The inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL 2023) auction was completed amidst much elation by the BCCI on February 13 in Mumbai, which saw Smriti Mandhana becoming the most expensive player bought for INR 3.40 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

There were 449 players who went under the hammer including Indians, overseas players, and even players from associate nations.

Apart from Mandhana, Ashleigh Gardner and Natalie Sciver got bids of INR 3.20 crores, while Deepti Sharma got INR 2.60 crores and Jemimah Rodrigues got INR 2.20 crores. The total purse spent by the teams was INR 59.50 Crores of the allowed purse of INR 60 Crores.

However, just like the Indian Premier League (IPL), no Pakistani players were included in the auction list due to fractured relations between the two countries and former Pakistani player Urooj Mumtaz lamented the fact and called the exclusion unfortunate.

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"It is extremely unfortunate to see Pakistan players missing out. Every opportunity must be fair and inclusive, and all opportunities are steps towards collectively raising the standard of the women's game and globally growing the sport. Most importantly, they bridge the gap in quality between cricketing nations,” Mumtaz was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

Pakistan women were supposed to get their own T20 league on the lines of PSL, but when Ramiz Raja was ousted as the PCB chairman in December and replaced by Najam Sethi, those plans were shelved. The women's league is now postponed to September.

Ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup match against India, Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof said: "We as Pakistan you know we don't get many opportunities to play in the leagues and that's very unfortunate. Definitely we will love to play and we would want every opportunity we can get in the leagues. But yeah, that's what it is and we can't control that."

The WPL 2023 will take place from March 4 to 26 in Mumbai.