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Ahead of the auction for the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL), India skipper Rohit Sharma wished all the teams and players the very best of luck and said that this "historic thing" has opened a lot of avenues for women's cricketers worldwide.
The auction for the inaugural edition of WPL will take place on Monday. "It is a historic thing happening in Indian cricket. More than 400 players are going under the hammer. Nervous, but exciting times. I would like to wish everyone involved the very best of luck. This has opened a lot of avenues for cricketers worldwide to showcase their talent. It is going to be massive. We have seen that with men's IPL, WPL is going to be no different," said Rohit in a video posted by BCCI. Indian spin-bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin also expressed his happiness ahead of the WPL auction and hopes that the tournament changes the landscape of women's cricket forever. "About time that women in our country got the opportunity to compete at the highest level. The women's team has done well in world championships and has been very good at world cups, and T20 WCs. Over the last few years, we have seen the Women's T20 Challenge go along really well. Now that TV rights and franchises have been sold at an unbelievable cost, I hope the landscape of women's cricket changes forever. I am looking forward to it more than ever. It is gonna be interesting at the auction," said Ashwin. Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik also noted that women's cricket has picked up worldwide during the last five years or so. "I was part of a tournament in England where I could see the interest these young girls have in watching the matches and watching their heroes play. That is what you want to see. I am looking forward to the auction. We are also gonna see some small Indian domestic players putting their names up. When they do something special and their names get called up during the auction, every girl would feel like representing the country, their franchise and get their name called out by the auctioneer during the course of an auction," said Karthik. The inaugural edition of WPL will be played in Mumbai from March 4 to 26 across two Mumbai venues and the player auction for the same will be held on February 13. The Lucknow-based team was bought by Capri for INR 757 crore at the auction on January 25. A total of 409 players will go under the hammer during the auction of the inaugural edition of Women's Premier League (WPL), which will be taking place on February 13, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Tuesday. A total of 1,525 players registered for the inaugural Women's Premier League Player Auction and the final list was pruned to 409 players. Out of 409 players, 246 are Indians and 163 are overseas players of which 8 players are from associate nations. The total capped players are 202, uncapped players are 199 and 8 are from associate nations. A maximum of 90 slots are available with the five teams, with 30 being slotted for overseas players. Rs 50 lakh is the highest reserve price with 24 players choosing to be slotted in the highest bracket. Team India Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma and India's Under-19 T20 World Cup-winning captain Shafali Verma are among the few Indians who have slotted themselves in the highest bracket. 13 overseas players have also slotted themselves under the Rs 50 lakh reserve price with the likes of Ellyse Perry, Sophie Ecclestone, Sophie Devine & Deandra Dottin to name a few. 30 players are on the auction list with a base price of Rs 40 Lakh. The Auction will start at 14:30 IST. The five franchises were acquired by the owners of the three IPL teams--Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Delhi Capitals--along with Adani Group and Capri Global for a total of INR 4669.99 crore (about USD 572.78 million). This represents the largest deal ever made in women's cricket. The successful bidders were announced on January 25. (ANI)
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