{"id":635860,"date":"2026-04-28T08:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635860\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:29:14","slug":"cricket-news-2026-jake-weatherald-leaves-tasmania-for-south-australia-ahead-of-sheffield-shield-season-after-cricket-australia-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635860\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket news 2026, Jake Weatherald leaves Tasmania for South Australia ahead of Sheffield Shield season, after Cricket Australia contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rookie Test batter Jake Weatherald<\/a> has made a big state move just weeks after landing his first Cricket Australia contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old left-hander is headed back to South Australia ahead of the next domestic season later this year.<\/p>\n

The Northern Territory product made his state debut for South Australia in 2015 and spent eight seasons there before heading to Tasmania, where he has played the past three seasons.<\/p>\n

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He had two more seasons to run on his contract but Tasmania has agreed to release him so he can move back to Adelaide.<\/p>\n

Weatherald’s wife has stayed back in South Australia for the past three years while the batter has spent much of the season based in Hobart.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Travis Head and Jake Weatherald batting for Australia.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The fact Weatherald is now being paid through his Cricket Australia contract is reportedly part of the reason he’s able to return to South Australia.<\/p>\n

The Cricket Australia central contracts – of which there are only 21 in men’s cricket this year – sit outside the state salary cap.<\/p>\n

He will link up with Test teammate Travis Head<\/a> at South Australia and strengthen the team that has already won the past two Sheffield Shield titles.<\/p>\n

Weatherald flourished at Tasmania, scoring 906 runs at 50.33 during the 2024-25 season in what was a breakout campaign.<\/p>\n

His form was rewarded at the end of 2025 with a Test debut for Australia, and he played all five matches against England in the Ashes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jake Weatherald playing for Tasmania celebrates scoring a century.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The swashbuckling opener’s form has continued in England’s County cricket in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

He most recently scored 104 for Leicestershire before retiring hurt. Before that he had recorded scores of 83, 31, and 96.<\/p>\n

Exactly how many matches Weatherald is able to play for South Australia next season remains to be seen, given Australia’s packed Test schedule.<\/p>\n

The Aussies have a total of 13 Test matches scheduled to be played during the domestic season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rookie Test batter Jake Weatherald has made a big state move just weeks after landing his first Cricket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-635860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}