'My mom was in tears': Vrinda Dinesh narrates the story of Rs 1.3 crore WPL deal

Vrinda Dinesh may now be Indian cricket's latest millionaire but the 22-year-old uncapped batter is not bothered about the whopping deal she garnered at the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2024 auction on Saturday.

Starting the auction at a base price of Rs 10 lakh, Vrinda, a right-handed batter, was picked by UP Warriorz for an enormous Rs 1.3 crore deal after a fierce bidding war with Gujarat Giants, making her the second most expensive player in the auction.

"I will give the money to my parents. I have not planned anything now, I do not know what to do with it," said Vrinda at a virtual press conference on Sunday.

"But it will not make much difference as the price tag is not in my hand. My aim is simple, to work hard, play, enjoy and improve my game. My biggest dream is to play for India women and win the World Cup," she added.

Asked about her first reaction after she was picked for a whopping amount, she said, "I am excited to play in the WPL. I am in Raipur now, I had a practice session last evening. I was bowling at the nets. I happened to overhear '1.3' as I saw my teammate Shishira Gowda whispering something to team analyst Mala Rangaswamy."

"I was soon encircled by everyone. The coach, the trainer and the teammates came forward and congratulated me. I jumped in and asked, 'What! 1.3 lakh?' Shishira said 'nope'," said Vrinda, who is currently playing for Karnataka at the Women's Under-23 one-day competition in Raipur.

"I also thought 1.3 lakh was impossible. Then I was like, 'What? 1.3 crore?' She was like, 'yeah'. Then, suddenly, everyone, the batters who were batting, the keeper, everyone ran towards me and hugged me for a long time. Everyone was genuinely very happy. It felt great to have such team-mates around," she added.

The first person she called was her mother. "She was in tears. They were very happy for me," said the youngster.

A prolific scorer for Karnataka over the past two seasons, Vrinda has made up her mind about playing in the league last season.

"I watched all the matches last season, and I thought about playing for UP Warriorz last season itself," said the right-handed batter.

'Kohli and Lanning my favourites'

Asked about her favourite batters, the Karnataka cricketer, who also made it to the India A side this year, said, "Virat Kohli and Meg Lanning are my two favourite cricketers because of their style of batting. I try to learn from them; they motivate me a lot. Alyssa Healy is my latest favourite to this list."

Vrinda, who hails from Bengaluru, was introduced to cricket by her father. She first took up the willow when she was 13.

"I was playing gully cricket with the boys. One day, my father took me to a summer camp. I enjoyed the sport ever since. In 2018 December, I made my senior team debut with Karnataka. I scored two back-to-back hundreds in the senior one-dayers that I was my turning point," said the batter, who now aims to take the WPL by storm with her hard-hitting style of batting.