2019–20 Women's Big Bash League season


The 2019–20 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL|05 is the fifth season of Women's Big Bash League, the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament moved to a standalone calendar slot, shifting away from the men's BBL, beginning on 18 October and running to 8 December 2019.
The Sydney Sixers entered the season as "hot favourites", but they lost five consecutive games in the back-half of the tournament and missed out on qualifying for finals for the first time after captain Ellyse Perry sustained a shoulder injury. Defending champions Brisbane Heat finished the regular season on top of the ladder, earning the right to host all three playoff matches at Allan Border Field.
The Heat retained their title on 8 December 2019 when they defeated first-time finalist Adelaide Strikers, which featured Player of the Tournament Sophie Devine, by six wickets in the championship decider. Beth Mooney was named Player of the Final for the second consecutive season.

Teams

Each 2019–20 squad featured 15 active players, with an allowance of up to five marquee signings including a maximum of three from overseas. Australian marquees are players who held a national women's team contract at the time of signing on for their WBBL|05 team.

Australian marquee and domestic players

The pre-season was noted as particularly busy for player transfers which produced some of the biggest recruiting achievements in the tournament's five-year history.
After finishing the last two tournaments on the bottom of the ladder, the Hobart Hurricanes managed to bolster their stocks by luring across Nicola Carey, Belinda Vakarewa and Maisy Gibson from the Sydney Thunder, as well as Tayla Vlaeminck from the Melbourne Renegades. Conversely the reigning champions, Brisbane Heat, suffered the losses of Josie Dooley to the Renegades and Jemma Barsby to the Perth Scorchers.
Other local player movements included Elyse Villani departing the Scorchers to captain the Melbourne Stars, while Katie Mack left the Stars to join the Adelaide Strikers. The Hurricanes completed their roster with the readdition of Emily Smith, filling the wicket-keeping role left vacant by Georgia Redmayne's shift to the Scorchers. On 18 November 2019, Smith was banned for the remainder of WBBL|05 after contravening Cricket Australia's anti-corruption policy with a social media post. Under a special exemption, Tasmanian Tigers member Emma Manix-Geeves was brought into the Hurricanes squad as a replacement.

Overseas marquee players

There were several changes to overseas marquee allocations. Englishwoman Tammy Beaumont, previously a Striker, joined the Renegades after a year away from the league. She replaced New Zealand's Amy Satterthwaite, who would miss the season through maternity.
South African Chloe Tryon joined the Hurricanes for 2019–20 along with England's Fran Wilson—a member of the Thunder's 2017–18 Women's Big Bash League season|WBBL|03 campaign. Nat Sciver returned for the Scorchers after not partaking in the previous season, replacing England teammate Kate Cross. Announced to join Sciver at Perth was Ireland's Kim Garth, appearing in the league for the first time since winning a second championship with the Sydney Sixers. However, some members of past title-winning squads would be absent: the Heat did not renew their contracts with Proteas pair Laura Wolvaardt and Suné Luus, instead they brought White Ferns duo Maddy Green and Amelia Kerr on board; and Kiwi Sara McGlashan's time at the Sixers came to an end when she announced her retirement from professional cricket in January 2019.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana did not re-sign for the Thunder and Hurricanes respectively on account of a conflicting national team schedule, marking the first WBBL season to not feature any Indian-born players. This fixturing clash followed a dispute between the BCCI and CA earlier in the year when Australia's top talent were excluded from the 2019 Women's T20 Challenge—an exhibition tournament serving as a potential precursor to a future female equivalent of the Indian Premier League. ESPNcricinfo reported this breakdown was part of a wider disagreement between the two boards that revolved around the BCCI's insistence on CA honouring a touring commitment to play a men's bi-lateral ODI series in India in January 2020.
Jamaican Stafanie Taylor ended her four-year run with the Thunder and was subsequently contracted by the Strikers. Due to international cricket commitments with the West Indies, Taylor was unavailable for the majority of WBBL|05 and would share a marquee position with England's Lauren Winfield. The Thunder filled their vacant overseas marquee spots by acquiring the services of Nida Dar—making her the first Pakistani woman to sign a deal with an international cricket league—and South Africa's Shabnim Ismail—returning to the competition after a short inaugural season stint with the Melbourne Renegades.
New Zealander Sophie Devine and South African Marizanne Kapp became the only foreigners to play in each of the first five WBBL seasons with one team.
On 19 November, the Sydney Sixers announced the signing of Englishwoman Hollie Armitage, replacing captain Ellyse Perry who would miss five games due to a shoulder injury.
After scoring a T20I century for Sri Lanka against Australia on 29 September 2019, former Renegade Chamari Atapattu stated in a post-match press conference she had not been offered a contract for the upcoming Women's Big Bash season despite her eagerness to participate, underlining the league's fierce competition for overseas marquee selection. However, it was announced on 30 November that Atapattu had signed with the Renegades for their last regular season game and finals. She replaced Tammy Beaumont who—along with Danni Wyatt, Nat Sciver, Amy Jones and Lauren Winfield—would miss out on the WBBL|05 finals due to national team commitments.

Coaching staff

Victorious WBBL|04 coach Peter McGiffin stepped down from his role at Brisbane and was replaced by Australian women's team assistant Ashley Noffke in June 2019. The Thunder and Strikers also made key changes ahead of the fifth season, appointing Super League title-winner Trevor Griffin and former first-class batsman Luke Williams to their respective head coach positions.
Despite being ruled out of playing duties, the Renegades announced Amy Satterthwaite would continue to contribute off-field in a specialist coaching capacity throughout the WBBL|05 season.

Points table

Win–loss table

Below is a summary of results for each team's fourteen regular season matches, plus finals where applicable, in chronological order. A team's opponent for any given match is listed above the margin of victory/defeat.
Team1234567891011121314SFF
2nd '
1st '
XX7th
X4th
XX8th
X3rd
XX5th
XX6th

Last updated: 8 December 2019

Fixtures

All times are local time

Week 1

----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----

Week 2

----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----

Week 3

----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----

Week 4

----
----
----
----
----
----
----

Week 5

----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----

Week 6

----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----

Week 7

----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----

Knockout phase

----

Semi-finals

----
----
----

Final

----
----

Statistics

Highest totals

Most runs

Most wickets

Awards

Player of the tournament

Player of the Tournament votes are awarded on a 3-2-1 basis by the two standing umpires at the conclusion of every match, meaning a player can receive a maximum of six votes per game.
Pos.PlayerTeamVotes
1st Sophie DevineAdelaide Strikers48
2nd Beth MooneyBrisbane Heat35
3rd Danielle WyattMelbourne Renegades33
=4th Jess DuffinMelbourne Renegades31
=4th Meg LanningPerth Scorchers31
=4th Ellyse PerrySydney Sixers31
5th Jess JonassenBrisbane Heat27

Source:

Team of the tournament

appointed a panel of experts to select a Team of the Tournament that recognises the standout performers of WBBL|05. The team is intended to mimic regular conditions such as a maximum of three overseas players, a realistic mix of batters and bowlers, as well as a captain and a wicket-keeper.
The members of the selection panel were cricket.com.au journalist Laura Jolly, Head of Big Bash Leagues Alistair Dobson, Australian women's cricket team head coach Matthew Mott, former Australian captain Belinda Clark, former players Lisa Sthalekar and Mel Jones and ABC commentator Alister Nicholson.
Source:

Young gun award

Players under 21 years of age at the start of the season are eligible for the Young Gun Award. Weekly winners are selected over the course of the season by a panel of Cricket Australia officials based on match performance, on-field and off-field attitude, and their demonstration of skill, tenacity and good sportsmanship. Each weekly winner receives a $500 Rebel gift card and the overall winner receives a $5000 cash prize, as well as access to a learning and mentor program.
The nominees for the WBBL|05 Young Gun were:
Sydney Thunder medium-pacer Hannah Darlington took out the overall award on the back of a standout debut season in which she claimed 16 wickets at an average of 21.31 and economy rate of 6.82.

Most valuable players

Each team designated an award to adjudge and recognise their most outstanding contributor for the season.
A total of 23 matches are to be televised on free-to-air by the Seven Network, and simulcast on Fox Cricket in the fifth season of the Women's Big Bash. The remaining 36 matches will be live streamed on the website. All 59 matches are available to watch live or on demand via the streaming service Kayo Sports.
Below are the television ratings for every game that was broadcast on television during the season.