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Cricket PlayersWPL auctions: Catch ‘em young, mantra of the teams
The inaugural player auction saw the five franchises also focus on the U-19 and uncapped domestic players along with the India stars
Cast your mind back to the opening season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the champions of 2008. Rajasthan Royals weren’t your quintessential money-spinning team but one that rode all the way to the title from the collective push by its young brigade.
If the 15 years of IPL have proven anything, it’s that teams with a richer spread of Indian players, especially young and largely under the radar, have had more reasons and seasons to cheer than the star-studded ones (also think Gujarat Titans, the reigning champions).
Whether that transcends into the Women’s Premier League (WPL) to be held next month remains to be seen, but the young domestic and uncapped players are bound to have a say in the depth of the five squads for the inaugural season.
There were few skyrocketing rags-to-riches scripts in the inaugural WPL auction on Monday, but a couple of the teams were proactive in diving into the domestic and uncapped pool.
Of their squad of 16, UP Warriorz picked as many as five uncapped Indians, and also the likes of leg-spinning all-rounder Devika Vaidya, who went for ₹1.40 crore from a base price of ₹40 lakh, the hard-hitting Kiran Navgire and Anjali Sarvani, the 25-year-old left-arm seamer who left a mark in India's home series against Australia.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, who started the auction aggressively and splurged on three players in the first set including Smriti Mandhana, were also busy in the latter half, roping in six uncapped Indian players. RCB have tended to largely rely on star power to pull them through over the years in IPL—the franchise hasn’t won a title yet—but have a more balanced spread to their first ever WPL team.
RCB had its scouts turn up for the recent national domestic women’s tournament, for Mike Hesson, RCB’s director of cricket, felt they wanted “a number of different eyes on the players” that are not in the limelight. For other teams, however, the quick turnaround between the successful bids for the teams and the auction posed a challenge in trying to spot and rope in the right young Indian talent to fit their plans.
Mumbai Indians belatedly picked up three uncapped players in the final shortlist, including U-19 left-arm spinner Sonam Yadav, who was the joint youngest in the auction alongside U-19 pacer Shabnam MD, snapped by Gujarat Giants seconds earlier. Jhulan Goswami, MI team mentor and bowling coach, said with more time and planning, teams will be able to be in a better position to do that for the next season.
“When we pick players, it is not just for this season. We also plan for the future, and we want young cricketers whom we can groom,” the former India spearhead said.
Mithali Raj, her captain in the national team for years and currently mentor of Gujarat Giants, agreed. “It's not just about picking performers; you also need to have one eye on the future. Having the U-19 players who have just won the trophy around a professional franchise setup will give them immense exposure,” she said.
Nine of India’s freshly-crowned U-19 T20 World Cup victors certainly will. Apart from the established Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh, most others went for their base price. A notable exception was vice-captain Shweta Sehrawat, roped in by Lucknow Warriorz for four times her base price of ₹10 lakh.
The opener was the highest scorer of the U-19 World Cup, amassing 297 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 139.43. Titas Sadhu, the U-19 pacer, also had a bidding battle between Warriorz and Delhi Capitals before the latter got her for ₹25 lakh.
Among the more experienced but lesser-known Indian players, Jasia Akhtar, the Shopian-born hard-hitting batter who plays for Rajasthan with a lot of recent success, went to DC for ₹20 lakh. Navgire, who came into national reckoning with some power knocks for Nagaland, fetched ₹30 lakh from Warriorz. The team from Uttar Pradesh also chose to spend on Vaidya, who recently made a comeback into the India T20 setup and saw Warriorz buy her after a bidding war with DC.
