WPL auction - Women's cricket set to scale new heights

On a clear day in Cape Town, the best female cricketers in the world sat down to discuss the biggest tournament in the game, but instead found themselves talking about the competition that's about to change it. "The elephant in the room," Sophie Devine called it. "You'd be naive to think that it's not going to be a distraction."

When Ireland and England face off in Paarl on Monday (February 13) in the T20 World Cup, which until now has been the clearest focus point of women's cricket, it's fair to expect that everyone else in the game will be looking elsewhere. Roughly 5100 miles from the World Cup action, in a Mumbai hotel ballroom, 246 Indians and 163 overseas players - eight of them from the associate nations - will go under the hammer as the five franchises of the inaugural Women's Premier League, together with the BCCI, create a quantum leap into the future. The event will potentially change the lives of up to 90 players who made the 409-strong shortlist of women hoping to bag a career-high payday, and, for years to follow, be considered the catalyst of unprecedented professionalism in women's cricket.

It's not like the women's game hasn't seen a club-based (but board-funded) T20 competition before. The dominance of Australia and England in the international arena is a direct consequence of the years of investment into building a world-beating talent pipeline - a vision ironically first brought to life by India itself a decade and a half ago. Albeit waking up to this opportunity belatedly, BCCI's attempt at replicating the IPL-style fully privatised franchise-cricket model for women instead promises to help them shatter glass ceilings and propose cricket as a financially viable career choice to the generations that will follow.

In the last four weeks itself, brand WPL has leapfrogged the WBBL and the Hundred to become the most lucrative women's cricket league after garnering a record collective bid of INR 4699.99 crore from the five team owners, and another INR 951 crore from broadcasting giant Viacom18 for the global television and digital media rights for the first five-year cycle (2023-27). The yet-to-be announced title sponsorship is only going to take it a notch higher. Before that, it's the players' turn to make some long-overdue but rightful big bucks.

For reference, even the lowest base price for capped players (INR 30 lakh) is touted to be more than what most top-tier cricketers make in a season at the WBBL or the Hundred. The maximum base price category of INR 50 lakh is at par with the highest bracket of the BCCI retainers. Even if bought at their minimum base price of INR 10 lakh, the uncapped Indian players - who have remained untouched by the board's match-fee pay equality announcement - stand to earn as much as a Grade C female cricketer does in the annual contracting process, which has only 17 on the roster.

Back in 2008, at $1.5 million MS Dhoni became the first million-dollar star of IPL and history was made. Fifteen years on, the WPL auction will make the women cricketers richer. But by how much, realistically? The purse limitation of INR 12 crore makes the probability of million-dollar babies at the WPL a financial impossibility, but there's no denying the A-listers will start bidding wars.

On top of this, the financial implications of an auction-backed league will, in due course, force the hand of other organisations to catch up, more so as the number of competitions continue to grow and the vacant windows on the calendar begin to disappear.

Unlike the IPL, the WPL teams can field five foreigners in their playing XI as long as one of them is from the associate countries, meaning the impact of this auction is stretching far and beyond the ones currently in South Africa, trying their best to manage both excitement and expectations.

WPL also promises to throw a spotlight on the exceptional coaches and backroom staff who otherwise tend to fly under the radar. Former India spinner Nooshin al Khadeer, who was at the helm when a Shafali Verma-led India U19 team lifted the World Cup last month and had led Railways to many a domestic title over the years, was among the first ones to be roped in by Ahmedabad, who have also appointed former Australia vice-captain Rachael Haynes as head coach despite no prior experience. On the other hand, veterans Anju Jain (Lucknow), Devieka Palshikaar (Mumbai) and Hemlata Kala (Delhi) will assume their most high-profile coaching jobs yet. Four other stalwarts - Mithali Raj (Ahmedabad team mentor), Charlotte Edwards and Jhulan Goswami (Mumbai head coach and mentor respectively), and Lisa Sthalekar (Lucknow team mentor) - will be some of the biggest influencers in the auction process on Monday.

With no data available, coaches still to be appointed, no professional staff and no inputs from video analysts at hand - who are currently the major influencers behind the signings - the 2008 men's IPL auction was dictated by names, reputation and personal choices of different teams and their high-profile investors, all of whom were present at the event. But the maiden WPL auction is unlikely to be determined by random and personal choices of the team officials and owners. Each of the five WPL teams - Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Royal Challengers Bangalore and UP Warriorz - will come to the table equipped with a contingent of professionals, coaches and scouts, all armed with copious amounts of data and several mock auction rounds under their belt.

This despite a short turnaround time - the identity of the five franchises were confirmed a matter of weeks before the auction. Coaching staffs have only been appointed over the past week. But with strong systems in place, the franchises with IPL connections have brought their professionalism to a situation that could otherwise have been rushed and chaotic. "We've already spent a lot of time on that and sitting in rooms and going through numerous videos and putting balanced squads together," Director of Cricket Mike Hesson said of his side's auction strategy and preparation, in a video put out by RCB.

The Bengaluru-based franchise has done extensive scouting in the 2022-23 season with former India Women opener VR Vanitha roped in as one of the chief scouts. The former Karnataka batter was a constant presence at nearly all domestic T20 tournaments, and ahead of the auctions she openly advertised on Twitter - on behalf of the franchise - calling female fast bowlers 'who can bowl 130 kph' to send in their video audition tapes.

"We're really comfortable with where we're at," Hesson added. "We'll obviously be a little bit fluid in terms of how the auction strategy goes. But we're very clear around what our primary targets are and then also how we're going to structure the balance of the squad. So yeah, a lot of work has gone into it.

"There was not quite as much data in terms of the domestic players, lots of videos and lots of decisions you've got to make around the skill-set that you have. But we were really fortunate that we've had some scouts in place throughout the whole season to bring a bit more in-depth knowledge of their local talent."

It is unlikely any team will splurge profligately on a player. No decision will go without a reason and every rupee of the 12 crore purse will have been accounted for by the franchises, each of whom can have a squad of up to 18 players (minimum 15), including six overseas players.

With no communication yet on player retention rules for the future editions, it is unlikely that the injury concerns of the two likely biggest draws at the auction - India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana - will have the powers-that-be second guessing themselves, simply for the risk of missing out in the long run. Nor is it expected to have any significant impact on the paycheque they are prophesied to fetch.

Leaving aside the auction dynamics and secrecy, the top Indian stars - the likes of Harmanpreet, Mandhana, Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Renuka Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar and Richa Ghosh among others - will be in high demand, followed by those from Australia and England, who have their entire World Cup squad making the final cut despite only a maximum of 30 overseas slots available.

At the other end of the spectrum is Pakistan, who for no particular fault or flaw of their own, are the only team without a formal invitation or emotional attachment to this first-of-its-kind party on the women's circuit. Incidentally, they also stand to gain the most from any trepidation amongst their opponents on Sunday in their World Cup opener.

Such trepidation would be understandable given that the general perception is that WPL franchises will bank on homegrown talent to fill the batting and spin departments. Besides the cream of the current national pool of about 25, watch out for the inaugural U-19 World Cup-winning stars who can prove a steal at their price point.

Among the foreigners, the categories likely to be in high demand are the power-hitters and finishers, and pace-bowling all-rounders - since such players are not readily available in India. The genuine all-round skillset and experience of the likes of Sophie Devine (NZ), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), Deandra Dottin (WI) and Marizanne Kapp (SA) has the potential to trigger bidding wars. Ash Gardner (Australia), Sophie Ecclestone (England), Amelia Kerr (NZ), Chamari Athapaththu (SL) and Sune Luus (SA), although spin-bowling allrounders, are also at the top of their game and could turn heads. The lack of a wicketkeeper-bat who can chip in quick runs consistently has been one of India's recurring pain points over the last decade or so. This makes Alyssa Healy (Australia) - gun player either side of the stumps - a front-runner among the non-Indian applicants to earn a fat paycheque.

Healy, in fact, has long been one of the most vocal advocates of an IPL-styled league for women, not only egging the BCCI on but going as far as genuinely expressing that India, with the talent it can unearth through such a competition, has the scary potential to become 'unbeatable in the next 10 years'.

Whether it was the power of manifestation (read: pressures from various stakeholders globally) or purely a result of FOMO, the BCCI is finally aboard the WPL ship. And the buzz around the tournament, without a ball being bowled, and its revolutionary auction is enough evidence that it is here to stay and lift the game to newer heights.