“The likes of Rachael Haynes, Nooshin Al Khadeer, Tushar Arothe, and Gavan Twining will certainly take the performance of the team notches up,” Raj said in a remark released by the franchise. “Not only have they carved a niche for themselves in their roles, but their stories of resilience will [also] be an inspiration for the team.”
Haynes, who retired as a player late final year after a glittering international, domestic and club career, won six world titles with Australia, and was once the vice-captain of the team from 2017 to 2022. For Australia, she played six Tests where she had 383 runs at an average of 34.81, 77 ODIs where she scored 2585 runs at 39.76, and 84 T20Is with 850 runs at a strike rate of 117.72.
Al Khadeer, with the exception of being at the helm when Supernovas had won the Women’s T20 Challenge in 2022, was once the coach of the India team that won the women’s Under-19 World Cup in South Africa earlier this week. An offspinner right through her playing days, Al Khadeer played five Tests, 78 ODIs and two T20Is, picking up 115 wickets overall.And Arothe, a Baroda batting allrounder who played 114 first-class matches in a career of near to two decades, was once the head coach of the India women’s national team for just over a year in 2017-18, before stepping down following reports of strong differences with one of the crucial players. Twining, meantime, has been part of the coaching circuit in Australia for a while, and most recently served as head coach of New South Wales women’s side in the Australian domestic set-up.
The WPL is likely to be played between March 4 and March 24, between the Women’s T20 World Cup that ends in late February and the men’s IPL that is set to begin one week after the women’s competition.
WPL’s player auction, expected in just over a week’s time, will have auction purses of INR 12 crore (USD 1.46 million approx.) per team. Each and every sude can buy no less than 15 and a maximum of 18 players, including seven out of the country ones, of which one should be from an Associate country. Unlike in the men’s IPL, WPL teams will have the option of fielding up to five out of the country players in the XI, given, again, that one is from an Associate team.
A complete of 22 matches will be played in WPL 2023, with every franchise playing the other twice to make it a complete of eight games per team. The top-ranked side will enter the last directly, while the second- and third-placed teams will face off in a qualifier to decide the second one finalist.