WPL 2026 mega-auction is over, retention price revealed and purse remains the same

Earlier today, we learned that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be holding the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 mega auction in November. Before the day is even out, we have tentative dates for this.

WPL Mega Auction Release Date 2026

Although 3 of the 5 teams, Mumbai Indians Women, Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women and Delhi Capitals Women, opposed the idea of ​​a mega auction since the tournament is in its infancy, the BCCI has decided that it will still take place.

According to ESPNcricinfoThe WPL 2026 mega auction will take place between November 25 and 29. Since the 29th will be a Saturday, the chances of this happening then are greater than on other days.

Retention period, auction exchange, price bands and RTM

But that’s not all. In an email sent to the WPL franchise by the BCCI, it was mentioned that they cannot retain more than 5 players. Of these, a maximum of 3 capped Indian players, a maximum of 2 foreign players and a maximum of 2 uncapped Indian players can be retained by each team. If a franchise decides to retain 5 players, one of them must be an uncapped Indian player. The deadline to announce the continuation is November 5.

The BCCI also introduced the Right-to-match (RTM) card. It recently made its return to the Indian Premier League (IPL) and is now featured in the WPL auction. Teams can use up to 5 RTM cards if they don’t even keep a single player. This number will decrease depending on the number of retentions.

The auction purse will remain at INR 15 crore. The five retention slabs are INR 3.5 crore (player 1), INR 2.5 crore (player 2), INR 1.75 crore (player 3), INR 1 crore (player 4) and INR 50 lakh (player 5). But the BCCI will allow franchises to pay players more than the slabs. In this case, the additional sum will be deducted from their WPL 2026 auction purse.

WPL franchises will have to share the list of released players with the BCCI by November 7. Players must register for the mega auction before November 18, and two days later, on November 20, the BCCI will share the list of players who will be auctioned.