Alice Capsey and Sophie Ecclestone picked up WPL deals and helped England to a World Cup victory on a landmark day for women’s cricket
Monday 13 February 2023 will go down as a momentous day in the history of women’s cricket – the day that the inaugural Women’s Premier League auction sprinkled a fairy dust of riches on female cricketers, the like of which has never been seen before.
Three and a half hours before England took to the field against Ireland in their World Cup head-to-head, eventually chasing down the target of 106 for their second win of the tournament, three England players had already been picked up in the opening round of the auction – Sophia Dunkley for £60,000 and Sophie Ecclestone for £180,000 while Nat Sciver-Brunt’s worth was finalised at a staggering £320,000 – the joint-highest of any non-Indian player.
Might all this have proved a distraction from England’s World Cup campaign? If it had been a risk pre-game – Sciver-Brunt admitted on Saturday that it was a “strange time to be together as a group” – once play got under way, she and her teammates seemed, initially, largely unaffected. Ecclestone went about her business as usual, finishing with three for 19, including a double wicket-maiden, and taking an impressive diving catch at mid-off to see off Ireland’s Louise Little.
Meanwhile an hour after bagging herself a £75,000 deal in round two of the auction, Alice Capsey was out in the middle smashing her way to a 21-ball half-century – sealed with a six slammed over, as England scored a mammoth 69 runs in the opening six overs.
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