By The Women’s Premier League (WPL) season two auction is scheduled to occur in Mumbai on December 9. The WPL announced the official date of the second season on X on Friday. The post read, “Mark your Calendars! Mumbai, 9th December 2023 – #TATAWPL Auction.”
This time, in addition to the remaining funds from the previous auction and the player releases, all five teams will have access to an additional purse of Rs 1.5 crore. There will be an auction to fill thirty slots, nine of which are overseas.
60 players were kept on the rosters that the teams recently revealed. 21 of these sixty players were international stars. A total of 29 players were cut from their teams. For the first season of the WPL, each team received an allocation of Rs 12 crore to develop their teams. The victors Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz were the only two teams who could utilise all of this money. Regarding the other three teams, the balance was as follows: the Royal Challengers Bangalore had Rs. 10 lakhs (about US $12,015), the Delhi Capitals had Rs. 35 lakhs, and the Gujarat Giants had Rs. 5 lakhs.
With half of their team released, the Giants, who finished last in the first season, have the largest purse of Rs 5.95 crore. Ten positions are available, three of which must be filled overseas. With a salary of Rs 4 crore, Warriorz—who finished in the middle of the table and made it to the playoffs—can fill five spots, one of which can be occupied by an international player.
With a star-studded roster that includes Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine, and Ellyse Perry, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has Rs 3.35 crore to fill seven spots, including three international players. The team struggled to make an impression last year. The runners-up, Delhi, will use their Rs 2.25 crore purse to fill three slots, one of which will be overseas.
Mumbai, with Rs 2.1 crore, has the smallest remaining purse. A release states that they need to fill five spots, one of which is overseas.
The 22-match WPL, which took place at three locations in Mumbai earlier this year, attracted elite cricket players from all over the world and was a great success.
The dates of the upcoming season and the nature of the home-away format have not been communicated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). In the previous year’s auction, three players—Smriti Mandhana (Rs 3.4 crore for RCB), Ashleigh Gardner (Rs 3.2 crore for Gujarat Giants), and Nat Sciver-Brunt (Rs 3.2 crore for MI)—crossed the three-crore mark. Seven players attracted bids as high as Rs 2 crore.
