The five Women’s Premier League franchises have been told, albeit informally for the moment, to prepare for a full-scale player auction at the end of November. The auction – the first “mega” version since the competition began in 2023 – will lay the groundwork for the 2026 season, which the BCCI still intends to stage in its now-usual January-to-February window.
Right now, the clubs are still waiting on the nuts and bolts: how many players they can keep, the size of the purse, retention price-bands, and whether the rarely used right-to-match (RTM) cards will be on the table. A WPL committee meeting will eventually sign all that off, but no date has been fixed. As one official put it, that uncertainty is “the bit that’s really nagging everyone”.
Launched with no little fanfare three seasons ago, the WPL has already produced three different winners – Mumbai Indians in 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2024 and Mumbai again this year. That recent success explains, at least in part, why Mumbai, RCB and twice-runners-up Delhi Capitals are lukewarm on blowing their squads apart. All three argue they have invested heavily in scouting, development and promotion; dismantling those lists now, they say, risks stalling momentum just as the league is bedding in.
The opposite view comes from Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz, neither of whom have reached a final. They are keen on a clean slate. “We need a broader talent pool and a fair crack at it,” a Warriors source said on Monday, mindful that a better spread of quality players would give them half a chance of closing the gap.
A league representative, speaking on background, acknowledged the tension but insisted competitive balance has to come first. “If one or two teams drift too far behind the rest, people switch off,” the official warned. They also pointed out that RCB’s IPL side have rebuilt several times and retained a strong identity – though the Virat Kohli factor obviously helps.
How many players each team will be allowed to lock in remains the big talking point. Some clubs have floated six or seven; the WPL is thought to be leaning closer to five. For reference, the men’s IPL 2025 mega auction will let each franchise keep up to six players using a mix of straight retentions and RTMs – capped at five internationals and two uncapped Indians – so the women’s competition could follow something similar, while still tweaking the details.
RTMs, incidentally, have never been used in a WPL room before. They allow a club to match the highest bid for one of its former players once the hammer appears to have fallen elsewhere. If they are introduced this time, expect plenty of last-minute shuffling, especially around the Indian internationals whose market value has shot up since the league began.
Financially, the WPL remains a juggernaut: Viacom18’s broadcast deal in 2023 underpinned record player salaries and, more importantly, convinced many leading women cricketers that they could earn a genuine living from the sport. A well-run mega auction would only reinforce that message. The risk, of course, is that prolonged wrangling over regulations – or a perception of unfairness – could undo some of the goodwill built to date.
For now, franchise analysts are already red-penning depth charts, while coaches quietly sound out possible recruits. The waiting game on retention rules continues, yet most insiders expect clarity within the next few weeks. Once that drops, serious planning – and a fair bit of horse-trading – can begin in earnest.
