Great that we've got WBBL up and running this year, says Meg Lanning
Oct 14, 2020
Melbourne [Australia], October 14 : Australia skipper Meg Lanning has said that it is great that the organisers have managed to get the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) up and running this year.
28-year-old Lanning will be leading Melbourne Stars in the upcoming tournament. She had spent the previous three seasons at Perth Scorchers.
"Chasing a title in the WBBL, everybody would say that [it's on their mind]. I've enjoyed my three years in Perth, they [the Perth Scorchers] are a great club. They're really well run. Eventually, it came down to being in Melbourne a little bit more and spending more time home," ESPNCricinfo quoted Lanning as saying.
"It's funny how it's panned out: we will be in Sydney the whole time this year and we won't be in Melbourne. But that's just this year, hopefully, obviously, with the COVID-19 pandemic. There's only so much that can be done about that. It's great that we've got the tournament up and running," she added.
Lanning will be taking over the captaincy reins from Elyse Villani at the Melbourne Stars. The Australian skipper is hopeful that the inclusion of the English players and the retention of Villani and veteran South Africa batter Mignon du Preez will help the team go all the way this time around.
"The Melbourne Stars, our list is really shaping up nicely. We've got Katherine Brunt and Nat Sciver joining us, Mignon du Preez, Elyse Villani, Annabel Sutherland are the marquee international players. That's a really good mix of firepower with bat and ball and we've got some really good young kids coming through," Lanning said.
"We targeted really specific skillsets in terms of who we wanted. Just being a good team on paper doesn't give you any guarantees but looking at our team, I think it's really strong and the players we brought in are really competitive as well," she added.
Lanning is a five-time World Cup skipper and her along with Rachael Haynes recently led Australia to a world-record of 21 consecutive ODI victories.
Melbourne Stars will kick off their WBBL season against the Melbourne Renegades at the Hurstville Oval on October 25.
