Indian uncapped players emerged as surprise winners at the Women's Premier League 2024 player auction in Mumbai on Saturday, December 9. Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh bagged big bucks but international stars Chamari Athapaththu and Deandra Dottin failed to attract bids.
Teams were involved in heated bidding wars with 30 available slots and INR 17.65 crore to spend in the WPL 2024 auction. Gujarat Giants entered the auction with the biggest purse and were the most active franchise from the beginning. They beat UP Warriorz in a bidding war to sign Australian star batter Phoebe Litchfield for INR 1 crore.
UP Warriorz managed to sign the veteran English top-order batter Danni Wyatt for a base price of INR 30 lakh in the first set of capped batters players list. Teams were careful to spend big as only two players were sold from the opening list.
Royal Challengers Bangalore signed Australian all-rounder Georgia Wareham for a base price of INR 40 lakh with no other team showing interest. The defending champions Mumbai Indians raised the bar for Annabel Sutherland but Delhi Capitals emerged winners to sign the young all-rounder for a whooping price of INR 2 crore, the biggest overseas buy of the day.
Mumbai Indians managed to beat Gujarat Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore to sign the veteran South African pacer Shabnim Ismail for INR 1.2 crore and also bagged the signature of an uncapped Indian all-rounder S Sanjana and G Trisha.
In uncapped sets, teams were further active with some sensational bids to build their teams with future talents. The 22-year-old Karnataka batter Vrinda Dinesh saw UP Warriorz, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Giants clashing in a bidding war for her signature. RCB pulled out of the race early while Warriorz claimed the signature with a sensational winning bid of INR 1.3 crore.
Kashvee Gautam, the 20-year-old all-rounder, emerged as the most expensive uncapped player in auction history. Gujarat Giants stunned everyone as they beat UP Warriorz with an unbelievable bid of INR 2.0 crore.
Meanwhile, experienced Indian players Devika Vaidya and Veda Krishnamurthy failed to attract buyers in the main round but the latter joined Gujarat Giants in the accelerated round. Overseas stars Deandra Dottin, Chamari Athapaththu, Nadine de Klerk, Amy Jones, Kim Garth and Alana King also went unsold in the WPL 2024 auction.
Surprisingly, no team shortlisted Chamari and Deandra for the accelerated auction. Gujarat Giants needed to fill 10 slots as they went for Lauren Cheatle and Kathryn Bryce to fill overseas positions. Mumbai Indians also concluded their business by signing Fatima Jaffer and Keerthana Balakrishnan in the last round of the auction.
Royal Challengers Bangalore finished the auction by signing Sophie Molineux, Sabbineni Meghana and Simran Bahadur for INR 30 lakh each and filled their 18 slots.
