The much-awaited players’ auction of the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League 2023 will take place in Mumbai on Monday (January 13), where a total of 409 players will go under the hammer. Out of the 409 registered players, 246 are Indian, 163 are overseas, and eight are from the associate nations.
The auction list has been divided into five different slabs built on base prices of INR 50 lakh, INR 40 lakh, INR 30 lakh, INR 20 lakh and INR 10 lakh. Only 24 players have chosen the top bracket. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry and Sophie Devine are among the top-slotted players and have registered in the 50 lakh base price category. Meanwhile, thirty players have enrolled themselves in the 40 lakh base price.
According to a report by Cricbuzz, the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) has appointed a female auctioneer for the WPL 2023 players’ auction. In the rules communicated to the five teams for the player’s auction, BCCI said Mallika Sagar Advani, a Mumbai-based art collector consultant for Modern and Contemporary Indian art and partner in Art India Consultants firm, will conduct the auction on Monday (February 13).
The BCCI also reminded all the teams that they need to add at least 15 players, and the minimum money spent should be INR 9 crore. Notably, the full purse for each team is INR 12 crore.
“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),” said the BCCI communication.
The venue for the WPL 2023 auction is Jasmine Hall, 1, JIO World Convention Centre, and it will start at 2.30 PM. During the bidding process, the strategy breaks at regular intervals will also be provided to the teams for re-evaluation and review of their tactics.
“Following the conclusion of each set, there may (at the Auctioneer’s discretion) be a short break to allow franchises time to re-evaluate tactics. The length of each break will be announced by the Auctioneer at the conclusion of the relevant set. A warning bell will ring two minutes before the resumption of the Player Auction after each break. The Player Auction will re-start promptly after each break. It is anticipated that these short breaks will total a minimum of 10 minutes in every hour of the Player Auction proceedings,” added BCCI.
