There remain more questions than answers about how the next Australia cricket season will look due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but Australia batter Beth Mooney believes the Women’s Big Bash could be a success as a domestic players only event if international travel remained restricted.
The WBBL would be one of the early marquee competitions if the Australian summer followed the same structure to last year. In the 2019-2020 summer, the WBBL was staged from mid-October to early December as a standalone event for the first time rather than being run concurrently with the BBL. Despite being staged outside of the peak holiday season, it was considered a significant success and attracts international talent from around the world.
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However, while Australia is making positive progress in tackling the coronavirus – and there are overtures about some exemptions to travel restrictions – there remains a great deal of uncertainty whether border restrictions will have lifted enough to allow an influx of overseas players by October, which is also leaving significant doubt over the men’s T20 World Cup.
“I’m sure those conversations will continue to happen and worst-case scenario, we might have to keep it as a domestic tournament for this year, but I think that would provide good opportunity for young players and really show the depth we have in Australian cricket,” Mooney said
“The real positive thing that’s happening at the moment is the fact that the AFL and NRL are trying to get up and running. Sport is a huge part of the Australian public’s lives and we want to give something for people to feel joy about and watch in isolation. So there’s a real positive that they’re moving slowly towards bringing back elite sport and i think that will hold us in good stead for a WBBL to happen.”
Among the other multiple moving parts for the women’s game is the potential impact on the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand next February if other events before then – notably the T20 World Cup – have to be moved. There is also the looming problem of the qualifying event which is due to be held in Sri Lanka in July, which looks unlikely at the moment.
Mooney acknowledged that there are issues beyond sport being dealt with at this unprecedented time but hoped that with nine months still to go before the World Cup that the situation would be resolved.
“You want to be playing as much cricket as you can and a one-day World Cup is one of those things that’s always in your calendar and eye line as a cricketer,” she said. “There’s bigger things in play so if it was to get moved I don’t think anyone would be too disappointed if it was because we were trying to take care of people.
“There’s a bigger picture in the cricket landscape as well trying to fit everything in from the male and female programs. At this point we are a long way off, have a lot of time up our sleeve, New Zealand’s summer aligns with ours so hopefully time is on our side and helps us get a World Cup in February.”
Mooney was also confident that if the build-up to the World Cup was disrupted Australia would still be able to get themselves in shape for the tournament.
“The real positive about the Australian women’s team is that we’ve been professional for a few years now,” she said. We’ve kept the same core group of players across that time. We’ve also played a lot of cricket in the last 18-24 months, so I actually don’t think it will take us a really long time to get back in the groove of it.”