Last Updated: February 14, 2023, 11:01 IST
Former Pakistan captain Urooj Mumtaz.
The inaugural WPL auctions were quite a spectacle with a number of women players making a name for themselves. However, a number of Pakistan players were absent from the event.
The inaugural Women’s Premier League auctions saw no participation from Pakistan and this has already irked some of the prominent names from the nation as well as the cricketers who have sworn by the equality mantra. The inaugural auction saw India’s Smriti Mandhana stealing the thunder in the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) auctions as Royal Challengers Bangalore pipped Mumbai Indians in a bidding war to buy the India vice-captain for Rs 3.40 crore (USD 410,000) here on Monday.
Coming back to the issue of Pakistan, former Pak skipper Urooj Mumtaz said the absence of Pakistan players is extremely unfortunate. “It is extremely unfortunate to see Pakistan players missing out,” Urooj Mumtaz, the former Pakistan captain and commentator, told ESPNcricinfo. “Every opportunity must be fair and inclusive, and all opportunities are steps towards collectively raising the standard of the women’s game and globally growing the sport.
Most importantly, they bridge the gap in quality between cricketing nations.”
Pakistan women were all set to take part in the women’s PSL but that plan had to be shelved after a new administration took over under Najam Sethi.
Earlier broadcaster Allison Mitchell had highlighted the fact that women’s game can’t achieve the equality it hopes if players from Pakistan are not given equal opportunities in events like WPL auctions.
“Equality is only equality when all players have an equal opportunity to enter an auction,” Mitchell tweeted. “Feel for how much these figures will grow the gap between Pakistan players and the rest. No Pakistan players in WPL Auction as per IPL.”
Coming back to the auction, on a day when 10 Indian players got crore-plus deals, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur came much cheaper for Mumbai Indians at nearly half the price of Mandhana at Rs 1.80 crore. Harmanpreet is also not the highest paid in her team where England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt got way more at Rs 3.20 crore.
In fact, Harmanpreet was not even among the top-six Indian buys as the second costliest player from the country is all-rounder Deepti Sharma, who was bought by UP Warriorz for Rs 2.6 crore.
The hard-hitting Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues, the star of the T20 World Cup win against Pakistan on Sunday, were picked by Delhi Capitals for Rs 2 crore and Rs 2.20 crore respectively. All-rounders Pooja Vastrakar and Richa Ghosh laughed their way to the bank with Rs 1.90 crore deals each offered by MI and RCB respectively.
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