Christmas came a little early for the Ballarat sporting world this year.

The much-desired announcements had us feeling a little like we were popping open a door on the advent calendar for a surprise addition to our sporting calendar.

We will finally be getting the AFLW in-season game we have been asking to host for ages. And we're getting one every season for the next three seasons. We're just waiting to find out the exact date but we can hardly wait.

Plus the men's team will be back in action at Mars Stadium.

We will be getting National Rugby League giant Melbourne Storm to bring their stars and hopefully a few lightning plays to tackle Newcastle Knights in a final pre-season hit-out in late February.

And Perth Lynx want to call Ballarat Sports and Events Centre home for a whole month during the Women's National Basketball League season. Not only this, but the WNBL will put six in-season matches on our showcourt (complete with the Jumbotron we asked you to deliver us in our 2018 letter).

Our city is even enjoying shiny new orange scooters as a pre-Christmas gift.

We have plenty to be not only thankful about but also to be proud about. We know sporting events like these are not just gifts, but these are the result of the hard work our extended sporting community puts into building our reputation as high-quality hosts. This includes fan support turning up.

Just ask Greater Western Sydney Giants, who made a quick pivot to play an AFL home game at Mars in July.

As we send this letter, we understand you elves are frantically trying to negotiate travel restrictions across the globe once more. We know you completely feel the frustrations our city has juggled the past year, again, across all sporting levels and codes.

That is what brings us to our Christmas wish: a cricket kit, please Santa.

Well, to be completely clear, what we really want is a great turf wicket we could lower into Mars Stadium.

Yes, we have been here before. There was a turf wicket on Northern Oval well before we fine-tuned our sporting focus and turf perfection to step up lobbying for AFL matches.

Much has changed since then. There is a whole stadium with elite facilities in the precinct now.

We host AFL, AFLW, Super Rugby, A-League soccer and now an NRL match here.

It really feels like elite cricket is missing.

We were going to host a Women's Big Bash League match this summer at Eastern Oval, before COVID-19 restrictions created havoc.

Eastern Oval is our spiritual cricket home with an incredible cricketing legacy. But, as this column made clear last week, we need to keep thinking bigger.

Big Bash League bigger.

Mars Stadium might not be quite big enough to host our friends Melbourne Renegades in-season.

A turf wicket we could roll out every now and then would be an awesome enticer - build it in and maybe bigger grandstands will come.

Yours 'til the Christmas cakes,

Melanie

(on behalf of Ballarat)