AUCTION REACTION: Dani Gibson becomes most expensive English player in women’s Hundred history

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Cricket in the UK. Hello and welcome to this special episode of Wisden Women's Cricket weekly

podcast following the first ever 100 auction. We saw bumper paydays and record shattered as

players were bought for record sums. Danny Gibson became the most expensive domestic player

picked up for £190,000 in the first set of the day. Before Beth Mooney and Sophie DeVine became the

most expensive players in the competition's history, both picking up £210K. There were other

notable sightings at the other end of the spectrum too. Dipty Sharma only went for her base price

of £27,500, which feels a bit of a steal compared to the sums other players were going for.

I'm Katya Whitney and to dissect everything from today, I'm joined by Ben Gardner.

Lauren Winfield here is not joining us today. She's playing in the WNCL in Australia at the moment,

but she'll be back on Friday when we'll bring you another episode. She was bought by Sunrise's

Leeds in the auction today, so she'll be back to give you her take on being part of the auction

later in the week. Ben, let's start with the biggest headline of the day, which was Danny Gibson.

She was sold Sunrise's Leeds for £190,000. The context Gibson was paid £50,000 by London spirit

last year, and she's been out injured for most of the last 12 months. She played in the WBBL

this season as a specialist batter because she's still recovering from that stress factor in her

back, and in that WBBL, she only averaged £18.88 across 11 innings. On the face of that,

why has Gibson been sold for so much money? Yeah, I mean, it's one of those where you can be tempted

to look at an auction and think like price, like money amount next to player's name, that is how

good a player is and want to like sort them all based on that, and that is not how it works.

Basically, with Gibson, she is one of the very few and I think certainly the best release with

the most potential domestic scene bowling all rounders in that auction pot, given the fact that

NSB, that's where Brunt has already been bought as a direct signing before. And those are gold dust

in T20 cricket, if you want to balance a side, if you can have someone in your top six who is

bowling at 20 balls, and that makes such a big difference. And if you can then have that

be a domestic player, and you can maybe save a bit of money elsewhere on a really high quality

overseas, but just as a batter or just as a bowler, and then that can really help you do that.

So that's the profile thing is a big thing, but it is astonishing. I mean, I was just looking at

some of the numbers. I mean, she averaged £5 and last year's £105 with the bat. I mean, that

was when she couldn't bowl. So that's an impossible, you know, it's a stress factual, the

component you get from being on a rounder. Does that maybe impact you a bit? But she's never had

like a hugely, incredibly stand out 100 cities. She's never scored 150 runs in a season of the 100

equally. When you look at, even look at how much England right here, and they clearly do,

there's also one of the things where you can look at someone and be like, oh, that person's not even

a regular for England, how are they getting going? But that a Gibson's not a regular for England

because England have massive a brunt. They're not only going to pick one player in that role,

and it's NSB, it's not going to be Danny Gibson. So an England still that you know,

they wrote her and you saw like kind of the the the courage and kind of the big game now,

she had it even going back to something as small as you know, the 2020 three ashes, I think the

third 2020 I should ever played. She reversed sweeps her first ball for four to win that

2020 I series for England to get to know at that point, the most dominant side we'd ever known

basically. So that that tells you something. She's doing that at the age of what would she have been

then when? No, she's genuinely 24 now. So that's the other thing as well is that like you can look

at her numbers, but you're also some of these signs, I think, a bit based on potential as well.

You're going to have these players for, you know, it's not just for this year, it's for the next three

we think. So obviously there'll be a bit of releasing and and rebying on that sort of thing.

If you can get someone in now, think about how good Danny Gibson could be when she is 27,

you know, as compared to, you know, the potential she clearly has. That's where it's come from,

but it is kind of mad when you look at it, you know, all the sums going on and that is just

auctions you obviously want to read a lot into them and analyse them at some times you have to just

think like auctions are mad and that's what's happened there. But there is a reason for Danny Gibson.

Yeah, I mean, we can get into whether this auction is going to be played signed on potentially for

three years a bit later on. I think the point with the England really liked Danny Gibson is an

important one. I remember had the night being incredibly positive about her after the 2024 season

when she was part of that London spirit campaign that won the 100. And I think probably the most

important point out of all of that is the point of roles. So we saw later in the auction as well,

MR a lot went for 110,000 something like that. And as another scene bowling around her, it just

shows how much they are gold dust. But I think the wider point of the presynings often going for a

lot less than the signings in the auction is probably the most important one. Like that silver

brunt was bought by tread rockets before the auction for 140k. So that means Danny Gibson is going

to be on 50k more than arguably the best player in the world who's just scored a centric in the WPL.

You know, one of the big game players in the world as well, her England captain, you would have

seen obviously that the Sunrise of these have been given assurances that Danny Gibson can bowl or

will be able to bowl or should be able to bowl in the 100 this season. But I think particularly in

terms of batters and all rounders, you saw the disparity between those presyned players and the

players who went for a lot in the auction. So like Smithy Mandana as well, she was signed for 90k

before the auction by Manchester. See if you're going to be calling them now. MSG. MSG. MSG.

And then MSG also bought Page Gofield for £115,000. 90k is still a decent payday for Smithy Mandana.

But I would be fuming if I was a presyned player thinking I could have got more in the auction if

I'd put myself in there. Yeah, there definitely is a bit of that. And I think what we might see in

the future, possibly, is if you are one of the very, very best players in the world, I

undisputably top five, you might well go into that auction because you know that the bidding

war is just going to be obscene basically. But actually, if you are that tier below, there is also

this is the risk, this is the thing with an auction, is there's volatility there and that can go,

the thing with the volunteers, it can go both ways. So like you look at someone like you wonder if

maybe like a Davina Perrin might have had possibly, I don't know, there's some just speculating,

but I would imagine she would be one of the players that, that teams would maybe try and

direct sign before the auction. And she might have thought, no, you know what, I'm the best young

batter in England. There's not young batters that have something close to me. I'm going to go

into the auction, I'm going to get, you know, that pushed up and she ends up getting picked up

for what only 50 can. I think that's kind of an anomaly though. If I was Davina Perrin, I also

would have expected to go for more than 50k. For sure, but you risk being an anomaly if you go

into the auction versus if you're direct signing, that is how you can guarantee your level, you can

negotiate it a bit. And you have, I guess the anomalies are more there when you have some of the

overseas players. So we can say that look, she would go for a lot in the auction.

If you have maybe the tier below, Mandana, you might think like if I'm getting nine to care,

this like some like overseas players who are up, they were the best. We're going to talk about

deep she Sharma, but she would be the clearest example. Like, did she have pre-sign offers

that say, well, I don't know, but if she did, they would have been for a lot more than

I've been picked up for what base price of 27.5k. So like that, that is the thing. If direct,

that's almost in the name, like direct signings, you guarantee your pay packet. If you're on the very

best, probably don't go for it. If you're tier below, I can see why you'd want to just guarantee

your income. And also, I guess choose your team as well. Like players will want to, obviously,

earn loads of money, but they also want to win competitions. And if you have a chat with a coach

who you want to work with because they're going to improve your game in some way, or you think

that you have a really share their vision of what they want from the team or you see at that team,

as you know, won the previous year and it's going to have a good chance of doing the same next year,

you might think like, oh, actually, I want to just go and do that, even if I have to take

10 grand less because I want to win this thing or because I want to learn from whoever. So

I think the direct signings, you might end up sacrificing a little bit of money, maybe even on

average, but what you get for the certainty and in both salary and who you get to work with,

I can see why players might do it if you're below that top tier.

Yeah, I can see that. I do think that this year was a bit of a special case in terms of how much

the salaries were inflated this year. The women's salary parts were increased by 100% from last year.

And I think if you're looking at that risk versus reward factor, the reward you could have

got from this year's auction was so big that I think it probably would have been worth taking

that bit more of a risk to go into the auction. If that was an option available to a lot of the

England centrally contracted players as well. Yeah, that's true. This was always going to be more

of a step into the unknown because it's, you know, it's a new thing for English cricket, but these

are quite new in in women's cricket as well. So there's that much less that you could know going

into it as a player. And so yeah, I guess that's that will factor into the decision making, but yeah.

Just to illustrate how much the women's salaries have grown, not just since last year,

but over the entire quarter of the 100. So the highest paid female players in last year's

100 when we had the salary bracket system were paid 65,000 pounds. Sophie Devine and Beth Mooney this

year got 210,000 pounds, which is an insane increase. But when you also look back at the

at 2021 to the first year or two of the 100, the top paid female players in those competitions

were getting 15,000 pounds. So if you're Beth Mooney and Sophie Devine today, your salaries are 14

times what the highest players were paid five years ago, which is an insane development.

So it's obviously great for those players at the top that they're getting loads of money who

wouldn't want that. But this is one of the things with options is that think back to last year,

the lowest paid player was getting paid 10 grand. Now the last paid player was getting paid 15 grand.

Now there's a jump of 50%. A lot of people would accept that sort of pay rise on a year to year

basis. But it's also obviously in real terms, that's at the top level. It's what 150 grand versus

five grand down the bottom. And I think this is this reason sort of bit, you know, where that 100

money goes more generally. And obviously, you know, the salaries are just a small part of what that

money is going to do. But for this is the other thing that would happen in draft versus an auction

is that that rise in salaries would be represented more evenly versus what is happening now,

which is just like the very best players getting very, very, very rich and the lowest players getting

a bit more money, but not, not loads more. And that is like something that just concerns me a

little bit and that you, we want to keep seeing that, like that bottom figure, like the top number is

always going to be like the headline, you know, how much is, who's the best paid parent on

history, obviously, we all going to want to know that until that is. But the more important thing

is going to be how much is that bottom number going up? Because that is the figure that kind of

really matters in terms of getting the women's game to a bigger level just across the board. And

that is like not going to go up massively year and year with an auction system versus a draft

system, I think. Someone who will be very grateful that those salaries at the top end of the

competition's group as much as they did will be Tilly Corte and Coleman, who was bought by

Southern Brave for £105,000. We've spoken about Corte and Coleman quite a lot on this podcast

before. She's a very talented teenage left arm spinner. She's only 18 years old. And we were

saying at the time that she was getting bid for, that we reckon she's probably the most highly

paid female British teenage sports woman. All of the others who would be being paid more than

her are over 20. And I can't think of another player in any sport in England who's a teenager

on a six figure salary in women's sport. And I think it speaks to more than perhaps Gibson,

the things we were saying about roles and how valuable roles are to different teams. So left

arm spinners went for a lot in this auction. We saw Travis Pavley get £85,000 later on in the auction.

And perhaps to play a bit more of devil's advocate, those inflated salaries at the highest

end reflects more about what roles teams think are valuable. So having a left arm spinners

and incredibly valuable world to have Lindy Smith also went for a hundred K in the auction.

And I potentially think that's more of a justifiable way to look at it than just one player is

getting paid £210,000 because they're an international captain or whatever. And one player is getting

paid £15K. Yeah. And also it just shows that again, like you look at that and you know,

Kirsty Gordon getting £55,000. It's just so weird how these things can go up and down. I think

in some ways the chair is pavley signing for that much is more revealing than the city court

team Coleman. Like I think if you just look at court team Coleman just from like a pure

cricketing point of view, forget what she does. I almost think this could look like a steal in two

years time. I mean, that last year she turned 18 during last year's 100, ended up in the top 10

in the Wicked Tigers list X 11 Wicked and in the top five for economy rates. And I think she was

the second most economical spinner behind someone who played a couple of games. So that

is kind of freakish stuff. And you know, who knows how she'll progress or not and you can see spinners

go a bit down and go a bit up, but she is just a brilliant, brilliant talent. And that is why she's

got that, yeah, the pavley thing is a bit more like teams want left on spinners. And this is like,

again, like you're trying to almost, I think with a lot of these things, I couldn't have sat down

before the auction and said, I think left on spinners are going to get loads of money. And so I think

this person can get this and get this because if you just told me before the auction that say,

you know, even the domestic versus overseas thing, but that Alana King was going to get 37.5

grand versus chas pavley getting 80 grand or whatever, but like I would have sat them for like

surely if you're a team and you can get, but you can get two overseas elsewhere and have

her as you're like, I just, yeah, like, I want to do lots of analysis and a lot of the time,

I'm just like, I'm not sure I quite get it. Like left on spin is a great, but what are they,

all of a sudden, all the rage? I don't know. But I think you're overthinking it slightly.

Yeah. In terms of like having a domestic left on spinner when you could then go and spend 210,000

on Beth Mooney, you know, and get that difference that you get from a batter of that kind of

caliber, whereas having an up and coming left on spinner who is very good, it's actually more

gold does potentially than having Alana King take up. I'm not, Alana King is a brilliant

lesbianer, but I do understand the logic of making sure you've got those basics covered in

domestic players and hence why the value of those domestic players does become slightly inflated

looking compared to people on the international market. Maybe. Yeah. I mean, clearly you're right

because that is what is, that is what has happened. I just wouldn't have said before this auction

happened that I was going to be like, yeah, everyone's going to be like, you know, the left on

spin is going to be the must have item of, of the 126. I mean, I don't, I don't think I would have sat

down before this auction and gone, Alana King will only go for 35K. I don't think I would have done

that, but I think you could make a prediction and say left on spin is are going to go for quite a

lot of money and seem bowling around are going to go for quite a lot of money. I think some of

the intricacies within that, like you say, with Kirsty Gaulle and going for a lot less than

Charis Pavley, I think you can say, don't really understand what's going on there,

auctions are just a bit weird, but I think you can make a broad set of predictions while also

making room within that to go auctions are weird and some players will just go for quite a lot

of money and it won't be explainable. Yeah, for sure. The weirdest one, though, is the wicked

keeping market, which was just very, very hard to pin down and we'll get more into this with Lauren

on Friday because it obviously affected her and there are two complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

So Lizelli, for example, she's just had a really good WPL, which you think would increase her 100

value and she got bought by Southern Brave for 27.5K, Rihanna Southby, who's currently training

with England and South Africa and it's probably their second choice keeper, at least in ODIs,

you would say, went unsold initially at the base price of 15K while Kira Chatley, who's just

been named Surries Captain for next year, went to M.I. London for 80K. In all fairness,

the Chatley, she had a pretty good 100 last year, she finished sixth in the run scoring chart,

but when you consider her experience versus someone like Risha Gosh, who got 50K or even Amy Jones,

who's England's first choice keeper and got 70K, that feels a bit high and that wicked keeper value

feels completely skewed and unable to put a kind of baseline value on it. Yeah, but I guess the

thing there is that each team wants one, basically. So each team will want like, because you have to have

a weak keeper, but you only have to have one weak keeper. So each team will want like, that's where

you want the best one and not the second best one. So that's where also why you have

Mooney up at 210K, because people think she's the best good keeper and then lead down at 27.5K,

because they think she is the third best overseas keeper in the part. So that is like, in terms of

walks dynamics, I think maybe I can get on board with that a little bit more. The Chatley thing as

well, I think is possibly just a bit of like a sorry tie up as well. And I don't know if it was like

who else was bidding with her if there was even like a bit of like, we know, sorry, Ruy,

someone has let's push up a bit, you know, she was named 50 over captain, like two days ago,

UCMI London go straight and you're like, right, let's let's drain the rock and put a little bit. I

don't know, but it is, but but also like, yeah, like when you look at her going at more than, yeah,

England's weaker keeper in Amy Jones, or you know, tell me why I want one of England's

greatest ever players. She's got a century at the 100th that kind of thing. It is like,

it is kind of hard to work out and yeah, but like, that's I think it's the that comes from each

he needs one. So they're not, they don't want to settle for sort of second best. That's why it gets

pushed up, but I don't know why Chatley has been decided to be the best. I don't get that. I think

potentially the more interesting comparison is with Ellie's record. They're kind of in a similar

level of domestic English women's wicked keepers, whereas Freckle got picked up by

M.I. London as well, but got picked up for her base price, whereas obviously,

Kira Chatley went for 8K. And I think that's almost the more interesting comparison on the value

of that keeper. And I think there is, we've got no official confirmation on this, but I think it

has to be that kind of sorry connection because I can't see a world in which Kira Chatley is that

much more money than Ellie Threckled. Yeah, but that's the thing is it's not that's what we're

doing here. We're putting the value on it or not. It's like, it might well be that M.I. London

thought that, you know, might think that Ellie Threckled is a 70 grand player and the Chatley's

an 80 grand player, or they might think the Chatley was a 100 grand player, but that's where the

bidding topped out. And there was no, no, it's bidding for 3D Threckled. So it's like, that's

almost where the like, you can't say that M.I. London think she's 80 grand versus 15 grand.

It's just like, that happened to be where the bidding went. Went first. Yeah, I don't know,

it's just auctions. And this whole podcast is basically you saying that you don't like auctions.

No, I don't like it. Well, don't like it. I don't understand them yet, but we'll get more to

that. And I'm trying to work out like why what has happened has happened. Yeah, we are recording

this quite soon after the auctions have happened. I think we've all had a very long day of

recovering and trying to work out exactly what has been going on. I do think so one thing for the

Chatley thing, and I think it's what you touched on earlier, is that I think there's been an element

of forward planning with this auction. So we don't know this yet, but if the 100 auctions

going to follow the same pattern as the IPL and the WPL, then it might be that this was in effect

a mega auction, where squads are selected, and then the next two or three auctions are more

mini auctions, where a core of players are retained, and then you release and buy back some players.

And that might be why the big buys have skewed younger. So you're till you call it in commons

and you're here at Chatley's, because these are the players who teams think are going to be the

face of the 100 or the face of English cricket in two or three years time. It might even be, I

mean, this thing we just don't know this, and it'll be up to the teams to decide. But again,

like mega auctions are one of those things that like the IPL have decided are a good thing to have,

and therefore we just we have them, but like it could well be that we just like that there's

never another mega auction 100 or that maybe the next mega auctions maybe when they add two more

teams or something, but until that point, and then when those two teams are added, then actually

if you buy a player, you have that player beyond sort of renegotiating with them, and that

would actually be more in line with how British sport generally works when you have like these

sporting, you know, teams can kind of build up these sort of dynasties and they can have someone

associated to their team for a long time, and you only kind of let someone go if you can't agree,

sort of a contractual sort of renegotiation, or there's like a sort of an issue that means you

want to get rid of them, but apart from that, you kind of or someone else comes in to sweeping and

gives them better off a bit, apart from that, you're like, right, we've got that player,

that's our player, that just might be how it works, and I would probably be in favor of that,

like I prefer seeing teams that like I can really get on board with the identity of basically.

I think that's what we've seen in the 100 pretty much so far, and then this year was Builders

the Massive Reset. Let's get onto something we can actually all agree on. What were do you think

the best deals? So we've already mentioned Divina Perrin on 50K and a Lana King, but Dipty Sharma,

27.5 grand, that feels, she's like one of the best spinners in the world, and that feels

incredibly low for Dipty Sharma's value. Yeah, and you know, and we're round at two right,

so it has what she can offer you in terms of team balance. Yeah, that is brilliant, and there's

no, I guess, yeah, you have to, these things are all, it's not just like what have you got that

person for, but especially when the squads are so small, like what is your opportunity cost in terms

of what overseas have you kind of given up the opportunity to get because you've got her in,

but I don't think there's many better that you can get in that role than Dipty Sharma in the world,

and actually just as an overseas full stop, you know, World Cup winner, just a brilliant, brilliant

player, and also like, you know, just such a great competitor as well, and great characters

that have in the 100. So like, I think that, yeah, she is a, she is a real steel, and then other

pleasure, we kind of mentioned a few of these, but obviously a Lana King as a leg spinner, like,

I know that she is basically, and this is watching it, picture Australia so much, she is, you know,

just a leggy, that's all she does, but she is so good that she is going to win you games,

as L. Lee again, like I don't know if being away from the spotlight, or if there is just a question

of over sort of like the age and that sort of thing, but like, she's had a pretty good W. Well,

that's the thing, she's such a brilliant T20 player that like, I just think, and she's, she's

probably just underrated in general, and maybe that is fed through here, and then you can go into

a lot of the pre-signed players, but I guess, Kate Cross probably stands out, she's got, you know,

a real point to prove as well, this year in terms of what's happened with her and England,

and I would not be surprised she comes back, you know, bit between her teeth, properly test that,

that competition out, that would be very Kate Cross thing to do. So, yeah, so it's some,

some real bargains in there, but I almost think that like, you can't assess someone being a

barglow or not until you can sit down and look at the whole team and they're like, it's not,

it doesn't really matter, have you bought someone for lower or not, it means like, have you managed

to build a good team, basically? Yeah, I do think Sunrise's leads will have been looking around

when they put that base price up for Dippy Sharma going, no, no, it's kind of, challenges here,

like, this is Dippy Sharma talking about, but I do think you can't really look beyond that in

terms of some of the biggest surprise in your, Dippy Sharma was my pick of having one of the

biggest paydays today, and I'm really surprised that she didn't. Okay, I'm going to fully let you go

on your long run about why auctions are mental and why auction dynamics are weird. Just for a bit

of background as well, San Billings said on Twitter today, auctions will always only benefit a few

and probably deserve for those few players, however the disparity is too much. The draft structure

was clearly far better from an overall player standpoint, as players we did feed this back.

So from that, it seems that a lot of the players didn't want the change to the auction that's

happened this year, and it's a point that you made that only cricket has these kinds of auctions,

or only really cricket, the NFL has a draft, I know that basketball also has a draft, and obviously

the 100 has a draft until this year, whereas in cricket, most major franchise these competitions

have some form of auctions, which is directly imported from the WPL, and I think particularly

with women's cricket, today we saw just how vast that disparity can be between the paydays you get

paid the most in the paydays who are even decently paid, so you've got at one end of the spectrum

your best moonies and your Sophie divine, who are paid 210, and then in the middle of that, you've

got players like Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont, or certainly Tammy Beaumont, who brings a similar

amount to a team that someone like Beth Mooney will bring to a team, slightly less, but perhaps not

what, 150K, 140K, worth less to a team, and then even beyond the middle of that, you've got the

players who are paid the least on base prices of 15K, which is an incredible disparity in earnings,

and while to some extent that does reflect a talent disparity in women's cricket in terms of

how big the core of players are, who are the best players in the world and the most sought after

players in the world, it does just feel quite a big difference in times if you've got players on

that field, who will be paid three figures, nearly a quarter of a million, and some will be being paid

15K. Yeah, I mean, yeah, so to put quite clearly, I really don't like auctions, and it's not-

I think if we've got to this point in the pod and someone is thinking Ben is a massive fan of

auctions, I think they haven't listened to the pod. Yeah, yeah, and I want to make clear that I don't

just not like auctions because I don't understand them, there are other reasons too.

So there's obviously loads of stuff in cricket that is different to how other sports do them,

and that's fine because cricket can be unique in its own thing, it doesn't need to be like other

sports, but as you say auctions, cricket is just a side of two auctions because 20 years ago,

something IPL was like, well, should we do an auction, and that is just like stuck without any

sort of introspection because everything has to be like the IPL, that's the rule, if you don't

necessarily have to be an IPL mini, and that's it, and there's not introspection about whether

it's good or not, and there is no point of view from which I can see that auctions are good,

like I can't see what there is to recommend them, like even just like, let's start from from

from a TV point of view, right? It's just so long, and they're not exciting, they're not

interesting, it's not good TV to watch, you know, 300 faces flash up on a screen, and then

like everyone just sort of look at each other, and then another face flash up on a screen,

no matter how much, you know, the auctioneer who, I don't want to get $200, it must be a

real tough job, and I've never done it, but there was, it was not great hearing names being

in front of it, I think you ever will do that auction job. But it wasn't great to hear some

days we mispronounce them, a few so almost, like the fact of an accuracy isn't that kind of thing,

like tough job, and I'm sure he's getting fed that stuff, and so there's, but it's still, it wasn't

that, like this because you're having to vamp to fill time, because auctions are bad from a TV

point of view, and then, so, so, like, what does it say, six and a half hours, be six and a half

hours tomorrow, last year, the drafts, they felt long to me because I was doing a live stream on

them, which, you know, but that only goes for, you know, four hours, and you've got both,

and then you're done, and then it's fine, whereas this, you got, you've got massive long breaks,

because teams having to cobble together players that they want to, another go at not bidding for,

for some reason, in these accelerator rounds and a further accelerated round, and then at the end,

you basically end up with a draft anyway, where they basically just, like, feel like that squads,

and just go around and sort of have that and that, and then that's how it, that's how it fills out,

so I don't get, I don't get, like, what's the benefit of them is to, like, the viewer, but from,

and then from a player's point of view, I just think it's, it's, it's, it's gross basically to,

obviously, you know, it's, in all sports, there's kind of a conflict between these players being

humans, these plans, being commodities and being traded and sold and all that language, and it's

always like a bit uncomfortable, but at least it's a bit, but no, the surface, Auckland, it's just,

like, so, like, there, this thing, like, it's like, you know, there's the meat market, and the,

the draft is a bit of a meat market, but not, not as bad, because at least there wasn't

that happens in a draft, is that no one says your name as it goes round, and that, and that's

the end of it, in an auction, you can have as you've happened, as happened today, like, you can

go on to the hammer three times, and everyone just looks around going like, no, I don't want to

bid for that person, like, it must just be, it's just, it must be an awful feeling from a human

point of view, and then, like, and especially, I think, for, for women's cricket, this, and like,

where, like, whether money, whether something's involved for the people at the bottom are just

not huge, like, in men's cricket, like, you go into an auction and you get picked up, it's the

difference between being, like, very, very well paid or being pretty well paid. In women's cricket,

going into an auction can be the difference between, like, being very well paid, or kind of

just scraping a living, or having to consider your professional future, basically, if you're,

you know, a 28-year-old going into the 100 auction, and you don't get picked up, and so, so I don't

like, from, from that point of view, just seeing that, like, just seeing, seeing that play out,

these kind of, you know, lives being sort of, you know, made or quite altered, essentially.

And also, I don't think it produces better squads or better cricket in the long run, like, I think,

actually, a draft, where you can sort of, I think that's where you can sort of align your priorities

a bit more, decide to, you won't have more of an order of, of, what, this person, if this person

gets, I don't have this person, a more of a plan, I think you probably get better balanced squads

that way, and also, I think that it distributes the value fare as well, like, the difference between

going for base price and going for 10 times base price is one person wanting you and two people

wanting you, right? Like, if one person wants you, that's it, you're selling for the base price

of two people, both think you're the best player in there, then there's no limit to what you can get,

and that is mad, because the team that, if you go for your base price and one person wants you,

as we kind of said, that doesn't mean they think you're that good. They could think you're the best

player in the competition, but you're still getting that, whereas in a draft, if they think you're

the 10th best player, they're going to be picking you within the, the first three rounds, say, because

they don't want that chance that someone else comes in and swoops and gets you, so it's much more

likely that you will be bought at the value that your employers think you're worth, which is a much

healthy system than this one. So yeah, I just, I really dislike auctions, and I don't understand

why we have them, but I guess we've probably stuck with them from now until, you know, the time

the hundred stops being a thing. Do you feel better? I feel worse, but at least I've got, I guess I've

got it off my chest and maybe now I can stop thinking about it so much. So yeah. Okay, in defense,

to tackle, I'm going to very briefly tackle some of what you just said, in defense of auctions,

I do think as a punter, as someone watching the auction, and I appreciate not many people will

have been watching the auction, I do think the system is a lot easier to understand from an outside

point of view than a draft system is. I think it's very, very clear that player bid bought. I think

this auction was set out badly. I don't like the teams and submit lists of 25 players or whatever

it is. I don't think that's very clear. So I think there's a clear way it could be set out that

then you would get a shorter auction as well, but I don't dislike the auction point of view from

the clarity it offers and the simplicity it offers. I agree with you that the salaries do get over

inflated in an auction much more easily if two teams think you're the best pair in the world for

example, but I also do think that reflects a supply and demand. And in franchise sports leagues,

that's the ultimate capitalist kind of point of sport. So why not go all in and have an auction?

From a player point of view, I also understand it's great, but we don't do that. We only do this in

franchise cricket. It doesn't happen at domestic level. It happens kind of behind the scenes,

and then we don't do this international cricket. Franchise cricket is meant to be money. It's meant

to be who gets paid the most. It's meant to be, you know, players going for however much money.

And I understand why an auction does add to that. And I think as a punter, I would rather see an

auction than see a draft, accepting that not many people watch the auction. And then even that not

many people do watch the auction, I think touching up with what's happened in auction or understanding

what's happened in an auction is far easier than understanding what's happened in a draft. So from

a simplicity and a clarity point of view, I understand it. I'm ambivalent, but personally,

I'm ambivalent between auctions and drafts. I don't massively mind which one it is. I don't have

a strong opinion on it, but I do understand there are points for auctions and points for drafts.

I do think it is weird that it's something we only do in cricket. So I agree with you on that one.

But I think if we get too much into that, we are going to be here all night.

Yeah, fine. Yeah, I'll leave it there. Yeah, sure. You can get back to us, but who's won

the Alps as well? Which is one of my issues? The most hated questions?

No, no, no, no. The question is fine. The issue is more that the thing is I like cricket.

I don't like cricket. I like cricket. I like watching cricket. And the fact that it gets

discarded by sort of, I want to just watch a game and think like, I want to know who's going

to be thinking like this player has been paid $100, like Danny Gibson as well. She's going to have

to live up to that $190 grand price tag right? It's going to be like, she's going to be out there

and she's going to be like, is she a $190 grand player? Not just like, is she playing well

out of the context of that? And so it kind of makes the game less of the game and more of the money.

Money is already in the band. Money is already in the band. I am going to ask you who's won the auction.

More simply, like less grossly than who's won the auction. Who do you think has a really strong

squad briefly coming out of the auction? Yeah. So I think I do really like the look of

Birmingham finish. At least they're going to be really fun to watch. I mean that

that pace attack of Filer and Hamilton, that is just pure box office. And I guess there's

going to be the question of like, you know, do you need, how good is that pure pace going to be

in T 20 cricket? I guess we're going to, we're going to find out there. But there's also, I mean,

there are the team that's got David Apparen for a pretty low mark. I mean, Emma Lamb, we haven't

talked about for her going base prices is pretty mad too. Give you notes. She is of this kind of

new era of English domestic cricket going back to the Kia Super League. She was like the stand-up

format in that has done good stuff. And since then for her to be base prices is surprising. But

her and Perrin is exciting with obviously both one who talked about, you know, could have gone

for more, but they're at 70 grand. And I think actually that they're going to be able to have

filled what at least eight internationals going down to Alan King. Oh sorry, Perrin's not

international yet. Eight in the future. And I think Phoebe Brett is an exciting signing as well.

She was the spinner I couldn't remember earlier who was less and more economical than

until he caught in Coleman last year. So I think that is that they look exciting to me. I don't know

who else. Well, so I agree with you on Birmingham Phoenix, although I'd add Annery Dirkson

into the mix with Burning Fields. I think she's an incredibly good. So, sorry, yes, that brings up

to nine of these players. Yeah. I think Southern Brave also have a really good squad. So they

got Rodrigues 60k. They're also Lizzole's side. They've got Izzy Wong and Lauren Bell.

They've also got Sophie Mollany, Laura Wolfart. They pre-signed. I think Jody Gruecock is a bargain as

well. Definitely. So I think if you're looking at the two standard squads, I think Sunrise's squad

looks quite weird in terms of they've got a lot of players on quite big salaries and then not many

on middleing salaries. And I guess that'll be the thing with, I mean, a lot, I feel like a lot

that then does just rest on Danny Gibbs who they've got. And that's thing like you can sometimes

get too sucked into roles and domestic versus overseas and play a few of that. But the player has

to do well, like that's the thing. And that, that's thing like I think going to get dibs and she

may well have a standout 100 campaign she might do. But I don't think she's a banker to just do

well. And that if you then paying what like a quarter of your salary on her that then does maybe

leave you sure elsewhere. Let's see. But I think that does look like one of the thinner squads with

apologies. You know, obviously they're going to be carrots as high as my law and one field hill. But

well, I think we'll leave it there then. Cheers Ben. What a day. That's it from us. I'll be back

with law and wind field hill on Friday. Finally, a big thanks again to our long-term partners

MetroBank for sponsoring the Wisden Women's Cricket Weekly podcast. Head to their website to find

out more. The link is in the description.

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