Key events
Welsh Fire women’s head coach Michael Klinger on Sophie Devine “she’s one of the best allrounders in the world, we’re really happy to have her.”
Time for a break from the auction while everyone tots up their shopping list. It’s not the world’s most enthralling watch – could do with a bit more Supermarket Sweep energy.
Beth Mooney joins Trent Rockets for £210,000
The Australian “wicketkeeper batsman” becomes the joint most expensive player of the morning as the Supergiants are outbid once more.
Sophie Mollineaux joins Southern Brave for £47,500
A slow burn for Mollineaux but she inches close to a £50,000 pay packet eventually.
Sophie Devine joins Welsh fire for £210,000
A fantastic retirement present for Sophie Devine. Welsh Fire outbid MI London – things are looking up across the Severn Bridge.
Deepti Sharma joins Sunrisers Leeds for £27,500
A complete bargain for Sunrisers Leeds. I find that a bit baffling.
I wonder if the men’s auction tomorrow will be dominated by women with ipads. I have spotted Anya Shrubsole with her arms folded in a regulation Southern Brave baseball jacket.
Nadine de Klerk joins London Spirit for £170,000
Not entirely sure Richard Madley from Bargain Hunt knows who Nadine de De Klerk is. Anyway, as the first of the overseas players, she gets a huge pay cheque as London Spirit outbid their rival over the Thames.
Dani Gibson joins Sunrisers for £190,000
A whopping pay day for Dani Gibson, in a bidding war between Welsh Fire, Sunrisers Leeds and Southern Brave.
Tammy Beaumont joins Birmingham Phoenix for 70K
Phoenix outbid the Trent Rockets for England’s own pocket rocket.
Forgive me, I’ve just spotted two women in an ocean of men in leisurewear. Remember when the WCA amalgamated with the ECB and all the women lost their jobs?
Where are the women?
I’d like to point out that it might be the women players who are for sale but I’m yet to see a woman on any of the team tables. Welcome to 2026.
Southern Brave buy Sarah Glenn for £75,000
A first purchase for Southern Brave.
London Spirit buy Amy Jones for £70,000
London Spirit open and close the bidding for England’s wicketkeeper.
Birmingham Phoenix buy Davina Perrin for £50,000
A volunteer picks a name from a hat, and it’s Davina Perrin – a bit of to-ing and fro-ing until Birmingham Phoenix make the first ever Hundred auction purchase!
Finances
The investors have brought with them a bigger purse, meaning bigger salaries. The women’s salary cap has doubled to £880,000 per team (though still significantly less than the men’s £2.05 million)
The teams still have a fair share of that booty left: Birmingham Phoenix, London Sprit, Southern Brave and Trent Rockets have £480,000.
MI London, Sunrisers Leeds, Welsh Fire and Manchester Super Giants have £530,ooo.
Okay, so the likeable Charles Dagnall and Kenzie Benali are our hosts on Sky.
There will be 178 names in the women’s pool. Each team is allowed four overseas players per squad (and per team). Each team has already signed up a handful of players, with some teams already looking.
Manchester Super Giants: Sophie Ecclestone (retained) Smriti Mandhana, Meg Lanning (both pre-signed)
London Spirit: Grace Harris, Charlie Dean (both retained), Marizanne Kapp, Mahika Gaur (both pre-signed)
Birmingham Phoenix: Ellyse Perry (retained). Alice Capsey, Lucy Hamilton, Lauren Filer (all pre-signed)
MI London: Hayley Matthews, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Melie Kerr (all pre-signed)
Southern Brave: Laura Wolvaardt, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier (all retained), Jemimah Rodrigues (pre-signed)
Sunrisers Leeds: Kate Cross, Annabel Sutherland, Phoebe Litchfield (all retained)
Trent Rockets: Nat Sciver-Brunt, Ash Gardner (both retained), Sophia Dunkley, Kim Garth (both pre-signed)
Welsh Fire: Georgia Wareham, Freya Kemp, Georgia Voll (all pre-signed)
Many eyes will be on how Pakistan’s players fare after reports that Indian-owned franchises would follow the IPL and refuse to sign players from across the border.
There are 16 Pakistan names in the auction – two women (fast-bowling allrounder Fatima Sana and left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal) and 16 men including Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan.
The Franchises
Manchester Super Giants, once Manchester Originals, are now 70 per cent owned by India’s RSPG group and part of a growing empire including IPL side Lucknow Super Giants and SA20’s Durban Super Giants. Lancashire CCC own the other 30 per cent. Their new badge features the famous Manchester elephant.
London Spirit American based consortium Tech Tech have a 49 per cent stake, while the MCC kept the majority stake.
Sunrisers Leeds were sold lock stock and barrel to The Sun Group which in the process killed off Northern Superchargers. They too become part of a portfolio of sides, joining Sunrisers Hyderabad and Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
MI London, once the Oval Invincibles, also lost their name in the sell-off to India’s Ambani family. Reliance Industries Ltd now hold a 49 percent stake, with Surrey keeping the majority share. Their sister club is Mumbai Indians.
Southern Brave keep their name. GMR Group, the power behind Delhi Capitals and Hampshire, have a 49 percent stake.
Welsh Fire are half owned by Glamorgan, and half owned by India-American businessman Sanjay Goval, who also controls Major League Cricket franchise Washington Freedom.
Trent Rockets break the mould a little. Notts retain a 51 percent share, with the other 49 percent sold to Cain International, owned by Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly.
Preamble
Good morning brave new world. Today we crush the Hula Hoops and strut into the era of billionaire owners and player auctions, with a side dish of geopolitics
The women go under the hammer in about an hour’s time, tomorrow bids will be made on the men. In brief, each player will be listed in turn and the highest bidder wins their labour for six weeks in the summer.
The players are ranked into three groups – hero players (the 50 players who had the most interest from franchises), ranked players (each team then ranks 25 from the best of rest) and finally nominated players (each team selects an unsigned player they like, they then get auctioned, and if no other team bids they remain with the team who selected them.)
Media aren’t allowed into the auction room, but our man Andy Bull will be darting into the mixed zone when he can. We’ll be keeping an eye from the sofa, do join us.