Melbourne, Australia

The Women Big Bash League (WBBL) season is all set to kick off on Thursday, October 19 with the 59-game season highlighted by the addition of Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) to the schedule. The latest season will also see a blockbuster final week where MCG, SCG along with Adelaide Oval will host standalone matches while the majority of the season will be played in a home-away format.

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MCG, SCG to host WBBL

The latest season will have the addition of MCG and SCG with the venues not in use for the WBBL since the 2019-20 season. The high-profile venues will be in use along with the Adelaide Oval from Friday, November 24. The latest season will also see the season remain with the same format of 56-league games while the Big Bash League (BBL) was trimmed to 44 matches. The start of the season will see each team play at least one match on home turf in the first nine days of the tournament.

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"As the best cricket league in the world and with the best players in the world, looking to start to play games in the biggest and best stadiums is a really important part of (the league’s evolution)," said Alistair Dobson, CA's general manager of Big Bash Leagues.

"Doing it on a smaller scale this year with three or four matches at different venues is a good way of starting to build momentum as part of a longer-term journey.

The MCG will be the biggest attraction of all having hosted the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup final. The contest attracted a record-crowd of audience of 86,174 but there are not many expectations from the organisers this time.

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What are the key dates?

While the season starts on October 19 with Sydney Sixers host Melbourne Stars under the lights it will be the final week of the league season that could attract a big crowd. The standalone phase of the season will start on Friday, November 24 when the Heat play the Thunder before Adelaide Strikers host Perth Scorchers.

The season will conclude on Saturday, December 2 which will leave the door open for the BBL to start in the second week of the month.

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