Inaugural WPL auction all set to break new ground for women’s cricket | Cricket News

MUMBAI: The Women’s Premier League (WPL) was talked about for a long time. It was finally set in motion by the BCCI in October 2022 and since then it has forged ahead at a brisk pace.
In the third week of January this year, Viacom18 won the media rights for Rs 951 crore for a period of five years. A week after that, BCCI sold the franchise rights for five teams for Rs 4,669.99 crore. Those two deals made the WPL the second-most valuable women’s league after WNBA — without a ball being bowled.

On Monday, 409 players will go under the hammer at the Jio World Convention Centre.
India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, her deputy Smriti Mandhana, all-rounder Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues will be among the hot picks as far as Indian players are concerned. They are among the 10 Indians — 24 overall — who have entered the auction at a highest base price of Rs 50 lakh.

Among the international players, Australians will be on the top of the list for the franchises and they include the likes of all-rounders Ashleigh Gardner and Ellyse Perry; Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath, skipper Meg Lanning, Beth Mooney — the top-scorer in Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) – among others.
All keep an eye on England’s left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone — the best spinner in women’s cricket; her compatriots Nat Sciver-Brunt and skipper Heather Knight. Then there are Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates from New Zealand; South Africa’s Shabnim Ismail, Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp.

All said and done, like the IPL, all-rounders will be in demand during the WPL auction as well.

The franchises will depend on the data from Indian domestic T20 competitions, the WBBL and the Women’s Hundred as they look to get their combinations right for first edition which will be played at the Brabourne and the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai from March 4 to 26.

The minimum number of players on the roster should be 15 (they can have maximum 18 players onboard) and they must spend at least Rs 9 crore off the Rs 12 crore purse available to them. The teams can buy six foreigners out of which one will be from an associate nation.

During the match, teams can field four foreigners and the number can increase to five if the player is from an associate nation.