The BCCI has appointed a female auctioneer for the upcoming Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction, reported Cricbuzz. According to WPL 2023 Player Auction Rules, communicated to the five WPL franchises, the BCCI said, Malika Advani, a Mumbai-based art collector consultant for Modern and Contemporary Indian art and partner in Art India Consultants firm, will oversee the auction on Monday.
This is the first such auction taking place as far as women’s game is concerned. Women’s Premier League also becomes the first of its kind as players here will be picked up on an auction model unlike the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and Women’s Super Smash (New Zealand) which are based on drafts system.
Meanwhile the report further stated that the BCCI has also informed the teams that each of them is needed to have at least 15 players and the minimum squad spend should be INR 9 crore. The value of the full purse is INR 12 crore and each side is allowed to buy only six foreign players.
Says the BCCI communication, “The franchisees are reminded of the WPL squad rules with respect to minimum (15) and maximum (18) squad size, minimum squad spend (INR 9 crore) and the maximum number of overseas players in the squad (6).”
A total of 409 players will go under the hammer with 246 of them being Indians and 163 overseas players, of which eight players are from the associate nations. The players will be presented in sets on the basis of specialism – marquee players, batters, allrounders, wicketkeepers, fast bowlers, spin bowlers and emerging players.
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The players in the auction register have five different slabs of base prices – INR 50 lakh, INR 40 lakh, INR 30 lakh, INR 20 lakh and INR 10 lakh, with 24 players choosing to be slotted in the top bracket. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Ecclestone, Sophie Devine and Deandra Dottin are among the players with the highest base price. Thirty players have enrolled with INR 40 lakh as their base price.
Hugh Edmeades, Richard Madley or Charu Sharma have conducted the IPL auctions, in the past or recently.
