WPL auction to be held on December 9: Details here
The Women's Premier League (WPL) auction will be held on December 9, 2023, in Mumbai with the second season of the tournament set to run from February to March next year. All five teams will look to make their mark at the auction table. WPL has set a sum of Rs. 13.5 crore salary cap for each team to spend in this upcoming auction.
Gujarat Giants will enter the auction with the biggest purse
Gujarat Giants released as many as 11 players after a horrendous inaugural WPL season. Hence, they have an available salary cap of Rs. 5.95 crore, the biggest among the five teams in this auction. Meanwhile, reigning champions Mumbai Indians maintained their winning combination. They have the smallest purse of Rs. 2.1 crore. Notably, the runners-up Delhi Capitals released the least number of players.
Runners-up DC retain 15 out of 18 players
Delhi Capitals released only three players from their previous campaign where they ended up as runners-up. They only released Tara Norris, Jasia Akhtar and Aparna Mondal. They will have a handsome salary cap of Rs. 2.25 crore to fill their respective slots. The Capitals led by the dynamic Meg Lanning topped the group stage on NRR before falling to Mumbai Indians in the final.
Reigning champions Mumbai Indians have the smallest purse
Champions Mumbai Indians released four players from last season and since they had only 17 players, they will have five slots available for a purse of RS. 2.1 crore, the smallest in the auction. Mumbai Indians under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur were brilliant as they finished second to Delhi Capitals in the group stage before defeating them by seven wickets in the final.
Gujarat Giants released more than half of their squad
Gujarat Giants had a forgettable WPL season last time where they finished at the bottom of the points table. They won only two out of their eight games while only registering four points. However, they have retained only eight players from last season including foreigners such as Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney and Laura Wolvaardt. Dayalan Hemlatha, Harleen Deol and Sneh Rana were also retained.
RCB have big boots to fill
Royal Challengers Bangalore had an underwhelming WPL season and as a result, they released top foreign players like Megan Schutt, Dane van Niekerk and Erin Burns. They now have a salary cap of Rs. 3.35 crores after releasing seven players. RCB also finished with two wins from their eight matches. They were above the Giants due to a better NRR.
UP Warriorz held on to their core players
UP Warriorz also released four players among which Shabnim Ismail was the only foreigner. They also also released Devika Vaidya, who was signed for Rs. 1.4 crore but unfortunately couldn't deliver. Overall, the Warriorz will have Rs. 4 crores to spend in the upcoming auction. They finished third last season but this time they will look to give a much better account of themselves.
