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Delhi Set To Host Women's Premier League Mega Auction In Late November: Reports
Follow UsRTM options are being introduced in the WPL as well, just like the IPL
The Women’s Premier League is gearing up for a major shake-up as the mega auction for the 2026 season is expected to take place in New Delhi in the last week of November. Although the venue and date are yet to be officially confirmed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), reports indicate a window of November 26–27 has been informally communicated to the five franchises.
Ahead of the mega auction, some changes in the player-retention rules have been introduced. Each franchise will be allowed to retain up to five players, but with limits of a maximum of three capped Indian players and two overseas players. Out of these, two uncapped Indian players may be retained, subject to the overall limit of five.
The auction purse is set at INR 15 crore per team. The retained players will be assigned fixed salary slabs that count towards the purse deduction, where the first retention is set at INR 3.50 crore, the second at INR 2.50 crore, then INR 1.75 crore, INR 1 crore and finally INR 50 lakh for the fifth. If a franchise retains the full five players, INR 9.25 crore will be deducted from its purse, and it will forfeit access to any Right-to-Match (RTM) cards. Hence, the fewer players a team retains, the more RTM flexibility it retains for the auction.
The introduction of the RTM option is also a new twist in the WPL. For the first time, franchises will be able to reclaim released players by matching the highest bid placed in the auction. With only five teams involved and a maximum squad size of 18 per team, the auction is expected to be wrapped up in a single day.