MumbaiVeterans like Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Alyssa Healy and Sophie Ecclestone have placed themselves in the highest price bracket of Rs 50 lakh in the players’ auction for the Women’s Premier League (WPL 2023) to be held on February 13. A total of 90 players can be bid for by the five franchises in this auction for which the final list of 409 cricketers has been released.
Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Arun Dhumal had told ‘PTI-Bhasha’ on Monday that all 22 matches of the league would be held in Mumbai from March 4 to 26. Out of these 409 players, 246 are Indians while 163 are foreign players. Eight of these are players from associate countries. Of these players, 202 have represented the national team.
24 players in base price of Rs 50 lakh
In this list, 24 players have placed themselves in the highest Rs 50 lakh bracket while 38 players are in the Rs 40 lakh bracket. Indian skipper Harmanpreet, opening batsman Smriti, Australia legend Healy and England’s top spinner Ecclestone besides recent Under-19 World Cup winning captain Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues, England captain Nat Sciver, Australia captain Meg Lanning has placed herself in the top Rs 50 lakh category.
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409 players will be part of the auction
Stars from the Indian U-19 team that won this World Cup in South Africa will also be a part of the campaign. These include Parshvi Chopra, Archana Devi, Titas Sadhu, Shweta Sehrawat and Mannat Kashyap (all in the Rs 10 lakh category). According to a release issued by the Cricket Board of India (BCCI), the auction of the Women’s Premier League will be held on February 13, 2023 at the ‘Jio World Convention Center’ in Mumbai. For this, a total of 409 cricketers list has been issued.
“A total of 1525 players have registered for the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League auction and the final list has been shortlisted for 409 players,” according to the release. The BCCI (Cricket Board of India) sold the broadcast rights of this league for Rs 951 crore after fetching Rs 4669.99 crore in the bid for five teams.
Apart from IPL teams like Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals, Capri Global Holdings (Lucknow) and Adani Sportline have bought franchise teams for WPL. Each franchise team can spend Rs 12 crore on players in the auction. Teams will have to place successful bids for a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 18 players. (agency)