The first-ever Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction is scheduled to be held on Februar🎐y 13 in Mumbai. On the bidding day, a total of 409 players wil🍒l go under the hammer.

246 Indian and 163 overseas players (including eight from the associate nations) have been divided into different categories, based on 🙈their specialisation and age.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appointed Mallika Sagar Advani as the auction💖eer. She is a Mumbai-based art collector consultant for Modern and Contemporary Indian art and partner in Art India Consultants firm.

Rules for the WPL 2023 auction

The🐈 players have registered their base prices in slabs of INR 5⛎0 lakh, INR 40 lakh, INR 30 lakh, INR 20 lakh and INR 10 lakh. Bids up to 1 crore INR would be in increments of 5 lakhs INR, from 1-2 crore INR in increments of 10 lakhs INR, and beyond 2 crore INR in increments of 20 lakhs INR.

The maximum squad size of a team could be 18, which includes maximum of six foreigners. The minimum squad size is൲ restricted to 15.

Marquee players

Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti 🍌Sharma, Shafali Verma, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Ecclesto🎶ne, Sophie Devine and Deandra Dottin

Purse value

All the five franchises – Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Royal Challengers Bangalore and UP Warriorz – have been given a purse of INR 12 crores, of which a minimum of INR 9 crores have to be spent.

Time and venue for the auction

The auction will take place at the Jasmine Hall, 1💖, Jio World Convention Centre, from 2:꧟30 pm (IST) onwards. There will be a break after every hour of the bidding process.

“Following the conclusion of each set, there may be a short break (at the auctioneer’s discretion) to allow franchises time to re-evaluate tactics. The length of each break will be announced by the Auctioneer at the conclusion of the relevant set.

A warning bell will ring two minutes before the resumption of the Player Auction after each break. The Player Auction will re-start promptly after each break. It is anticipated that these short breaks will total a minimum of 10 minutes in every hour of the Player Auction proceedings,” said the BCCI, as reported by Cricbuzz.