Cricket’s revolution will include women’s T20 but not just yet

2026-03-24 - 17:15

After months of uncertainty, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has this week set out its hopes on the future of domestic T20 cricket in this country. It’s not a final decision, but their statement on Monday confirmed that the preferred option is an NZ20 franchise competition involving private investment and they will now ‘focus resources on advancing discussions toward a potential licence, and a binding commercial arrangement with the NZ20 league.’ The proposed competition now needs to move from support in principle from NZC, to the licence which will set out the full rules about how the competition will be run. Although NZ20 covers the men’s and women’s game, there is less certainty as to how things will progress for the women’s competition. NZC Board Chair Diana Puketapu-Lyndon acknowledged this by saying: “In particular, we want to work with NZ20 to ensure it incorporates and supports the women’s domestic T20 competition, and that it maintains a level of prominence and visibility consistent with NZC’s strategic commitment to the women’s game.” The women’s Super Smash competition provided pay parity for its players, following 2022’s ongoing agreement that sees domestic women’s players receive the same match fees as men across all formats and competitions. Super Smash also saw equal exposure, via the successful double header concept, with men’s and women’s matches played at the same ground, on the same day. Under the most recent broadcasting agreement, all men’s and women’s matches were live on TVNZ channels and/or their digital offering, TVNZ+, with finals also broadcast on the Sport Nation radio station Broadly speaking, we know that NZ20 will be a six-team competition (as the Super Smash was) modelled on franchise cricket tournaments around the world, which bring private investment to a competition. It would take place in in a playing window that doesn’t clash with international fixture commitments, so that all the best players are available to play. New Zealand would be the last major cricket playing nation to adopt such a men’s competition, although a number of those nations do not run a franchise women’s competition. The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in Australia, the Women’s Premier League (WPL) in India and The Hundred in England are the main examples of the growth of the women’s game, and there is also a league in the Caribbean, as well as a Bangladesh competition that launches next month. Although the WBBL is owned by Cricket Australia and their eight state and territory associations, and The Hundred will see its first edition of overseas investment later this year (the eight teams were previously owned by the England and Wales Cricket Board) the WPL is a five-team franchise competition which has grown massively since its first edition in 2023. But whereas these overseas competitions see huge crowds in attendance, New Zealand, with its small population and even smaller cricket fanbase, has struggled to get fans through the door, and with Super Smash being relatively expensive to run, the financial numbers haven’t added up. Outgoing New Zealand Cricket Players Association CEO Heath Mills, a supporter of the NZ20 proposal, acknowledged on Sport Nation’s breakfast show that things need to change. “The Super Smash has been a great development competition [for domestic players], but it doesn’t really engage the fans or have the promotional money spent on it that we see in private franchise competitions, so we hope it’s going to reignite [things] for us.” Over the years, Kiwi women have had limited involvement in international T20 competitions; Sophie Devine and Melie Kerr are exceptions, playing regularly in all the aforementioned leagues, and current players such as Suzie Bates, Jess Kerr, Maddy Green, Rosemary Mair and Brooke Halliday have had varying levels of playing time. Devine’s experience brings perspective on what NZ20 needs to deliver to the women’s game. “I’ve been really fortunate to have played around the world, different franchises and a lot in Australia,” says Devine. “The thing that stands out is how much they’re supported by their home boards, and the opportunities they’ve got to play competitive cricket. The women’s Super Smash, unlike the men’s equivalent, has regularly brought in overseas players over the years, who have lifted the standard of the competition. Quality, often world class additions such as Australia’s Ellyse Perry, Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu and England’s Sarah Glenn are just some of the names that have travelled to New Zealand, a number that will rise significantly under the NZ20 competition. The keys to their involvement in Super Smash was availability and a desire to expand their playing experience and NZ20’s place in the calendar, with increased financial incentives, will cement that further. But NZ20 still needs to primarily be about giving New Zealand players a stage to perform and improve. Mills, who was a key player in the agreement that brought pay equality to the men’s and women’s game, is adamant that now is not the time for the women’s game to fall back. “Whilst on the face of it, people might think the women’s competition isn’t as good as the men’s, with NZ20, it’s our duty, and we would never allow it any other way, that we grow the overall women’s programme in New Zealand, which we think is important.” In fact Mills not only sees NZ20 as an opportunity for the T20 game, but also a chance to develop the next layer of T20 domestic development and give the long-standing 50-over Hallyburton Johnstone Shield (HBJ) competition a new level of importance. “Our strong belief is that we need to get women playing more cricket and we need to get them giving more time to the sport. From our point of view, we want to see the HBJ potentially be played throughout January, not on weekends as it currently is, giving it more time and making it more of a high-performance competition, but also add a second T20 competition for our female domestic players, perhaps in February or March,” Mills says. “So, if you look across the board, we continue to enhance and grow our women’s environment. We need to work through that with NZC and the six major associations and hopefully they’re on the same page.” The chair of the NZ20 establishment committee Don Mackinnon, spoke to Newstalk ZB’s Sportstalk show and as well as acknowledging the tight timescale to get NZ20 up and running for January 2027, he also acknowledged that the men’s and women’s competitions may run in separate windows, rather than side by side as they have been, in the short-term at least. “[January 2027 is] 100% the intent of NZ20 and NZC, but we have January 2028 and potentially even December 2027 as a back-up, depending on when we start our women’s competition.” “The reality is we’ve made it clear to every league and team investor that we’ve spoken to that we are absolutely committed to a women’s franchise competition. Initially, that may be a slightly shorter version than the men’s competition, in December, and that lines up with the WBBL in Australia, but we want to move that to a full competition as quickly as we can and one option to look at is whether we can do that from day one.” “As quickly as we can, we want the women’s competition to be on the same footing as the men’s.” It should be noted that the WBBL and WPL competitions do not run alongside their male equivalents, although The Hundred have the same double header format that the Super Smash has had. It’s a step into the unknown as to whether or not potential separation of the men’s and women’s games in NZ20 would work out best for our women’s game, but it seems both options are still on the table. For now, the race is on and all parties will be busy working through the details of NZ20 to get it to the next stage. When the players actually take to the field is still very much up in the air.