internationally; to relish in the emergence of young talent playing alongside seasoned internationals; to inspire a generation of girls to play cricket and to send the message out to parents and cricket fans that the game is for women as well as men.

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The final wasn’t the greatest spectacle in terms of showing off the standards that have been achieved (there were too many run outs, missed run outs and dropped catches) but there is now a huge buzz around the women’s game in Australia.

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Blackwell referred to the WBBL as being a “shake up” for women’s cricket. It has breathed life into the game beyond the spheres of international cricket, which, until now, has been the only form of the women’s game that has attracted media coverage – and that has been minimal at best.

The television audiences in particular show that when women’s cricket is available to watch, there is an appetite for it. The audience for the Heat versus Strikers WBBL match at the Gabba peaked at 427,000 and was No.1 in the male demographic.

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The more a public can learn about the players on the field, the more they will engage in the product. TV makes that process so much easier by taking the game into people’s living rooms.

As the profile grows, so too should the desire of sponsors to get involved. As commercial interest expands it should become possible to increase the payments to players who are currently offered a retainer of between $3000 and $10,000 for the WBBL.

Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association are currently in discussions as to the best way forward when it comes to increasing women’s payments across the game. State players can currently earn a retainer of $7000 for the 50-over Women's National Cricket League - not enough to live on without a ‘proper job’ – with 16 Southern Stars players on contracts worth up to $50,000 plus tour fees, lifting potential earnings for the very top Australia players up to $85,000.

Both CA and ACA agree that improved remuneration is necessary but they cannot yet agree on how best to achieve it. When they do, expect more players to play well into their thirties, and more youngsters to be attracted to the game in the knowledge that cricket could be a substantive career for women as well as men.