WPL franchises could get major revamp with mega auction ahead of 2026 season

The five franchises in the Womens Premier League WPL are all set for a major revamp with a mega auction being decided to be held by the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI ahead of the 2026 seasonAs per ESPNCricinfo franchises have received an informal communication about the mega auction likely to take place by NovemberendThe franchises are awaiting confirmation from the WPL regarding the number of retentions the auction purse retention slabs and the number of righttomatch options available The WPL committee will finalise these decisions The dates for the 2026 edition of the competition have yet to be announced despite the BCCIs earlier indication that the event will be scheduled for a JanuaryFebruary windowThe competition was launched in 2023 with the Mumbai Indians MI as the inaugural champions followed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore RCB in 2024 and then MI once again It has become one of the most lucrative womens sporting events globallyAlso it is understood that MI and RCB along with Delhi Capitals DC were not in favour of mega actions reasoning that they had worked really hard to build their squad over the last three years and dismantling it just when their brand as a WPL team is being established could be counterproductiveHowever the other two franchises UP Warriorz and Gujarat Giants are supportive of the auctions having never made it to the final and aiming for an overhaul of their squads While they understood the sentiments of the other three teams they wanted the WPL to have all five teams be powerful as per a WPL official The official also pointed out that franchises like RCB have demonstrated in the IPL that they can build a brand identity independent of the players retained although it was acknowledged that the presence of the legendary Indian batter Virat Kohli was well leveraged by the franchiseThe official also pointed out that WPL will ensure that teams get a chance to retain their core It is understood that while some teams were in favour of retaining six or seven players the WPL committee could permit close to five players to be retained What also needs to be determined is how many RTMs each team can have at the auction along with a combination of capped and uncapped playersFor the 2025 IPL mega actions all 10 teams were allowed a maximum of six retentions via retentions and RTM The six retained players would be a maximum of five capped Indianoverseas and a maximum of two uncapped Indian players The RTM option allows franchises to buy back a player during the auction by matching the highest bid made for that player by another franchise once bidding is over The RTM rule has never been used in WPL thoughThe WPL has proven to be a gamechanger in womens cricket largely due to the unprecedented exposure and financial benefits it offers to players In 2023 Viacom 18 secured the broadcasting rights for the competition for Rs 951 crores from 2023 to 2027 with a permatch value of Rs 709 crores Star Indian opener Smriti Mandhana is the most expensive player in the tournaments history bought by RCB for Rs 32 crores in the inaugural auctionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever