The Women’s Premier League (WPL 2023) auction got underway in Mumbai with much excitement to see which of the Indian and foreign players get huge money bids from the 5 participating franchises.
A total of 448 players are set to 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 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.
The first name out for the franchises was that of India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and her name got all the officials interested in the bidding with Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore looking to break the bank for the Indian vice-captain.
In the end, RCB was successful with a massive bid of INR 3.40 crores.
The Indian women’s team is currently in South Africa for the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2023 and was watching the auction with eagerness.
As soon as Mandhana got the final bid, the team members erupted in elation and her teammates cheering beside her hugged Mandhana, who herself was looking quite happy. She received hugs from Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur amongst others.
Here is the video:
RCB also bought Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry in the auction and Mandhana is expected to captain the franchise.
“Everyone knows Mandhana and Perry, we were pretty committed to the couple of people we wanted to get. we’re very happy to get such quality players. it’s a dream result for us to get Mandhana, Perry and Devine. Smriti has got plenty of captaincy experience and is familiar with the Indian conditions so highly likely [she’ll be captain],” said Hesson, who is Director of Cricket Operations at RCB.
