Australia’s Sutherland tops WPL auction

NEW DELHI: Some of the world´s top women cricketers netted lucrative deals during Saturday´s Women´s Premier League auction in India, with Australian all-rounder Annabel Sutherland snapped up for $240,000 by Delhi Capitals.

Sutherland, 22, hails from a prominent cricketing family and was the equal most-expensive player at auction alongside Indian all-rounder Kashvee Gautam, who will play for the Gujarat Giants. Nita Ambani, wife of Asia´s richest man Mukesh Ambani and owner of the Mumbai Indians franchise, bid several times for Sutherland before losing out to Delhi ahead of the second WPL season next year.

A total of 165 cricketers participated in Saturday´s auction, with South Africa´s Shabnim Ismail and Australia´s Phoebe Litchfield among the most highly sought foreign players.

The Indian Premier League has transformed the fortunes of cricket globally since its first season in 2008, and the five-team women´s game has already proved a tidy earner for India´s cricket board.

Franchise rights were auctioned off in January for $572.5 million, while media rights for the first five seasons of the new league were sold to Viacom18 for $116.7 million.

The two deals made the WPL the second-most valuable women´s league after the WNBA women´s basketball in the United States. All-format India captain Harmanpreet Kaur led Mumbai to victory in the inaugural season with a seven-wicket win over Delhi in March.