Sri Lanka women’s captain Chamari Athapaththu has joined the Hobart Hurricanes for the Women’s Big Bash League, Hiru News reported at 11.29 p.m. on Monday.
She comes in for England batter Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who has withdrawn from the tournament through injury. Hiru attributes the signing to sources within the Hurricanes squad rather than to an announcement by the club or by Sri Lanka Cricket, and no official confirmation had been published by either at the time of writing.
The withdrawal itself is confirmed independently. Cricket Australia’s own site reported on Monday morning that Wyatt-Hodge and Brisbane Heat’s Jess Jonassen have both been ruled out of this season’s competition — the twelfth edition, WBBL|12, covering the 2026-27 Australian summer. Hiru refers to the tournament as “WBBL 2026”.
Athapaththu, 36, is ranked sixth in the ICC women’s T20I batting rankings. She joins the defending champions — Hobart won last season’s final against the Perth Scorchers — and the Hurricanes’ first match is on Thursday against the Melbourne Stars.
It is a return to a competition she has played for years without ever representing Hobart. By Hiru’s account she has appeared in seven Big Bash tournaments across 69 matches, for the Perth Scorchers, Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder. Her strongest season was WBBL|09 with the Thunder, where Hiru says she made 552 runs with five half-centuries, took nine wickets and was named player of the tournament.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the length or terms of the deal, or says whether Athapaththu is contracted for the full season or only for the period Wyatt-Hodge is unavailable. The nature of Wyatt-Hodge’s injury and her expected recovery time are not stated, and Cricket Australia’s report does not name her replacement in the text this desk was able to read — the connection to Athapaththu appears in its headline material rather than in a quoted club statement.
Athapaththu’s career figures above could not be checked against a scorecard. ESPNcricinfo’s player profile returns an access-denied response to this desk, and its Big Bash news file for 2026-27 did not carry the signing. Hiru has a documented habit of rounding figures, so the match, run and wicket counts are reported here as its account rather than as confirmed statistics. Her ranking position is also undated — the ICC table moves week to week.
No verified Sri Lankan newsroom other than Hiru had filed on the signing at the time of writing, and neither Ada Derana nor the Daily Mirror had carried it.