West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews and fellow Barbadian all-rounder Deandra Dottin were the only two players from the Caribbean sold at the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) player auction on Monday.
Matthews is presently leading the Windies Women at the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and was sold to the Mumbai Indians for about US$49,000.
Dottin, who retired from international cricket last year after playing 143 One-Day Internationals and 127 T20 Internationals for West Indies following her international debut 15 years ago, was sold to Gujarat Giants for about US$73,000.
A total of 87 players were sold during the player auction and the five franchises – Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and UP Warriorz – splurged about US$7.2 million to populate their teams.
The first bid turned out to be the most expensive as RCB got India Women’s batsman Smriti Mandhana for US$415,000.
Mumbai Indians defied competition from RCB and Delhi Capitals and bought India Women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur for about US$220,000.
All-rounder Deepti Sharma was the second most expensive domestic player, being sold for about US$317,000, and Jemimah Rodrigues made massive gains after being bought by Warriorz for about US$268,000.
Australian Ashleigh Gardner, the No. 1 all-rounder in Women’s T20Is, and England all-rounder Natalie Sciver topped the charts among the overseas players, attracting to joint top bid of about US$390,000.
Among the list of players going unsold were former West Indies Women’s captain Stafanie Taylor, pacers Shamilia Connell and Shakera Selman, as well as leg-spinner Afy Fletcher.
The inaugural season of the WPL will be contested from March 4 to 26, with all 22 matches being held at the Brabourne Stadium and the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Mumbai.
-CMC
