Ahead of the second edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL), teams are all geared up for the auction that are scheduled for December 9 during which franchises will mostly focus on filling the gaps.
After a bidding war in the last auction when franchises built their team for the inaugural edition of WPL, teams have retained most of their players.
"We have retained 13 players in our squad. It is a mix of experienced and young players and going forward we will maintain that balance and hope to get more Indian talent. We are identifying the gaps and our focus will be Indian talent. The purse remaining with us is Rs 4 crore and the overall purse was Rs 13.5 crore," said Kshemal Waingankar, Chief operating Officer (COO) of Capri Sports that owns the WPL franchise UP Warriorz.
The franchise has five available slots in the team.
He said that the unique thing about mini auctions is that there are limited resources and there are only some number of players that can be considered. "There is limited amount that a team can bid for. So, versus the first auction there are limited things teams can do this year during the auctions," he added.
The purse remaining for each of the franchise is Rs 2.25 crore for Delhi Capitals (DC), Rs 5.95 crore for Gujarat Giants (GG), Rs 2.10 crore for Mumbai Indians (MI), and Rs 3.35 crore for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Mini auctions
"Last year was a full-fledged auction and this year it is mini auctions. Last time was a fresh start so the entire purse was available and this time the purses are largely filled up. This auction is more like fill up the blanks. What would be interesting to see is if a particular team would have let go off a high cost resource and if they have enough purse then at what value would they be taking a player. But there would be few like that as only a few Indian players would have been released," said Santosh N, Managing Partner, D and P Advisory.
He added that last year the player purse was around Rs 12 crore and now there is 10 percent increase with Rs 13.5 crore. "This will give teams an additional Rs 1.5 crore to shell out."
During the auction, a total of 165 players will go under the hammer including 104 Indians and 61 overseas players of which 15 players are from associate nations. The five franchises have a total of 30 slots and there are nine spots left for overseas players.
Delhi Capitals has three slots remaining while Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore have 10, 5 and 7 slots remaining respectively.
Home and away format
Along with the auctions, the franchises are prepping up for the upcoming second season and this time the hope is for a home and away format.
"Home and away format will be crucial for our growth story. Hopefully, we will find out whether the home and away format will happen this season, said Jinisha Sharma, Director, Capri Sports.
While Santosh thinks that the multi-city format is a step in the right direction, he said it will be a challenge.
"Last time it was restricted in one place. BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) had to do so because of the limited window (period during which WPL was played). In WPL, the number of teams is lesser unlike an IPL. So, in a 10-team format franchises get a 3-4 days break. But WPL because there are only 5 teams the team that plays on day one will have to pay on day 3 so there’s only one day gap. The logistics will take a toll on the players. That is a challenge. Unless BCCI is able to increase to a month, home and away (format) is not feasible and will be a bit of a stretch," he said.
In the first season of WPL, the tournament was played for around 22 days in Mumbai.
Women in sports
Now with the second season of WPL all set to take place in couple of months, franchises are also focusing on growing women sports in the country.
"Adani Sportsline's intent is growing the sport of women’s cricket in Gujarat, and in India. With the likes of the legendary Mithali Raj and the dynamic Nooshin Al Khadeer playing a big part in our team’s programmes, we are confident that we can make a positive impact in growing the game at the grassroot levels as well. We are committed to growing the ecosystem such that we can help pave the way for more and more players to come through the ranks, said a spokesperson of Adani Sportsline that owns the WPL franchise Gujarat Giants.
Capri Sports is also trying more youth and women to participate in sports.
"Our current initiative is focusing on women in sports so it is not limited to cricket. We were impressed with what women's Kabaddi team did in Asian Games with a gold medal. We are keen at looking at women's Kabaddi team. We have a men's Kabaddi team. Our focus right now is growing women in sports and taking it across different formats," Sharma said.
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