PAARL: IT was five days before the World Cup. The captains of all ten teams were assembled together in one place for a media interaction. Even with the World Cup coming into view, the biggest talking point of the interaction was the Women’s Premier League player auction.
Such was the impact it had captains acknowledged that the glass ceiling was about to break. Some had mixed feelings about the fact that it was happening in the middle of the World Cup.
As the World Cup started, they were trying to keep their minds away from it, but the anticipation was palpable. For WPL is something the cricketing world has waited for a long time. It was finally here and everyone wanted to be a part of it. Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner summed it the feeling after the game against New Zealand. “I've tried to not think about it but I'd be lying if I haven't. I actually dreamt about it the other night, which is quite sad but quite funny but that's how much I've been thinking about it,” she said.
On Monday, as the madness unfolded, one could understand why Gardner felt so. It was, truly, something to watch as the teams fought to sign cricketers. For generations, they had been receiving second-hand treatment from boards, media and fans. It was the players of the past who carried the women’s game to where it is now. In fact, some of them were on the auction table with the teams to put together a strong squad.
The auction, as was expected, was all about Indian internationals and overseas all-rounders. While several teams broke the bank for the top names Smriti Mandhana being the costliest player (Rs 3.4 crore for Royal Challengers Bangalore) some of them waited for their turn. They knew who they wanted. Some were also conscious of the need to keep their powder dry to go big in the latter sets. Delhi Capitals was one such team. Coincidently, it was Gardner, along with England all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt, who went for the second highest price (Rs 3.2 crore).
As a few teams spent a lot in the first couple of sets, they had to save some for Indian players based on the order of the auction, as a result of which players like Heather Knight and Hayley Matthews, Megan Schutt, etc. went unsold early on. However, they were picked in the accelerated round later.
Truth be told, none of this comes as a surprise for those who have been tracking the men’s IPL auctions. But, for women cricketers, this was new. And they were in the middle of the World Cup. Different teams chose to handle it differently. While England left it to individuals whether or not to keep track of the auction (there was a process in place to tell the team that their value as cricketers wasn't determined by whether or not they were picked at the auction), Indian players were in a room watching it all together, cheering for one another.
That said, the bottom line of what happened on Monday in Mumbai was more about the domestic cricketers than the top names in the auction. For them, it is going to be life-changing, to say the least. From earning `20,000 per match day depending on how many get to play — not as much as the men — those who were signed have earned several lakhs of rupees in a day.
“It is massive,” says Ramana Rao, Anjali Sarvani’s father. “In our family, speaking about money in thousands itself is a big sum for us. This is a huge thing,” he said as the pacer from Adoni went to UP Warriorz for Rs 55 lakhs. Bhupinder Singh, father of Amanjot Kaur (she was signed by Mumbai Indians for Rs 50 lakhs), said that now his daughter will not have to think twice before spending on herself. “It is a very big thing. Now, she can invest her money in cricket or buy whatever she wants without thinking if she is spending too much. It will free her up off the financial stress and help her focus on cricket alone,” Amanjot's father said. It is not just Anjali and Amanjot, there is Minnu Mani from Kerala, and more like them. And they are the ones who are going to benefit from this.
There is another side to this as well. For one, the players who were not picked, it was something they would not have gone through before. While it could prove to be the motivation to become better, as Heather said, they might need a hand around their shoulder to say that it doesn’t determine their value as a person or an athlete. And then, on Sunday, Pakistan skipper Bismah Maroof, said what it feels to be not included in the auction at all. While she admitted that it was unfortunate that they do not get to play as much in T20 leagues, it was not in their control. "It is what it is," she said.
The women's game is entering a new horizon. In the larger scheme of things, Heather called it as 'exciting'. Irrespective of how it goes from here, on Monday, a new chapter in the history of women's cricket was written.