WPL confirms mega-auction date; Deepti, Wolvaardt, Healy and Lanning top player pool | Cricket News
NEW DELHI: The Women’s Premier League (WPL) mega auction for the upcoming season will take place in New Delhi on November 27. The date was announced after all five teams released their retained and released players earlier this month.WPL marked the 10-day countdown on its official
Each team can constitute a squad of 18 players maximum. All franchises combined, 73 slots – including 23 slots abroad – must be filled.UP Warriorz will enter the auction with the highest purse. They have four Right to Match (RTM) options and have retained just one uncapped player, Shweta Sehrawat.Mumbai Indians, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, and Delhi Capitals, who finished second three times, retained the maximum allowed five players each. Both teams no longer have RTM options. Delhi Capitals also retained Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues, who played a key role in India’s ICC Women’s World Cup title run with important knocks in the knockout matches.In the first three seasons, the WPL saw some high-value signings. Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Smriti Mandhana remains the most expensive player in the tournament, bought for Rs 3.4 crore ahead of the inaugural edition. She led RCB to the 2024 title and is one of four players retained by the team, alongside Richa Ghosh, Ellyse Perry and Shreyanka Patil.In total, 17 players were selected across all franchises, including seven foreign players. The teams will together have Rs 41.1 crore to spend in the auction.Several well-known players are expected to be in the auction list, including 2025 Women’s World Cup player of the tournament Deepti Sharma; South African captain Laura Wolvaardt, who scored 571 points in the tournament, including two hundreds in the semi-final and final and three fifties; Australians Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning; Amelia Kerr from New Zealand; and South African Nadine de Klerk.WPL will publish the full auction list soon.
