Women's Premier League (WPL) player auction for the 2024 edition is set to happen in Mumbai on December 9. Last month, all the teams finalised their list of retained and released players with a view to build a team for the second season. Mumbai Indians, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, won the inaugural season beating Meg Lanning-led Delhi Capitals.
As per a report in ESPNCricinfo, an additional purse of INR 1.5 crore will be available to all the five teams in the auction and it will be added to the balance left after releasing the players. Moreover, a total of 30 slots are available for the players to be picked with nine among them being for overseas players. The five teams retained a total of 60 players including 21 foreign while 29 cricketers were released by five teams combined.
Teams were given the purse of INR 12 crore for the inaugural season and now with the additional amount, the total purse available will become 13.5 crore. In the inaugural auction, Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz had exhausted their entire purse.
Currently, after releasing the players, Gujarat Giants have the highest purse left of INR 5.95 (without adding the 1.5 crore that will be added to the purse). Among other teams, Warriorz have INR 4 crore while Royal Challengers Bangalore still have 3.35 crore while MI and DC are left with 2.1 and 2.5 crore respectively.
Meanwhile, BCCI is yet to communicate to the franchises if the second WPL edition will be played in the home and away format or like the last season when the tournament happened only in one city - Mumbai.
List of released and retained players of each team:
Delhi Capitals (DC)
Retained Players: Alice Capsey*, Arundhati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Jess
Jonassen*, Laura Harris*, Marizanne Kapp*, Meg Lanning*, Minnu Mani, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Shafali Verma, Shikha Pandey, Sneha Deepthi, Taniyaa Bhatia, Titas Sadhu
Released Players: Aparna Mondal, Jasia Akhter, Tara Norris*
Gujarat Giants (GG)
Retained Players: Ashleigh Gardner*, Beth Mooney*, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt*, Shabnam Shakil, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwer
Released Players: Annabel Sutherland*, Ashwani Kumari, Georgia Wareham*, Hurley Gala, Kim Garth*, Mansi Joshi, Monica Patel, Parunika Sisodia, Sabbineni Meghana, Sophia Dunkley*, Sushma Verma
Mumbai Indians (MI)
Retained Players: Amanjot Kaur, Amelia Kerr*, Chloe Tryon*, Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews*, Humairaa Kaazi, Isabelle Wong*, Jintimani Kalita, Natalie Sciver*, Pooja Vastrakar, Priyanka Bala, Saika Ishaque, Yastika Bhatia
Released Players: Dhara Gujjar, Heather Graham*, Neelam Bisht, Sonam Yadav
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Retained Players: Asha Shobana, Disha Kasat, Ellyse Perry*, Heather Knight*, Indrani Roy, Kanika Ahuja, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine*
Released Players: Dané Van Niekerk*, Erin Burns*, Komal Zanzad, Megan Schutt*, Poonam Khemnar, Preeti Bose, Sahana Pawar
UP Warriorz (UPW)
Retained Players: Alyssa Healy*, Anjali Sarvani, Deepti Sharma, Grace Harris*, Kiran Navgire, Lauren Bell*, Laxmi Yadav, Parshavi Chopra, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, S. Yashasri, Shweta Sehrawat, Sophie Ecclestone*, Tahlia Mcgrath*
Released Players: Devika Vaidya, Shabnim Ismail*, Shivali Shinde, Simran Shaikh