The players’ auction for the inaugural edition of Women’s Premier League (WPL) took place at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, earlier this week. Overseas stars like Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Natalie Sciver and Sophie Ecclestone made heads turn as they were bought for big amounts by the newly-formed five franchises.
Perry, whose base price was INR 50 lakh, was snapped by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 1.7 crore at the WPL 2023 auction.
The 32-year-old is currently representing Australia at the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa.
During a recent press-conference, Perry was asked about the feeling in her team’s camp when the WPL auction was taking place in India. Responding to the query, the Aussie T20 GOAT stated that the conversation among her teammates was never about the money, but about what the WPL can do for the women’s cricket.
“From my perspective, I don’t think any of us ever led the conversation in terms of monetary value. I think there’s something at play that’s much bigger than that. Of course, remuneration and the chance to earn that kind of money is wonderful, but much larger than that, I think is just the general growth of the sport right around the world,” said Perry.
“India is kind of, I guess, the spiritual home of cricket in a lot of senses. And I think now that women are starting to have a really strong presence in the Indian market and also in the Indian game, that is so much more important than any kind of dollar value that is placed on any player. So from that perspective, the chat was just around wanting to be involved,” she added.
“Of course, after the auction, those discussions come in about certain value and how much people are sold for, which in itself is a weird kind of concept to swallow. But yeah, I just think it’s so much bigger than that. The discussion from us as a group was just what it’s going to do for the game, not so much what it’s going to do for an individual,” Perry added further.
Perry also took to Twitter to share her excitement after being picked by RCB for WPL 2023.
“An amazing period of time in Women’s Cricket. Incredibly grateful to be apart of it with some brilliant players and staff @RCBTweets!” she wrote.
An amazing period of time in Women’s Cricket. Incredibly grateful to be apart of it with some brilliant players and staff @RCBTweets ! https://t.co/xjgiQFVBQe
— Ellyse Perry (@EllysePerry) February 17, 2023