SA, WA to end year-long drought without cricket

After 343 days and hundreds of training sessions, players from South Australia and Western Australia will finally get a chance this weekend to do what they get paid to do – play cricket.

Having had their opening match of the Women's National Cricket League shifted from September to December to January and finally to this Sunday, players from the only two states yet to play a game this season are preparing to churn through their full complement of eight matches in just 22 days to complete the tournament.

While rival states have already played up to four matches since the season finally began in mid-December, COVID-19 related border restrictions have meant players from SA and WA have not played a single game since the end of last season almost 12 months ago.

"(We've trained) three, four or five times a week since we started up again in June, all the way through to now, at the end of February," SA Scorpions fast bowler Brooke Harris told cricket.com.au.

"It was obviously really tricky for everyone … there's been a bit of ups and downs, but we're just excited that we finally get to go on Sunday."

Originally scheduled to begin in late September, the 26th season of Australia's domestic women's one-day competition was initially pushed back to December due to COVID-19 outbreaks in NSW and Victoria and the resultant border closures.

The Weber WBBL was then held in four COVID-free states in October and November before the WNCL began in December, but WA's hard border meant SA's scheduled double-header in Perth – the only games for either state before the new year – could not go ahead.

The surge of infections nationwide in January then led officials to postpone the rest of the season until late February and March, with the news coming just a day before SA were due to fly to Brisbane for their scheduled matches against Queensland.

Given most WNCL players are part-time professionals and must work or study to support their sporting careers, it was determined that the risk of players being stranded in another state due to the unpredictability of border closures was too great.

The constant delays were particularly challenging for players like Harris and her Scorpions teammates Emma De Broughe and Eliza Doddridge, who don't have a contract with a Big Bash club and have played predominantly club cricket since the end of the last WNCL season.

But a short trip to Perth during the WBBL, when the border between SA and WA was still open, to play some games with teams made of up uncontracted and Under-19 players, helped ease the frustration.

"It was super tough, but those WA games gave us a lot of purpose in that period behind our training, which really helped," Harris says.

"And we have a really strong Premier Cricket competition here (in Adelaide) as well and I get excited and pumped up for club cricket as much as I do a WNCL game. So that gives you that purpose as well.

"But I think just the unknown was probably the toughest part."

With the Scorpions to be away from Adelaide for three weeks next month in order to complete the season before the final on March 25, several players will have to take leave from their jobs or study remotely.

Harris acknowledged that while their unusual month-long season is the result of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, it has brought the shortage of domestic cricket for women into focus.

Players without a Big Bash deal train up to four or five times a week for months but will play a maximum of just nine days a year for their states.

"Obviously COVID has affected the way that things have panned out over the last couple of years, but I think next year and the years beyond we absolutely are ready for more cricket," she said.

"We start training in June – I think that we would absolutely love a full home-and-away season, whether that's playing every state twice and having 12 home-and-away games, or even just a bigger finals format.

"We're ready for longer-format cricket (as well), whether it's two-day cricket or whether it's four-day cricket.

"However that looks, I think that that's definitely the next step, as well as just playing more games for the women at state level."

South Australia will play Western Australia at Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide on Sunday, February 27 from 10am local time. Entry is free. The match will be live streamed for free on cricket.com.au and Kayo Sports

South Australia squad: Jemma Barsby (c), Sam Betts, Emma de Broughe, Eliza Doddridge, Josie Dooley, Ellie Falconer, Brooke Harris, Tegan McPharlin, Annie O’Neil, Bridget Patterson, Kate Peterson, Alex Price, Courtney Webb. 

Western Australia squad: Chloe Piparo (c), Charis Bekker, Maia Bouchier, Zoe Britcliffe, Mathilda Carmichael, Piepa Cleary, Sheldyn Cooper, Maddy Darke, Ashley Day, Amy Edgar, Molly Healy, Jacqui Naidoo, Taneale Peschel, Poppy Stockwell, Georgia Wyllie