WBBL given top billing as Covid-free schedule is unveiled

Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers will kick off the eighth edition on October 13. Thursday night matches and teams returning home are among the features of a restrictions-free calendar

The Women's Big Bash League will return with a bang, with teams back at home, matches moved to a Thursday evening slot and no clash with Australia men's T20 World Cup campaign.

After two Covid-19-affected campaigns, the eighth edition is back to a nationwide competition, meaning home matches for Brisbane Heat, Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades for the first time in three years.

Heat host Sydney Sixers in the tournament opener on October 13, with the final scheduled for November 27.

Seventeen matches have been given prime time evening slots while another 15 will be played at twilight. The 'festival' element - where teams are based at the same venue - of previous competitions remains but are focused on weekends.

There will also be no conflict with Australia men's home T20 World Cup matches which get underway in mid-November but the competition does go up against AFL women's and will share a finals weekend in late November.

Seven, the free-to-air broadcaster, will show 24 matches while Foxtel and Kayo will carry all 59.

^{Junction Oval is among the venues back on the schedule (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)}

"The WBBL evolving into more of a prime time competition is exactly what it merits and it's a great evolution for the competition," Cricket Australia's head of the Big Bash, Alistair Dobson told cricket.com.au.

"I think those festival weekends have proven really popular, and I think the players really enjoy them and fans love being able to see lots of cricket on one weekend.

"But equally, in previous years we've had smaller festivals midweek, which is what we've been able to largely avoid this year and been able to move those midweek games into more standalone matches.

"More than ever, we've got one-off matches on an individual night, which just lends itself to sort of bigger crowds and bigger audiences.

"Ultimately, I think it's one of the strongest schedules we've had, if not the strongest since we moved to a standalone season."

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