Malika Advani to conduct WPL auction in Mumbai

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have decided to bring in a female auctioneer for the Women’s Premier League auction, set to take place at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on February 13. Malika Advani, a Mumbai-based art collector consultant for Modern and Contemporary Indian art and partner in Art India Consultants firm, will oversee the proceedings. 

While Richard Madley conducted the auction in the formative years of the Indian Premier League, Hugh Edmeades has been doing it for the last three years while Charu Sharma came in as a filler for the IPL 2022 auction when Edmeades suddenly fell down due to high blood pressure. 

Also Read: WPL Auction - Beginning of something special?

The inaugural Women’s Premier League will take place between March 4 and 26 at two venues in Mumbai: the Brabourne Stadium and the DY Patil Stadium. 1525 players had registered for the auction and a total of 409 cricketers - 246 Indians and 163 overseas - are set to go under the hammer. The five franchises, based out of Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Delhi, and Bengaluru, will be contesting for 90 slots with 30 being slotted for overseas players. 

Every team will have the option of making a roster of a maximum of 18 players to be bought with a team purse of 12 Crores. Like IPL, there is no upper cap on the money a player would earn from the WPL, hence contest for big stars would be one to look forward to. If the teams go for five overseas players in their XI, they will have to include one player from an associate nation in the side as well, which means the likes of Esha Oza from UAE, Natthakan Chantham from Thailand, Sterre Kalis from the Netherlands would be in demand.

"Following the conclusion of each set, there may (at the Auctioneer's discretion) be a short break to allow franchises time to re-evaluate tactics. The length of each break will be announced by the Auctioneer at the conclusion of the relevant set. A warning bell will ring two minutes before the resumption of the Player Auction after each break. The Player Auction will re-start promptly after each break. It is anticipated that these short breaks will total a minimum of 10 minutes in every hour of the Player Auction proceedings," the BCCI note to franchises said, reported Cricbuzz.