Australian Women’s Cricketers Push for More Home Matches in Peak Summer Window

Player Push for Change: Senior Australian players, led by star batter Beth Mooney and supported by captain Sophie Molineux and Ellyse Perry, have publicly called on Cricket Australia (CA) to overhaul the schedule and return national women's fixtures to the peak December–January summer window.

Scheduling Frustrations: Players voiced disappointment over being scheduled outside prime family timeslots. The current home schedule features early-season series against Bangladesh and New Zealand—including T20Is on weeknights/school nights—followed by a four-month gap until a home ODI series in March.

Concerns Over Sport Growth: Mooney warned that failing to place the women’s team "front and centre" during school holidays risks hurting crowd numbers, broadcast visibility, and junior girls' participation.

Coexistence With Men's Fixtures: Players rejected the idea that they would be competing with the men's team, suggesting creative scheduling options such as playing women's T20Is as night games or double-headers alongside men's Test matches.

Global Calendar Pressure: The issue is compounded by four consecutive years without home women’s internationals or WBBL matches during school holidays, largely due to international windows like India's Women's Premier League (WPL) occupying January.

CA's Response: CA CEO Todd Greenberg met with frustrated senior players and confirmed Cricket Australia will actively look into bringing the women's team back into the peak summer window and re-evaluating the WBBL calendar.

"We're not getting crowds, it's not marketed well. There is no big-ticket item where people go 'the Australian women's team play here [at this time] every year'," Mooney said. "We want to be relatable athletes. And if we're not front and centre of the summer it makes it pretty difficult when it's meant to be a summer sport. We don't need to compete with the men. They play the day-night Test at some point. We can have T20s before that. Or we can play night T20s when there is a men's Test on."