Elyse Villani announces retirement from the WBBL following her victorious run with the Hobart Hurricanes this year.
Elyse Villani retires from WBBL after fairytale finish with Hobart Hurricanes.
After leading the Hobart Hurricanes to their first championship, former Australian international Elyse Villani left the WBBL in a dreamlike manner.
In front of a 5,000-strong home crowd at Bellerive Oval on Saturday, Villani’s chargers easily defeated Perth Scorchers by eight wickets, giving the Hurricanes the BBL and WBBL titles.
The 36-year-old, who has represented Australia in 99 games, stated after the game that it was her final WBBL encounter.
Before joining the Hurricanes, Villani played for the Melbourne Stars and Perth Scorchers in all 11 WBBL seasons, placing second three times. After the team had placed last three times in the previous five seasons, she joined the Hurricanes for the 2022–2023 season.
“It’s a fairytale ending and in elite sport it’s very rare to have that,” she said. “It has been playing on the back of my mind this season and I was hoping this could be the way it finished.
“I was 80% sure this was the way it was going to go to retire after the game, but as soon as we won, I knew this was the moment.”
“Sometimes you can have a really good list and feel the pressure of that list,” Villani said. “But what this group has done really well is that at different points in the season different people performed.”