The New Zealand women's domestic league will resume on Friday after a four-week break which was built into the season so players such as Bates could participate in the Australian domestic competition.
There was a three-week interruption earlier in the summer while the Whites Ferns were on international duty as well.
Bates captained the Perth Scorchers in the WBBL and has been one of the beneficiaries of the schedule. But she is not convinced a disjointed season is in the best interests of the competition.
''It will be interesting to see what they do with the calendar next year because I don't think they can keep putting it on hold [for the Australian competition],'' Bates said.
''We can't just sit around for six Big Bash players at the expense of our domestic season. I don't know what they will do but I'm sure they will look at it.''
''Whether they can pack more games into the season earlier I don't know. We've talked about it a lot but no-one has really come up with a solution.''
Bates suggested one solution might be to keep the one-day competition at full strength and stage the twenty20 competition at the same time as the WBBL.
The Sparks will resume with a T20 match against Wellington in the capital on Friday followed by back-to-back one-dayers.
Otago is still in contention in both competitions but will need other results to go its way to make the various finals. The one-day competition looks more promising and Bates is hoping she can recapture her form with the bat.
The Scorchers reached the final but Bates felt she had a mixed campaign.
''I was pretty disappointed with how I batted. I never felt like I hit my straps.
''It is a tough competition when you are out of a bit of form. You don't get any easy games and the bowling attacks are all pretty good quality.
''In saying that, I bowled probably better than I expected and played more of a role with the ball. The captaincy was pretty challenging and I felt like I contributed in that way. I was just a bit light on runs.''
