As many as 18 Indian players are going to be a part of the inaugural overseas players draft for Weber’s Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL). WBBL announced the list of players on 28 August, which contained a total of 116 players who nominated themselves for the inaugural draft.
Indian stars like Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, and several others will be a part of it. Meanwhile, Indian vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has decided to opt out of the tournament to focus on the upcoming domestic season.
Harmanpreet Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, and Jemimah Rodrigues can be retained by Melbourne Renegades, Brisbane Heats, and Melbourne Stars respectively, as they fulfill any of the following criteria :
1) Have been in a Big Bash team squad for a minimum of two seasons and haven’t been contracted to another team since
2) Have been in a Big Bash team squad the previous season
3) Was in a team squad last season but did not play in the starting 13 and have been approved by the Big Bash Technical Committee
4) Is otherwise approved by the Big Bash Technical Committee due to exceptional circumstances.
Earlier WBBL had revealed that all the players will be put into 4 categories – Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The players in the Platinum category will earn AUD$110,000 (₹58,76,385), gold category players will earn AUD$90,000 (₹48,14,835), silver AUD$65,000 (₹34,77,381), and bronze AUD$40,000 (₹21,39,926).
The draft will take place on 3rd September with Sydney Thunder being the first team to pick a player from the draft. Players like Harmanpreet, Deepti, and Richa will be high on the demand list of the teams, as the capabilities they have are immense.
The tournament will commence on 19 October, with Sydney Sixers and Melbourne Stars, while the ultimate final will be played on 2nd December.
5 Indian Players have been elevated to the Platinum Players list. These 5 players are – Harmanpreet Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh.
Following is the whole list of Indian players who have been nominated for the draft.
Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (Melbourne Renegades), Harleen Deol, Hurley Gala, Richa Ghosh, Mannat Kashyap, Amanjot Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Shreyanka Patil, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues (Melbourne Stars), Meghana Sabbineni, Deepti Sharma, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav.
