By Melinda Farrell
While South Africa may be the focus for international women’s cricket as the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup kicks off in Cape Town, the epicentre of the game’s future will be 8000km away on February 13 when the inaugural Women’s Premier League auction gets underway in Mumbai.
New Zealand captain Sophie Devine admitted it was “the elephant in the room”, a phrase repeatedly echoed by players, management and commentators throughout the past week.
Up to 45 players at the World Cup are in the mix for unprecedented paychecks. Five franchises – based in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow – each have a purse of around $21 million with which to build their teams. The base price for top-tier players is set at approximately $67,000 for the three-week league, which starts March 4th.
Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Ashleigh Gardner, Jess Jonassen and Darcie Brown have registered for the top tier. They are six of 409 players who made the final list out of a whopping 1525 registrations from around the world.
Just how this will affect the World Cup remains the topical question. All teams will have played a match before the auction, and one standout innings or bowling spell could clinch a lucrative deal.
On the day players go under the hammer, England play Ireland and South Africa face New Zealand in a match that could be crucial in deciding who goes through to the semi-finals. Australia have a training session scheduled in Gqeberha during the auction; Lanning said it would be left to players to decide how to handle any distraction.
Australian WPL hopefuls Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Ash Gardner.Credit:Getty
“There’s no right or wrong way to go about it,” said Lanning, at the captain’s press conference in Cape Town. “We’ve spoken as a team about letting people deal with it how they feel is best. It’s about trying to embrace that and understand that it’s actually a really exciting time, and you don’t have a lot of control over it. We’ve just got to wait and see. We are trying to focus as much as we can on the cricket here and the rest will take care of itself.”
Players are generally toeing the party line in public, emphasising the importance of the global tournament. But Devine admitted the various fortunes of individuals and the subsequent impact on teams would take careful management.
“On every scale, it’s going to be awkward,” said Devine. “That’s the word we have spoken about. Some people are going to get picked up, some people won’t.
“You’d be naive to think that it’s not going to be a distraction. It’s just how you handle it and the discussion each team and each player is going to have. It’s such an enormous step for women’s cricket. I am really looking forward to it but, also, there is a little bit of a World Cup going on at the same time.”
“It will actually change the flavour of the teams if some people start picking up big cash and others get left off.”
Belinda Clark
Former captain Belinda Clark, who has been with the Australians in South Africa in a mentoring role, agrees with Devine and believes the outcome of the auction may have an impact on the field.
“It’ll add a heap of pressure to whoever’s getting lots of money,” Clark said. “And those that miss out will have a point to prove. It will actually change the flavour of the teams if some people start picking up big cash and others get left off. The teams will have to deal with the fallout of that.”
Each franchise can sign up to seven overseas players but one must be from an associate nation, meaning a maximum of 30 women from major countries will be successful. Australian players are expected to be the hottest properties, apart from India’s home-grown stars, but high-profile players from England, New Zealand and South Africa are also likely to attract strong bidding.
FICA (the international players’ association) president Lisa Sthalekar says that may lead to a disproportionate impact on the top-ranked teams, including Australia.
“I don’t think it will trip a team up like South Africa or West Indies because those key players have already been playing around T20 franchises, so they roughly know who should get selected,” said Sthalekar. “I think it will probably affect New Zealand, England, Australia the most. And then from an Indian perspective, you’d expect them all to be selected. But who goes for what? Who knows?”
No one does. Australia may be favourites but they are embarking on a title defence in uncharted territory and how they – and other teams – handle the unusual pressures may be instrumental to success or failure.
