Monday, January 16th 2023 was a significant day in world cricket. Two things happened on this otherwise insignificant calendar day that would be remembered for a long time.

First of those things was that the Australian women’s cricket team was playing an ODI against Pakistan in Brisbane. The reason this game was significant was because Meg Lanning, Australia’s greatest ever captain and one of Australia’s greatest ever batters, was coming back to cricket after taking some time away from the game. Australia had played international cricket in her absence. A whole WBBL season had gone by without the world seeing Meg Lanning dominate on the cricket field, both with the bat and with her captaincy. So, if you are a fan of cricket, this game was something you would not miss. If you could not be there at the ground to watch Meg in person, you would tune into the television coverage to watch. Except, it was at 10am on a Monday.

The second thing that happened on this January Monday was that the BCCI, the cricket board in India, has announced the winners of the media rights auction for the very first edition of the women’s IPL. The rights were sold to the Viacom18 group for US$116.5 Million for 5 seasons. This works out to US$23.3Million per season.

While it is an entirely different story of how the BCCI had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to start a women’s domestic T20 competition, they got there. Once they did get there, according to reports, up to 8 potential bidders were interested in securing the rights. One of the interested bidders were said to be Disney corporation, the biggest media megacorporation in the world. According to reports, up to 8 of the 10 existing IPL franchises have shown interest in owning a WIPL franchise. Also interested in a WIPL team are the Glazer family, the owners of Manchester United, the most famous football club in the world.

That these two things happened on the same day is interesting, because on the one hand, the WIPL rights deal and the interested franchise owners shows clearly the marketability of and interest in women’s cricket. On the other hand, the fact that Meg Lanning’s return to cricket happened at 10am on a Monday shows the state of the women’s cricket calendar in Australia. To add to this, the second game of the series was at 10am on a Wednesday.

To be fair to Cricket Australia, they might not have been aware of Meg Lanning’s return to cricket when the series schedule was announced. While that may be the case, this Australian cricket team also has other all-time great cricketers playing in it like Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt, Ellyse Perry, and Beth Mooney. This cricket team is arguably the best Australian sports team of all time. This team gets voted as the most trusted sports team in Australia, regularly. When this team was to take to the field for the first time in 2023, they were slated to do it during work hours on a Monday.

On Monday and on Wednesday, Australia won the games. Phoebe Litchfield scored a fifty on debut and in her second game. Jess Jonassen put in a display of tidy bowling in the first game. In the second game, Kim Garth was handed a debut and she displayed great fast bowling. For her part, Meg Lanning marked her return to cricket with a well-made fifty. But was it easy for fans to watch it?

If we shift our attention to the WBBL, Cricket Australia’s flagship women’s T20 competition, which has just finished its 8th season, it was plagued with the same kind of baffling scheduling. This competition is, without argument, the best T20 competition in the world. Once again, this is so because of the players. They keep putting out an incredible product. They keep improving year on year, doing bigger and better things on the field. This season, Amanda-Jade Wellington took 5/8, again. Megan Schutt took 6/19 and became the first ever player to take 6 wickets in a WBBL game. On the batting front, Tess Flintoff recorded the fastest WBBL fifty of all time. Laura Harris recorded the second fastest WBBL fifty of all time. As for the fielding, it got better again. Charli Knott reeled in a screamer, probably the best catch of the year.

A read through of the scheduling for WBBL 08 shows that teams have played away games at neutral venues mid-week, in the afternoon. Who would be at the ground to watch? Can TV viewers catch the game in the middle of work, seeing as they cannot be at the ground? Difficult situation for fans to be in, if you want to watch your team play cricket. A glaring issue if your goal is to build a strong franchise fan base.

Home teams have played games at 5pm in the middle of the week. Again, uncomfortable for fans to get to the ground after work. The final day of the regular season had all eight teams playing in four games. This was farcical, and if you wanted to watch multiple teams, you could not. If you had a second team you support, good luck with that. WBBL 08 also featured a triple header day.

Games were played seemingly at random venues and at random times. An AI program could have picked a more suited schedule to ensure the product was fan friendly, both at the grounds or on TV.

Cricket Australia may cite a home men’s T20 world cup as a reason for their being stretched too thin. However, why is it the women’s game that has to make sacrifices? Marizanne Kapp, Sophie Devine, Amelia Kerr and Danni Wyatt have all played to nearly empty grounds. The fans could not watch them play unless they went to great lengths. An opportunity was missed to build a strong viewership base and an attendance base.

If the best competition in the world happened mid week during work and no one saw it, did it even happen?

Cricket Australia’s scheduling issues do not stop here, because the WNCL is having the same issue. There are free weeks, then multiple games in the same week as the Australian international cricket team is playing three ODI games. The week of January 16th, for example, has three ODI games and six WNCL games. Out of these six WNCL games, three are scheduled on the same day. On the day of the third ODI, there are two WNCL games. There are free weeks before and after this week.

That Cricket Australia has the best cricket team in the world, the best T20 competition in the world, and the best OD competition in the world and this is how they schedule games of cricket for them is a cause for concern, precisely because of the other significant event of Monday, January 16th. Makes one wonder whether there is a coherent plan to increase the viewership and attendances of the games. The Australian women’s cricket team play at small venues, not at the premier grounds in Australia. Which further illustrates the disparity in treatment. Same for WBBL games. Meanwhile, in England, the England cricket team as well as the Hundred teams have played at the premier grounds.

India has now entered the women’s T20 competition business. They clearly have the money, and given the sheer size of the population, they will have the fans coming through the gates. Cricket Australia has had an 8-year head start, and there have been rumours of a WIPL starting for the last 3 to 4 years. What they have seemingly done is to ignore the impending competitor.

While Cricket Australia does great things for the women’s game and was one of the first boards to professionalize the sport, and they have done a brilliant job with filling the MCG for the T20 world cup final in 2020, they now have to sit down and work on how they will compete with the WIPL and ensure the future of Australian women’s cricket at the apex of the game. There are now audiences to be gained and revenue to be made. This does not happen by sleepwalking through the cricket season.

They simply cannot afford to ignore this problem, because women’s cricket is simply the area of their business which has the greatest potential ROI. They are armed with the best team, the best product, and the most experience.

For the best players in the world to come back to Australia and play, Cricket Australia must do more to make it an interesting prospect. They can no longer rely on being the only competition. If the alternative gives you bigger audiences, as a performer, you will choose that. Cricket Australia now has to revamp the competition to ensure that it stays at the top of the class. They also have their work cut out for them to build viewership and attendance, in order to sustain the competition from other leagues. The Hundred, the WIPL and the WPSL will all be vying for eyeballs and players’ services. Once the calendar gets busy, players will need to choose the competitions they play in.

Cricket Australia needs to do the work, because Australian women’s cricket players deserve better. Not because they are women, but because they are the world’s best at what they do. Because they provide a great product, and they improve the product every year.