“If you don’t buy a ticket…”: Katie George on the Women’s Premier League auction
The inaugural Women’s Premier League auction takes place on Monday, with 26 English players making the final list of 448 to be selected from. Katie George is one of them.
“It would be crazy not to be involved,” she said, speaking just days before the players go under the hammer.
The Central Sparks all-rounder is vying for one of the 30 overseas player slots alongside some of the best cricketers in the world, including Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, and Heather Knight.
However, this does not faze the 23-year-old, who sees only positives from the fact the best players are the ones putting their names forward.
She said: “If you’re playing against the best players, everyone is going to improve so quickly, and the standard of women’s cricket is just going to go up and up and up.
“As a player, that is what you want. You don’t want to rock up and take an easy win, because you don’t learn, and it doesn’t drive you.”
George continued that she hates feeling comfortable when she plays, and wants to be challenged every time she sets foot on a cricket pitch.
The sense of opportunity felt by the players with a chance of being chosen for the WPL’s inaugural edition was demonstrated by George saying: “Why wouldn’t you want to be involved if you can?”
The Women’s Premier League is a Twenty20 franchise competition that will be held in India in March. Five teams are confirmed for the competition, and will use the auction to select their players.
Three Indian Premier League sides (Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Mumbai Indians) have all purchased franchises, with the other two teams, Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz, based out of Ahmedabad and Lucknow respectively.
Charlotte Edwards, the former England captain who handed George her ODI cap on debut, will be coaching the Mumbai franchise.
Each side can select between 15 and 18 players in the auction, with a maximum of six overseas players per team. When the league begins, four non-Indian players can be named in a line-up.
This can be extended to five if a player from an Associate nation plays, which George thinks is “awesome, because these players don’t get the same opportunities.”
George already has experience playing in India, and more specifically Mumbai, which she has fond memories of having visited a couple of times. She made three appearances for England in the city in 2018, describing the atmosphere as “something else.”
“The fans in India are addicting,” she said. “It is like eating a chocolate bar. You don’t want to put it down, but after a few squares, you do. But then a few minutes later, you want more so you go again!
“Just the passion they have, it is clear they love cricket. As a bit of a badger myself, that resonates with me.”
She also recalled how she imagined chants of India, India were instead ADR, ADR in support of teammate Alice Davidson-Richards to deal with the atmosphere, which she admitted gave her goosebumps.
Capped overseas players like George had a choice of three base prices: INR 30 lakh (just over £30,000), INR 40 lakh (just over £40,000), or INR 50 lakh (just over £50,000).
Some of the names in the top bracket include New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, who George bowled to in her ODI debut, Australia’s Alyssa Healy, who “sent her into the stands,” when the two faced off, and England’s Sophie Ecclestone, who George played with in the England age-groups.
George decided to set her base price at INR 30 Lakh, but explained that the first thing she would buy if she was selected is “extremely boring.”
“I got quoted for a new driveway last week, so some of it will definitely go on that.
“The cost means I thought I would have to do it myself, so I’ve bought two shovels and two big garden bags.
“It’s probably going to take me months, and I certainly do not want to be on my hands and knees doing it!”
Players who offer something different, such as batters who can keep wicket, or left-arm bowlers, often find themselves in high demand in franchise competitions like the Women’s Premier League.
George falls into the latter category but does not feel that it offers her any more of a chance of being picked than her right-handed counterparts.
“There’s this myth that you can’t have two left-armers in the same team, and I think it is absolute rubbish!”
She feels that, as a left-arm bowler, she gets put in a box, and George “hates being put in a box.” She continued to say how the fact there are not that many left-arm bowlers means even taking a wicket with rank full tosses can make them look better.
The draft takes place on Monday 13th February, but George will not be doing anything out of the ordinary to mark the occasion, with Mondays usually full of training.
George expects to be subject to a great deal of banter from her teammates and anticipates quite a few will be distracted by the auction, especially given her Central Sparks teammates Sarah Glenn and Amy Jones are also going under the hammer. They are both currently in South Africa representing England in the T20 World Cup.
Having been severely affected by injuries over the past few seasons, George said she has minimal expectations of being picked selected but feels she is always in with a chance given she has put her name forward.
“If you don’t buy a ticket…”
