Streaming, schedule and squad details for the women's domestic 50-over competition
WNCL 2026-27: All you need to know
State-by-state previews: VIC | TAS | SA | WA | QLD | NSW
When does it start?
On Tuesday! The Women's National Cricket League – Australia's national women's domestic 50-over competition – will get underway on September 29 with a star-studded triple header.
Most of Australia's biggest stars will be available for a rare WNCL appearance across the opening round, ahead of next month's white-ball matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
In Melbourne, Victoria will host their first day-night matches under Junction Oval's new lights as they meet South Australia on Tuesday and Thursday.
View the full WNCL fixture here
New South Wales will host Queensland in a rematch of last year's final at Cricket Central, while Western Australia will host Tasmania in a pair of day-night matches.
Only one round will be played before the start of the T20 Spring Challenge and Weber WBBL|12, and the season will then resume on December 14.
That means the ACT Meteors, who have the bye in the first round, will need to wait to begin their season.
Like last season, this summer's WNCL will feature 43 matches with all seven teams to play each other twice before the top two teams meet in the final on Saturday, March 20.
How can I watch it?
Every match of the 2026-27 season will be live streamed free for fans in Australia on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app, with replays of every wicket in the match centre soon after they happen and extended highlights of every match also available.
All games will also be streamed on Kayo Sports, and replays will be available for those who can’t watch live.
Are the Australian contracted players available?
This summer, the majority of Australia's top players are expected miss most, if not all, the WNCL season.
They are however set to feature across the opening round of matches - helping their states cover for the absence of Australia A squad members who will be in India.
Australia are touring Sri Lanka when the WNCL season resumes in December, and have a packed back-end of the summer featuring the T20 Champions Trophy in February, ODIs against New Zealand in early March, followed by a multi-format tour of South Africa.
The Women's Premier League in India will be played from January 14 to February 7, further impacting the availability of top players.
What about going to a game?
A chance to watch some of the most exciting players in the world in action? Go for it!
Every team will host six matches; all of the ACT Meteors' home games will be played at EPC Solar Park, Tasmania's at Bellerive Oval and Western Australia’s at the WACA Ground.
South Australia will host all six of their matches at Karen Rolton Oval, Victoria will be giving their new lights a workout at Junction Oval, Queensland will play all of their home games at Allan Border Field, while New South will be entirely based at Cricket Central in Sydney Olympic Park.
For entry conditions and ticket prices check with each state or territory.
What's at stake?
The winning state will be presented with the Ruth Preddey Cup. Queensland are the reigning champions after upsetting red-hot favourites New South Wales to claim 'Ruth' for the second time last season, winning a thrilling, rain-reduced final at Cricket Central.
It was a satisfying bit of revenge for the Fire, who had lost the previous final to the Breakers.
The coveted trophy was introduced for the 1972-73 season of the Australian Women's Cricket Championships – a two-week tournament that predated the WNCL – and is named after one of the game's pioneers; Preddey was a former NSW player, administrator, Australian team manager and sports editor of The Australian Women's Weekly.
How are the squads looking?
There were some big moves made during the off-season, with Tasmania luring Victoria vice-captain Ella Hayward down south, and Emma Manix-Geeves shifting to New South Wales.
You can check out the full squads and player movement here:
From the coaches:
Cricket.com.au chatted to six of the head coaches – we'll catch up with the ACT's Clive Rose before their season belatedly gets underway in December – to get the latest intel from the pre-season and their hopes for the summer ahead. The link on each coach takes you to the comprehensive state preview for that side. Make sure you check out each of the full previews for each team on the website or CA Live app over the coming days.
Peter Clarke (New South Wales): "Whether or not we win the thing or you come last, if you don't improve, you fall behind. For me, broadly, it's just every person trying to improve and be a better player than they were last year, and us understanding the way we want to play and for us all to play a little bit better than we did last year, and coming together as a team a little bit better than we did last year. Even though I think we did those things well last year, you've got to keep trying to do better every year that you go forward."
Mark Sorell (Queensland): "Gone are the days where you pull together your group of 16, and you spend 12 weeks together and have camps ... we looked at (pre-season) as a great advantage to get our players that are (around) – some of the younger ones and the developing players – to understand themselves better, to build out the connection there and give them some more opportunity. And then more globally we're talking about independence for our players, around them taking a lot of charge and ownership about how they want to play, how they want to prepare, becoming problem solvers and being able to fix things themselves."
Nicole Bolton (South Australia, filling in for head coach Mick Delaney who is touring India with Australia A): "Consistency is really important in how you build a list, so I think being able to have the same group of players over a two-year block is hugely important. Everyone's really clear on where they see their role, where they see their improvements and what they offer the team."
Jude Coleman (Tasmania): "We've spent a fair bit of time in the preseason working around how we respond when we're under pressure and just making sure we're really clear on what our process is. So no matter the result, what I'm wanting to see from the players is they really commit to that positive style of cricket no matter what the situation."
Andy Christie (Victoria): "In a way it was challenging to dig up the wounds from (last year) year, but in a really positive way, we were able to reflect really objectively on what happened and what were the areas we needed to improve on."
Becky Grundy (Western Australia): "For us, it's about being ruthless in those moments where we can get a bonus point or we can positively impact our net run rate – last year showed that we just left ourselves a little bit too much to do in that last game."
Who are the players to watch?
Tayla Vlaeminck (Victoria): Vlaeminck has made a long-awaited return to elite cricket after a prolonged injury layoff as she recovered from shoulder surgery. The injury-placed quick is desperate to string together a full summer of domestic cricket and after recapturing her pace, should soon be back tormenting the competition's best batters.
Annie Wikman (ACT): Wikman enjoyed a dominant season with the bat in 2025-26, stepping up to fill the hole left by Katie Mack's departure, scoring 540 runs at 60 across 11 innings, including one century and five fifties. The 25-year-old will be eager to build on those returns this season, and hope her form has been enough to secure a Big Bash contract, something that unfortunately remains a rarity among Meteors players.
Frankie Nicklin (NSW): The off-spinner cemented her spot in the NSW line-up last season but saved her most impressive display for the three-day representative Green v Gold match at the end of the summer. She took eight wickets to secure a dominant win for her team, subsequently booking herself a spot on the ongoing Australia A trip to India. She'll miss the opening round for that reason, but expect to see Nicklin continue to improve her game in 2026-27.
Ella Hayward (Tasmania): Allrounder Hayward flourished into one of Victoria's best all-round performers in recent seasons and now she has taken her talents to the Tigers. There, the 23-year-old will lead the spin attack alongside the experienced Maisy Gibson and Lauren Smith, and slot nicely into the top order alongside Lizelle Lee and Rachel Trenaman.
Darcie Brown (South Australia): Brown was a surprise axing from Australia's T20 World Cup squad and will be eager to fight her way back into the national side. A solid run of matches at domestic level could be just what Brown needs to find the consistency that led to her being dropped - and South Australia could reap the benefits, given how rarely the quick has been available to them in recent years.
Chloe Ainsworth (Western Australia): Known affectionately as "Dozer", rising quick Ainsworth was handed a Cricket Australia contract in April – a strong endorsement of her talent, given how rare it is for an uncapped player to receive a national contract. Ainsworth's potential has been clear since she stormed into the scene in WBBL|09, but injuries have hampered her opportunities at representative level and interrupted her past couple of preseasons. In great news for the 21-year-old, she has completed a full preseason and is ready and raring to go for the start of the WNCL season.
Sianna Ginger (Queensland): The pace-bowling allrounder has been a regular face in representative teams in recent years, but has not yet managed to put herself front and centre of the national selection conversation. However, Queensland's leading wicket-taker of last season is said to have made notable improvements under the expert eye of pace bowling coach Andy Bichel, and could find another level in 2026-27.
Last season's standouts
Defending champions: Queensland (defeated NSW by seven runs (DLS)
Player of the final: Grace Harris (Queensland)
Player of the season: Katie Mack (New South Wales)
Top run-scorers: 659 Katie Mack (NSW), 648 Rachel Trenaman (TAS), 593 Chloe Piparo (WA)
Top wicket-takers: 29 Lauren Cheatle (NSW), 20 Zoe Cooke (ACT), 20 Sianna Ginger (QLD), 20 Maitlan Brown (NSW), 20 Amanda-Jade Wellington (SA)
Most dismissals: 23 Bridget Patterson (SA), 16 Georgia Redmayne (QLD), 13 Maddy Darke (NSW), 13 Grace Lyons (ACT)
Last season's standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | Bat | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
NSW
|
12 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.034 | 0 | 5 | 49 |
|
2
QLD
|
12 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.459 | 0 | 4 | 36 |
|
3
WA
|
12 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.137 | 0 | 3 | 31 |
|
4
SA
|
12 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 1 | -0.22 | 0 | 1 | 31 |
|
5
ACT
|
12 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 1 | -0.217 | 0 | 1 | 23 |
|
6
TAS
|
12 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0.002 | 0 | 3 | 15 |
|
7
VIC
|
12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | -1.267 | 1 | 0 | -1 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
Bat: Batting Bonus
PTS: Total points
How else can I follow?
If you're not able to attend or watch live, or you just want to relive all the action, you can get all the live scores, news, interviews and highlights on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app.
You can also catch a replay of every wicket in the match centre on the CA Live app, which can be downloaded here.
How does the points system work?
Teams get four points for a win, two points for a no result or abandoned match and zero points for a loss. In the event of a tie, teams will play a Super Over, but if conditions do not allow for one to occur, points will be split.
However, an extra point is on offer for teams that win big. Any team (batting first) that achieves victory with a run rate 1.25 times that of the opposition, or if victory is achieved by the end of the 40th over or 80 per cent of the number of overs in a reduced overs match (batting second), a bonus point will be awarded. There is no double bonus point on offer.
The teams that finish first and second on the points table at the completion of all preliminary matches will qualify for the final on March 20. The team with the higher net run-rate will determine ladder positions if teams finish level on points.