Finance
The inaugural Womens Premier League (WPL) player auction in Mumbai on Monday saw 87 players selected by five teams, 30 of whom were overseas cricketers, with INR 59.5 crore spent in total.
Smriti Mandhana, India’s vice-captain, was the most expensive pick at INR 3.4 crore when she was signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Smriti was also the first player to be auctioned off.
With INR 3.2 crore each, Australia’s off-spin all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner and England vice-captain Nat Sciver-Brunt were the two most expensive overseas purchases. Nat was signed by Mumbai Indians while Ashleigh went to Gujarat Giants.
Bangalore also paid INR 50 lakhs for New Zealand captain Sophie Devine and INR 1.7 crore for Australia’s top all-rounder Ellyse Perry. They also paid INR 1.9 crores for India’s big-hitting wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh, who was a member of the victorious Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup campaign, as well as INR 1.5 crore for pacer Renuka Thakur.
Bangalore also received England captain Heather Knight for INR 40 lakh at the end of the auction, as well as Australia pacer Megan Schutt for the same amount. Dane van Niekerk, South Africa’s regular captain and all-rounder, was also acquired for INR 30 lakh.
Mumbai Indians, who were unsuccessful in acquiring Smriti’s services, defeated Bangalore and Delhi Capitals in their bid to acquire India captain Harmanpreet Kaur for INR 1.8 crore. Following the acquisition of Nat, Mumbai added two more Indian regulars in all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar for INR 1.9 crore and wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia for INR 1.5 crore.
They also signed leg-spin all-rounder Amelia Kerr from New Zealand for INR 1 crore and West Indies captain Hayley Matthews for INR 40 lakh. Apart from England pacer Issy Wong and India all-rounder Amanjot Kaur, Mumbai also acquired Australia’s pace all-rounder Heather Graham for INR 30 lakh and South Africa’s all-rounder Chloe Tryon for INR 30 lakh.
Deepti Sharma, an off-spin all-rounder, was the second most expensive Indian player, earning INR 2.6 crores from UP Warriorz. The side spent a lot of money to get Australia’s fast-bowling all-rounder Tahlia McGrath and India’s all-rounder Devika Vaidya for INR 1.4 crore each, as well as South Africa pacer Shabnim Ismail for INR 1 crore.
Both Gujarat and Delhi wanted England’s left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, but Warriorz got her for INR 1.8 crore, as well as Australia wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy for INR 70 lakh, followed by Grace Harris.
Warriorz also acquired lower-order power hitter Kiran Navgire for INR 30 lakh, as well as England pacer Lauren Bell for the same sum. Warriorz also signed Anjali Sarvani, a prominent Indian player (INR 55 lakh), Rajeshwari Gayakwad (INR 40 lakh), U19 World Cup winners Parshavi Chopra (INR 10 lakh), Shweta Sehrawat (INR 40 lakh) and S Yashasri (INR 10 lakh).
The Delhi Capitals made no signings from the first two marquee sets. They finally broke through in set three, bringing in top-order batter Jemimah Rodrigues (INR 2.2 crore), who led India’s chase of 150 against Pakistan in the Women’s T20 World Cup, followed by India’s U19 Women’s T20 World Cup-winning captain Shafali Verma (INR 2 crores) and Australia’s multiple World Cup-winning skipper Meg Lanning (INR 2 crores) (INR 1.1 crore).
The franchise paid INR 75 lakh for England all-rounder Alice Capsey, INR 1.5 crore for South African all-rounder Marizanne Kapp, and INR 45 lakh for Australia left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen.
Tara Norris, the lone associate pick in the auction, was then acquired by Delhi for INR 10 lakh and got the better of Bangalore to get Australia all-rounder Laura Harris for INR 45 lakh and also got India leg-spinner Poonam Yadav for INR 30 lakh.
They also got Indian players like Shikha Pandey (INR 60 lakh), Radha Yadav (INR 40 lakh), Taniyaa Bhatia (INR 30 lakh), Sneha Deepthi (INR 30 lakh), Arundhati Reddy (INR 30 lakh), and U19 Women’s T20 World Cup Player of the final Titas Sadhu (INR 25 lakh).
Followed by the signing of Ashleigh, Australia opener Beth Mooney was bought by Gujarat for INR 2 crore while England opener Sophia Dunkley was acquired for INR 60 lakh. They also made solid overseas buys in Annabel Sutherland (INR 70 lakh), Deandra Dottin (INR 60 lakh), and Georgia Wareham (INR 75 lakh).
In terms of Indian players, they got performers like Harleen Deol (INR 40 lakh), Sneh Rana (INR 75 lakh), Sabbhineni Meghana (INR 30 lakh), Mansi Joshi (INR 30 lakh), Dayalan Hemalatha (INR 30 lakh), Monica Patel (INR 30 lakh), Sushma Verma (INR 60 lakh), Hurley Gala (INR 10 lakh) and Shabnam Shakil (INR 10 lakh).
Some of the biggest names which went unsold at the auction were Laura Wolvaardt, Danni Wyatt, Alana King, Sune Luus, Lizelle Lee, Chamari Athapaththu, Suzie Bates, Darcie Brown, Lea Tahuhu, Katherine Sciver-Brunt, Tammy Beaumont and Stafanie Taylor. In terms of Indian players, Simran Dil Bahadur, Priya Punia, Soumya Tiwari, Archana Devi, Meghna Singh and Ekta Bisht were missing.
Source:OCN
