Women's cricketers hit jackpot during WPL 2023 player auction

India opener Smriti Mandhana, England all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt and Australia's Ashleigh Gardner struck it rich in Monday's player auction for the inaugural Women's Premier League next month.

Nearly 450 players went under the hammer and several of them experienced the biggest payday of their career after five franchises entered the auction with a team purse of 120 million Indian rupees ($1.45m) each.

The auction began with a bang as Bangalore splurged 34m Indian rupees ($415,000) – over a quarter of their purse – to sign left-handed batter Mandhana.

The 26-year-old was expected to get the biggest bid as she is the premier batter in the country.

Sciver-Brunt joined Mumbai Indians, coached by former England captain Charlotte Edwards, for 32m rupees ($390,000), which is 10 times more the highest salary in the women's Hundred run by the England board.

Nat, she’s coming home