The WPL is going to be the next stage, I am really excited about it: Sophie Devine

New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine believes that the Women’s Premier League, which is likely to take place in March 2023 after the conclusion of the Women’s T20 World Cup, will prove to be a big opportunity for the players and expressed her excitement regarding the same.

Devine also mentioned that the WPL auction will be a unique experience, and is something that the women cricketers have never experience before. While there have been other franchise-based tournaments for the female cricketers like the Women's Big Bash League as well as The Hundred, none of the tournaments have ever had a player auction. 

"It's the elephant in the room. It's a really unique experience. It's enormous. You talk about glass ceilings and I think the WPL is going to be the next stage. I am really excited about it. As female cricketers, this is something we have never been through before. On every scale, it's going to be awkward. That's the word we have spoken about," said the New Zealand skipper at the captains' press conference ahead of the T20 World Cup.

Devine also feels that its not the nicest thing to have a value attached to a name, but that is what happens at the auction and it is what the players have enrolled for.

"Some people are going to get picked up; some people won't. And you are going to get a value attached to what you are worth which, as human beings, is not the nicest [thing], to be perfectly honest. But it's also a job and it's what we've put our names in for," she added.

The Kiwi all-rounder also stated that the Women's Premier League will be huge step forward in women's cricket but later also feels that it would be a distraction for the players who are participating in the World Cup.

"One would be naive to think that it's not going to be a distraction," she concluded.

We've spoken as a team about letting people deal with it how they feel is best: Meg Lanning

Meanwhile, Australian skipper Meg Lanning, who will be leading her side to a title defence, opined on the WPL and said:

“Personally, I'm really excited about it and I know the girls are as well. We are focusing on what we are trying to do here, which is the most important thing. There's no right or wrong way to go about it. Everyone will deal with it as they wish. We've spoken as a team about letting people deal with it how they feel is best because, as Sophie said, it's a little bit awkward and it's just trying to embrace that and understand that it's actually a really exciting time and you don't have a lot of control over it. We've just got to wait and see."

Franchises will be participating in the auction for WPL, where each team shall take a minimum of 15 players in their squad, with the upper limit being 18. Every team will have a purse of Rs 12 crore. While three existing teams- Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore acquired a franchise in the tournament, Adani Sportsline and Capri Global won the bid for the other two teams and named them Gujarat Giants and Lucknow Warriors respectively.

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