It'll be three long years, but the Sydney Thunder will finally bring the WBBL back to Manuka Oval.
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The Canberra Times can reveal the Thunder will play the Melbourne Renegades in a night game in the capital on November 15 as part of the WBBL draw that will be announced on Thursday.
While the ACT was able to play a role in saving the men's BBL, it will end an almost three-year absence of the WBBL from Canberra after the coronavirus pandemic forced it into hubs around Australia.
The last time the Thunder played at Manuka was their 18-run victory over the Melbourne Stars on November 27, 2019.
But the wait is over.
It will add to an already massive summer of cricket planned for the capital, after The Canberra Times revealed Manuka would host four Twenty20 Internationals involving Australia's men's and women's teams.
Cricket ACT's celebrating it's 100th birthday and already has the Aussie men playing England twice in October and the women up against Pakistan twice in January.
Head of Thunder Andrew Gilchrist hoped they'd be able to spend more time in Canberra than simply playing the game and was hopeful over the coming weeks they'd be able to make a further announcement about what they had planned.
He said interacting with the community was important to the club and something the players had missed over the past two seasons.
"It's been a while since we've been down in Canberra ... it would've been 2019 so looking forward to getting back again," Gilchrist said.
"It has been a really trying couple of years. We played all the games in Sydney a couple of years and then had to relocate last year so to have games back in Sydney and Canberra is going to be huge for us.
"To get back to a normal fixture will be really important.
"We always get a lot of really strong support from our Thunder nation in Canberra."
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With the BBL fixture to be unveiled next week, there's the potential for more matches at Manuka in the summer ahead.
The Thunder have traditionally played a couple of BBL games in the ACT as well.
"Hopefully. We should be able to get a fixture next week I believe," Gilchrist said.
"We'll wait and see what that brings, but we get such good support from Canberra across both men's and women's teams so hopefully [the men play there too]."
Thunder wicketkeeper Tahlia Wilson said it was a special atmosphere at Manuka and was excited by the prospect of returning there.
She expected her teammate Olivia Porter to be even more pumped - given the ACT Meteors allrounder will get the chance to play on her home ground.
"Liv has done really well the last couple of years around the Thunder set-up," Wilson said.
"I saw last year, while we were away, that she really developed and grew into a really talented allrounder, so it will be nice for her to get down there in front of her home fans."
WBBL AT MANUKA OVAL
November 15: Sydney Thunder v Melbourne Renegades, 7.10pm.
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