WBBL 2021: Tasmania to stage first 20 games due to COVID-19 restrictions

Tasmania has been zeroed down as the host for at least 20 Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) matches during this year’s tournament. The plan was slightly tweaked amid the ongoing COVID-19 threat in Australia. Initially, only 12 games were planned during the original schedule but eight of those games have now been added due to the COVID-19 factor, travel restrictions, and quarantine norms.

The seventh edition of the tournament will kick-off with last year’s final re-match between Sydney Sixers and Melbourne Stars on October 14 at Blundstone Arena in Tasmania. Initially, the match was planned to be held in Sydney but now it has been altered. Apart from Blundstone arena, the University of Tasmania Stadium in Invermay Park in Launceston has been finalized as one of the other venues for the 20 WBBL matches to be staged.

This schedule is fixed for the first few weeks of WBBL and is subject to change owing to the pandemic situation of the country during that time of the tournament. “The League will continue to monitor public health conditions, state border restrictions and their related impacts in relation to the remainder of the Weber WBBL|07 schedules,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.

“The League and all clubs thank Premier Gutwein and the Tasmanian Government for their support of the WBBL and Australian cricket,” said Alistair Dobson, Cricket Australia’s general manager of Big Bash Leagues. “We’d also like to thank Cricket Tasmania for the power of work they’ve put into securing our safe passage to Tasmania and deliver the opening weeks of the tournament. We can’t wait to arrive in Hobart and start our season.”

Indian players likely  to play during this year of WBBL

Last year due to the Women’s T20 Challenge, Indian players had to miss the sixth edition of the WBBL. But things could change drastically this year. With India’s all-format tour of Australia ending just before the start of WBBL, few players like Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, and Deepti Sharma are in the minds of several franchises. Mandhana and Kaur have previous WBBL experience. While the remaining names are yet to get the taste of the WBBL experience.