WPL Auctions: Concern Over The Small Purse Of Rs 12cr For Each Franchisee
Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
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By Slogger
First publised on 2023-02-10 06:06:30
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Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
View all posts by this Author
With the Women's Premier League (WPL) now in place and with BCCI having got a whopping Rs. 4699.99cr as bidding amount for the 5 teams, the auctions for players will now take place on February 13. A total of 409 players from 15 countries will go under the hammer. The BCCI has selected 246 Indian players and 163 overseas players for the auction from the 1525 registrations it received. The franchisees have a purse of Rs. 12cr for building a team of between 15-18 players and they can include 6 overseas players. Players have registered in different base price bands with 10 Indians and 14 overseas players having the highest base price of Rs 50 lakh.
But, as former Indian skipper Diana Eduljee has said, the purse of Rs 12cr is too small for a tournament like the WPL. It is obvious that there will be spirited bidding for the players with the highest base price as they are the best in the game. Indians like Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma and Shefali Varma and overseas players like Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Ecclestone, Sophie Devine and Deandra Dottin can easily command over Rs. 2-3cr each. Even emerging star Richa Ghosh can command over Rs 1cr. So if a franchisee bids for two or three players from this elite group, it will not be left with much to get the other 12-15 players needed to form the team. Consequently, the other players will get much less than what they deserve.
It is true that there are fewer teams (than the IPL) and they will play lesser number of matches, yet Rs. 12cr is not the ideal purse. It should have been at least Rs. 20cr for the franchisees to comfortably build good teams and for the players to get what they deserve. But these are early days and the WPL, including the auction and the purse amount, will go through a period of experimentation. One is sure that the BCCI will increase the purse if needed after the first tournament and after it receives feedback from franchisees and players.
