On Saturday, December 9, the star-studded Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 auction concluded in the city of Mumbai. Just like any other cricketing auction from previous years, the WPL auction delivered the goods big time, allowing the women’s players to get signed for massive contracts to showcase their cricketing skills in the next season of the franchise tournament.
On the back of a title-winning WPL 2023 season, the defending champions Mumbai Indians, the runners-up Delhi Capitals, and the third-place team UP Warriorz were some of the least active teams in the auction, signing a handful of players to bolster their squad. Meanwhile, the two bottom-placed teams in last year’s tournament, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Giants welcomed a whole host of players to their respective squads.
In this article, SportsTiger looks at five major things that happened during the WPL 2024 auction.
Annabel Sutherland & Kashvee Gautam become top buys
Annabel Sutherland, the Australian all-rounder, and the uncapped Indian all-rounder Kashvee Gautam became the joint top buys in the WPL 2024 auction for a whopping price of ₹2 crore each. The runners-up from the last WPL season, Delhi Capitals secured the services of Annabel Sutherland to add to their all-round player depth, while the Gujarat Giants shelled a huge sum to bring in the talented youngster Kashvee Gautam, potentially as a long-term investment.
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Big names appear in WPL 2024 Auction
Some of the biggest cricket personalities to make an appearance at the WPL 2024 auction included the likes of the BCCI President Roger Binny, who is also heading the eight-member committee for the franchise tournament, and the BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, who is playing the role of the convenor in the committee. Charlotte Edwards (MI), Jhulan Goswami (MI), Sourav Ganguly (DC), and Mithali Raj (GG), were some of the former cricketers who provided their services to the respective teams at the auction table.
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Gujarat Giants rebuild their squad
After finishing in fifth and last place in the WPL 2023 points table, the Gujarat Giants released a plethora of players from their squad to change the face of their franchise completely. During the WPL 2024 auction, the Gujarat Giants signed 10 players including Kashvee Gautam, Phoebe Litchfield, Meghna Singh, Lauren Cheatle, Veda Krishnamurthy, and Mannat Kashyap, among others.
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Uncapped Indian players go for big money
The WPL 2024 auction saw the uncapped Indian players make a major splash, getting signed for big-money deals, with two prominent names being Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh. The Gujarat Giants paid the auction high of ₹2 crores to bring in the uncapped all-rounder Gautam into the mix, while the UP Warriorz went for the uncapped batter Dinesh at ₹1.3 crores.
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Top international players like Chamari Athapaththu snubbed
Although some of the top players were signed to big-money deals during the WPL 2024 auction, a few top international players were completely ignored by the teams altogether. Chamari Athapaththu, Kim Garth, Amanda-Jade Wellington, Tammy Beaumont, Amy Jones, Punam Raut, and Priya Punia, who have played cricket at the highest level for their respective countries, are going to miss out on taking part in the WPL 2024.
