WBBL rise revealed in new season’s record stats, Mel Jones points to rival leagues as improving standard, hails Australian pioneers, analysis, video

A slice of Women’s Big Bash League history was created in the first week of the 2026/27 season.

Brisbane Heat rising star Charli Knott’s spectacular century against the Adelaide Strikers wasn’t just vindication for the Heat’s years of patience with the talented opener as the 23-year-old found her feet at the level.

It was also the first WBBL hundred made by a player yet to make her international debut.

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12 previous centurions in the competition include bona fide legends of Australian sport, from Alyssa Healy’s record-equalling five through to Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, current stars Ash Gardner and Grace Harris and retired legends Elyse Villani and Meg Lanning.

For women’s cricket pioneer Mel Jones, Knott’s breakthrough is the perfect encapsulation of the WBBL’s steady, consistent progress since making history as the first tournament of its kind in late 2015.

“The first hundred by a player that’s not on the Australian team – there’s another indication of how the system is building robust players, getting them ready for the next level,” Jones told foxsports.com.au.

“I look at Charli Knott – she was contracted at 15, and she’s the third-youngest to hit a hundred.

“So it might sound as if she’s been around a long time and it’s taken some time, but she’s gone through a massive learning curve very, very quickly.

“Growth spurts and those sorts of things (meant she) probably didn’t get as many opportunities until the last couple of years, when she’s really come through Aus A.”

Knott might be the first – but if the rate of growth of the WBBL continues at its current rate, she’ll have company in no time.

NUMBERS BEHIND WBBL’S RAPID RISE

Across the league, the growing professionalisation of the women’s game since the WBBL’s inception 11 years ago has provided a rising tide that has lifted all boats.

The numbers reflect this stark growth, too.

As per Sunday’s double-header in Sydney, the season’s run rate is up to 8.2 per over – a jump of more than half a run extra each over from just two years ago, and nearly two full runs greater than the inaugural 2015/16 season.

The average first innings score has likewise risen dramatically: at just over 161.6 after 16 games, that number has increased consistently, barring the COVID-impacted 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, from a starting point of 126.

That the wickets per innings rate sit at a touch above 6, on par with last season and close to the 2015/16 figure of 6.3, shows bowlers are retaining their ability to influence the game, too.

It’s not surprising that much of this jump coincides nicely with the launch of other major WT20 competitions around the world.

Where prior to the pandemic the WBBL was unique as a professional franchise women’s cricket competition, it was joined by The Hundred in 2022, and then just months later, the inaugural Women’s Premier League in India.

It means stars from Mooney to Perry to Phoebe Litchfield and countless others are fast becoming franchise cricket globetrotters around their national duties in a way that mirrors the experience of male players since the IPL’s inception in 2008.

But it’s not only the superstars getting this experience.

“When they’re full-time professionals in the best (league) in the world, then all of a sudden you’ve got opportunities to be full-time professionals on a global circuit,” Jones said.

“When you’re looking at players travelling the world at the moment, naturally our Aussie women’s team players are first and foremost in selections.

“But then I think we’ve probably got the most of that second tier of player going around playing in the Hundred, the WPL, Caribbean Premier League, Canada Super 60 – your Laura Harrises, your Erin Burnses, your Amanda-Jade Wellingtons.

“That in itself I think is a great story piece on how strong our system is and the depth of cricket as well, that you can still be picking up amazing players who aren’t in the national team in Australia, that can be equally as impactful as a national team from another country around the world.”

Helping matters further is vastly improved facilities for women’s games no longer an afterthought.

“Drummoyne Cricket Ground – the surface there has improved out of sight in the last 12 months,” Jones said.

“It’s not just the teams (improving) – it’s everything else around it.”

A TACTICAL REVOLUTION

With runs at a paramount, teams are also getting funky with their tactics.

Last Thursday’s Perth Scorchers-Sydney Thunder clash saw women’s cricket legend Sophie Devine voluntarily retire herself out with three overs to go, having scored a, by her standards, lethargic 42 off 39.

Her replacement, English blaster Freya Kemp, clubbed 30 off just 10 balls with three sixes, an innings that proved priceless in the Scorchers’ narrow 17-run victory.

And Jones is expecting to see more sophistication – even if it comes at the expense of the game’s greats – in the WBBL as teams and players become more practised to a year-round franchise W20 scene.

And as players like Devine, who retired from international cricket for New Zealand following this year’s T20 World Cup, transition into passing on their wisdom through coaching.

“It just shifts the mindset of the game to involve players when they get retired, or potentially retire themselves, to recognise the forefront of their mind rather than how they’re tracking themselves,” Jones said of the shift.

THE RISING TIDE

Growing depth has also allowed teams to focus on balancing their teams – particularly when it comes to late-order hitters like Kemp.

“Recently, I think the power element has been highlighted more, whereby overseas players are afraid,” Jones said.

“That number six position isn’t just a person who can come in and doodle the ball around and find a couple of little boundaries here and there.

“You look at the Scorchers and they’ve got a New Zealander (Devine), an Englishwoman (Kemp) and the Pakistan captain (Fatima Sana). I think there’s a better understanding of who fits into their home-grown talent to best bring up that talent, but also shine in their own perspective roles as well.

“Just the understanding of the game and what works best for your team has improved too.

“When you get that, you get closer matches, because you’re not just relying on an overseas or your Australian player as many times. You’ve got some space for the home-grown talent to come up and shine.”

Gone are the days when Ashleigh Barty, amid a sabbatical from tennis before restarting her extraordinary career, could rise in a matter of months from Brisbane premier women’s cricket competitions to playing for the Heat in their inaugural BBL season.

The queue is just too packed nowadays.

HOW AUSSIE ‘CUSTODIANS’ HAVE MADE THE WBBL GREAT

Perhaps the WBBL’s greatest asset – and in contrast with the men’s BBL – is the availability of the best players in Australia and around the world to feature.

With a summer window all to itself, Perry, one of 21 players to feature in all 12 editions of the tournament, has played 149 games and counting for the Sixers – and is going as well as ever.

By comparison, Steve Smith, the pre-eminent men’s player of his generation, has played just 40 despite having a four-year head start on Perry, including a six-year gap between games from 2013/14 to 2019/20.

The presence of the best in the business has not only elevated the status of the tournament around the world, but also set a high standard for players coming through.

“You can’t put a price tag on it,” Jones says of the Australian stars’ dedication to the WBBL over more than a decade.

“Because they were there at the start and they knew just how important this competition was, not only for Australian cricket but for world cricket, there is an investment in it personally from them.

“They want to be leading Australian sport and Australian cricket, but they also knew they were almost custodians of that transition phase. And I think they’ve been outstanding on that front.

“I think people think, oh well it’s a come down from going away and winning a T20 World Cup, but they just flick a switch straight into just the importance of it (the WBBL).

“The younger players, they see that, they feed off that.

“It’s a real genuine approach to wanting to be there and wanting to perform (at) their best, but also bringing everyone else along for the ride as well.

“I have no doubt that Australia winning World Cups, and then fast-forwarding it to winning future World Cups, is because of these types of players and the way in which they’ve invested their time and energy and skills into the WBBL.”

And it hasn’t just been a standard-bearer for Australian cricket, either.

“If you asked any overseas player, all things being equal, they would want to come and play in the WBBL, because of the quality of the competition and how it challenges you,” Jones said.

Off-field, the access to the best is just as noteworthy.

“We’ve got some of the best T20 coaches in the world coming in and bringing their knowledge of the women’s game, which I think is really important,” Jones told foxsports.com.au.

“List managers are across what’s best for their team and who best to come in – that (Fatima) Sana selection, I thought was brilliant from the Scorchers.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Despite its status, the league cannot rest on its laurels.

Big Bash Leagues general manager Alistair Dobson was adamant in pre-season that the WBBL remains the premier competition in women’s cricket, despite the enormous financial pull of the WPL and growing influence of the Hundred in England.

“It’s most definitely got to keep pressure-testing certain elements of the entire competition,” Jones said, citing a schedule that remains weekday heavy during the school term as an area of improvement.

“It’s tough with the WPL in the middle of January, but we want to see our international stars and Aussie players be as accessible as possible.

“I think there’s a number of things we can look at to keep it ahead of the other leagues.”

But Knott’s breakthrough century was the most shining example yet that Cricket Australia’s decade-long investment in the WBBL is paying off handsomely.