The list of players retained by the Women’s Premier League (WPL) franchises was announced ahead of the upcoming mega auction on Wednesday, November 5.
Five franchises – Mumbai Indians (MI), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Delhi Capitals (DC), Gujarat Giants (GG), and UP Warriors (UPW) – have made some bold decisions while finalizing their retentions.
WPL 2026 retention announced
The Women’s Premier League will see a mega auction this time, which is expected to be held between November 26 and 29. Ahead of the event, the governing council of the league has made some strict rules and regulations for retention.
Each franchise was informed that they would be allowed to retain a maximum of five players, including outright retention or Right to Match (RTM) option.
The retention price slabs were also shared by the Governing Council, which were as follows – for the five retained players – Rs 3.50 crore, Rs 2.50 crore, Rs 1.75 crore, Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh.
As per the guidelines, franchises were allowed to retain a maximum of three Indian capped players, two overseas players or two uncapped Indian players. Based on the number of players retained, deductions were made from the teams’ purse: Rs 9.25 crore for five players, Rs 8.75 crore for four, Rs 7.75 crore for three, Rs 6 crore for two and Rs 3.5 crore for one.
Notably, it has been made mandatory by the Governing Council to keep at least one uncapped player in the squad as retention for a team that opts to retain all five players. Each uncapped player retained will be paid Rs 50 lakh.
Like the Indian Premier League (IPL), WPL teams were given the freedom to pay players more than the prescribed slab, and the excess amount was deducted from their purse. Also, teams that retain four players will get one RTM, while teams that retain three will have two RTMs available, and so on. Overall, the teams will have a purse of Rs 15 crore in the auction.
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Complete list of players retained by MI, RCB, DC, UPW, GG
RCB: Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil
MI: Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Hayley Matthews, Amanjot Kaur, G Kamalini
DC: Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Marizanne Kapp, Annabel Sutherland, Nikki Prasad
GG: Ash Gardner, Beth Mooney
UPW: Shweta Sehrawat
Remaining purses for each WPL team:
RCB: ₹6.15 crore
MI: ₹5.7 crore
DC: ₹5.7 crore
UPW: ₹14.5 crore
GG: ₹9 crore
Big names released by the Women’s Premier League (WPL) franchises include Deepti Sharma, Meg Lanning, Sophie Ecclestone and Amelia Kerr. These players are expected to get huge sums in the Women’s Premier League mega auction.
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