Don't reduce women domestic games to cut costs: Healy to Cricket Australia

A cash-strapped Cricket Australia must not sacrifice the number of matches for women to cut costs when it restructures the domestic schedule, feels star wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy.

A shortened season is being speculated with CA struggling to stay afloat in the wake of the coronavirus break and is facing losses worth millions of dollars.

The women matches in the domestic women competition Marsh Sheffield Shield and the Women Big Bash League (WBBL) are not lucrative compared to the men's cricket but hosting them still burns a hole in Cricket Australia's pocket.

However, Healy says cutting the games for women would not be prudent.

"(Playing less games) obviously doesn't sit great. We don't want to lose any cricket. It'd be a real shame," Healy, who is a board director of the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA), told The Unplayable Podcast.

"Especially the WBBL, it's such a great tournament for us and it's the bulk of the cricket we get to play. We don't get to play much 50-over cricket in our domestic competition and that's something that us as a playing group have been really pushing for in the last few years, that the WNCL competition is looked after."
"We'll have to wait and see what sort of decisions are made. I know that it's not set in stone and there's some scheduling meetings coming up that the players are going to be involved in and will hopefully get to have their say on what the summer might look like."