WPL 2023 Auction: 3 differences with Men's IPL Auctions

The 2023 Women's IPL auctions sees unprecedented euphoria surrounding women's cricket even as the Women's T20 World Cup goes on at the same time in South Africa. The auctions begin at 2:30 pm on Wednesday.

The WPL auctions will follow the same format as the IPL auctions, with five teams involved in an open bidding process. A total of 449 players - pruned from the 1525 that had registered - are part of the auction.

The tournament, comprising 22 matches, will be played between March 4 and March 26 across the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

WPL Auction: List of players in fray, Full squads of all 5 teams

There are three major differences between the WPL auction and the IPL auctions that fans can watch out for:

Foreign Player slots

There might be some added stress on overseas players in the Women's IPL auctions, specifically on cricketers from Associate nations. One major difference between the WPL and the IPL is the additional provision of having of one Associate player in the playing XI over and above the 4 foreigners.

The number of overseas players allowed in the WPL:

In squad - 5+1 associate (8 in IPL)

in playing XI - 4+1 associate (4 in IPL)

Squad size

WPL squads will be significantly smaller than the men's teams in the IPL. A maximum of 90 slots - the squads can have between 15 and 18 players - can be filled by the five teams. IPL teams have a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 25.

Money

The teams have significantly different auction purses too. The maximum spend allowed by the WPL teams is INR 12 crore. In the 2022 IPL mega-auctions, the 10 men's teams had an individual budget of INR 90 crore.

In the WPL, international players have base prices between INR 30 lakh and INR 50 lakh. Uncapped players have base prices between INR 10 lakh and INR 20 lakh. In the men's IPL, base prices of players range from Rs 2 crore to Rs 20 lakh.