A big summer of women's cricket kicks off this weekend with three WT20 matches launching the women's domestic season this Friday and the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) starting a day later.
Each team will play six WNCL round matches plus a bye round and 12 WT20 round matches across the summer. The competitions will follow a similar structure to previous seasons with a combination of 50-over and 20-over matches being played across each weekend round.
The WNCL final will be played on Sunday 25 January and the WT20 final will follow on Wednesday 28 January. The WT20 final will be played as a double-header to the KFC T20 Big Bash League (KFC T20 BBL) final at Canberra's Manuka Oval and broadcast live on Network Ten.
The WNCL and WT20 will continue to build its reputation as the leading domestic women's competition in the world with a number of high quality international players taking part this coming season.
Stars heading to Australia include England captain Charlotte Edwards and her national teammates Heather Knight and Sarah Taylor as well as New Zealand captain Suzie Bates and her teammates Sophie Devine, Nicola Browne, Sara McGlashan and Felicity Leydon-Davis.
Cricket Australia's Executive General Manager, Team Performance Pat Howard said: "We're looking forward to the women's domestic season starting this weekend. The competition is as strong as it has ever been and its ability to attract top-class international players is testament to that.
"Fans will have the opportunity to see the country's best female players ply their trade on the big stage with eight double-header matches scheduled to be staged in conjunction with KFC T20 BBL matches around Australia."
The leading all-time WNCL wicket-taker and former Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars all-rounder Lisa Sthalekar will be providing expert analysis throughout the WNCL and WT20 seasons on cricket.com.au.
"This weekend sees both competitions kick off, with the Lend Lease Breakers arguably still the front-runners in both formats. The Breakers are embarking on a special season as they try to secure their tenth consecutive WNCL title. Yet this year there is a different feeling surrounding the competitions, with many teams securing the services international players for the summer," Sthalekar said
"Over the past year national boards have followed Cricket Australia's lead in supporting their leading female cricketers with either full-time or semi-professional contracts. However, the WNCL and WT20 are the only domestic women's cricket competitions in the world that financially support the players with match payments and small retainers. Therefore, I am not surprised to see international players making the journey to Australia to test their skills against our finest."
Read Lisa Sthalekar's full preview here: cricketa.us/1pJzjdb
Join the conversation on Twitter using #WNCL and #WT20 with live scores, news and analysis on www.cricket.com.au.
