Australians dealing with how to handle first Women’s Premier League auction

The first Women’s Premier League auction could deliver massive paydays to Australia’s stars right in the middle of the T20 World Cup campaign.

The first Women’s Premier League auction and the huge paydays likely for Australia’s stars loom as a “distraction” the reigning champs will need to navigate in their bid for a three-peat of T20 World Cup wins.

All 15 members of the Australian squad that is in South Africa for the tournament have submitted their names for the auction where five new teams will have up to $2m to spend on players for the inaugural tournament.

A date for the auction is yet to be locked in by India’s BCCI, but the expected date of February 13 falls on a training day for the Australians ahead of their second group game against Bangladesh.

New Zealand captain Sophie Devine, who herself could be one of the most sought-after players in the auction, conceded it was a “distraction” and the assigning of monetary worth to players was not ideal.

Australian skipper Meg Lanning conceded they would have to navigate how to deal with the auction, and the fallout for those players who don’t get picked up, as a new part of their World Cup campaign.

Our #T20WorldCup campaign gets underway in a week! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/gpLDnqVdiQ

— Australian Women's Cricket Team 🏏 (@AusWomenCricket) February 4, 2023

“It‘s a new experience for us and at the same time we are focusing on what we’re trying to do here which is the most important thing,” Lanning said.

“There’s no right or wrong way to do that and everyone individually will deal with it as they wish.

“I think it‘s important that you’re always working as a team but also letting people deal with it how they feel is best.

“As Soph (Devine) said, it’s a little bit awkward, but it’s just trying to embrace that and understanding it’s actually a really exciting time and you actually don’t have a lot of control over most of it, so you’ve just got to wait and see.

“We‘re just trying to focus as much as we can on the cricket here, that’s the most important thing.”

Australia boasts the No.1 and No.2 T20 batters in the world in Tahlia McGrath and Beth Mooney. Ash Gardner is the No.1 all-rounder and spinner Jess Jonassen the No.2 ranked bowler.

All loom large as likely to be one of the seven overseas players available to each of the five teams.

Australia will open its World Cup campaign against the Kiwis at 4am on Friday (AEDT).

Originally published as Australians dealing with how to handle first Women’s Premier League auction