Cricket Tasmania has commissioned the Greater Northern Raiders to conduct a feasibility study for a new women’s side next season.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Club chairman Richard Bennett said the Raiders will collate details in the coming weeks to build a case for a sister team to enter the women’s equivalent competition.
The Raiders only joined the Hobart-based Cricket Tasmania Premier League this summer to open up a pathway to players in the North of the state towards Tasmanian honours for the first time in three decades.
Cricket Tasmania’s shift of power since Nick Cummins was appointed CEO has travelled northwards to include the return of elite cricket in Launceston after the rise of Hobart Hurricanes games.
Bennett said now was the time to act with the WBBL side pushing the women’s game in the state to popular levels never seen before.
“That’s why we’ve jumped on board,” he said.
“We had to jump on board.
“This opportunity doesn’t come along all the time.”
Bennett said there was “no secrets to the fact” that a women’s side was inevitable.
But there were numerous issues that could throw a roadblock on trips to Hobart.
“It has been on the cards from the start,” he said.
“We were also conscious of the fact the women’s premier league is different in structure to ours, with the majority of their games being T20 and there is a small number, currently four, that are one-day games.
“So that brings with it a raft of special considerations, of course, around the logistics.”
The Raiders have a 12-hour round trip from Launceston that includes playing – longer for North-West cricketers – to away games, but a women’s side would halve that time.
“That’s really good, but as long as they don’t think that’s too far to travel for just less than three hours of cricket,” Bennett said.
“That’s the other side of it – we don’t want to assume anything just yet.”
The Raiders comparably play more longer format of six two-day matches, five 50-over games and six T20s.
But the idea of the men’s and women’s sides could play shorter games both at home could boost the camaraderie and enhance the feel of a grassroots club.
“I’d think so,” Bennett said.
“I think while the cricket department would have some differences, majority of the Raiders infrastructure and operational aspects off the field would be the same.”
But Bennett ruled out the possibility that any expansion plans would include a men’s second XI in future.
All other eight Hobart clubs affiliate four sides.
“I would say that is absolutely off the table,” he said.
“I think that it’s counterproductive to the requirement to invest in building, not dismantling, the strength of both the NTCA and NWCA competitions.
“Clearly, the Raiders is a vehicle and part of a pathway through to ambition and much higher honours.
“The best thing we can do to underpin that opportunity and to take it to a second XI cricket is not consistent with that idea.”