U-19 women world cup best-8 to be featured in Women’s Premier League first edition Auction

 

U-19 world cup for women completed recently in South Africa. Total 16 teams participated including qualifiers. This is first edition U-19 world cup for women organized by ICC.

There are many great performances during U-19 women’s world cup 2023. However, few players played brilliant cricket and can be considered in top players’ list.

Below are top 8 players from U-19 women’s world cup who will be featured in Women’s Premier League’s first edition auction to be held on 13^th February 2023. These players are not in particular order.

1. Shweta Sehrawat (India) – Right Hand Bat

    U-19 World Cup runs – 297

    Innings – 7

    Batting Average – 99.00

    Best Innings Strike Rate – 310.00

    Sixes – 2, Fours – 50

    50’s – 3

    Position – Opening

 2. Grace Scrivens (England) – Left Hand Bat / Right Arm Offbreak

    U-19 World Cup runs – 293

    Innings – 7

    Batting Average – 41.85

    Best Innings Strike Rate – 166.07

    Sixes – 6, Fours – 39

    50’s – 3

    Position – Opening

    U-19 World Cup wickets – 9

    Bowling Average – 7.11

    Bowling Economy – 3.09

    Maiden – 3, Dot Balls – 78

 3. Shafali Verma (India) – Right Hand Bat

    U-19 World Cup runs – 172

    Innings – 7

    Batting Average – 24.57

    Best Innings Strike Rate – 281.25

    Sixes – 7, Fours – 26

    50’s – 1

    Position – Opening

 4. Shorna Akter (Bangladesh) – Right Hand Bat

    U-19 World Cup runs – 153

    Innings – 5

    Batting Average – 51.00

    Best Innings Strike Rate – 157.73

    Sixes – 6, Fours – 13

    50’s – 1

    Position – 4

 5. Parshavi Chopra (India) - Legbreak

    U-19 World Cup wickets – 11

    Bowling Average – 7.00

    Bowling Economy – 3.66

    Maiden – 2, Dot Balls – 77

 6. Mannat Kashyap (India) - Slow Left Arm Orthodox

    U-19 World Cup wickets – 9

    Best Bowling Average – 10.33

    Bowling Economy – 4.65

    Maiden – 1, Dot Balls – 68

 7. Archana Devi (India) - Right Arm Offbreak

    U-19 World Cup wickets – 8

    Bowling Average – 13.12

    Bowling Economy – 4.77

    Maiden – 0, Dot Balls – 71

 8. Titas Sadhu (India) - Right Arm Medium

    U-19 World Cup wickets – 6

    Bowling Average – 12.83

    Bowling Economy – 4.27

    Maiden – 1, Dot Balls – 74

Best valuable buy in IPL 2022 Auction

Much awaited IPL Mega Auction is completed and all 10 teams have players in place. Total players sold are 204 out of which 67 are overseas players. Total money spent is INR 552 Cr (USD 75 Mn). Discussion is going on for most expensive players sold during auction. However, all teams are business entities and they want to have most value for money buys.

For finding out best valuable buy in IPL 2022, following are some important factors considered:

1. Possibility to play in first 11

2. Experience (International / T20 / IPL)

3. Roles (Batsman / Bowler / All-Rounder / Wicket Keeper)

4. Base Price vs Actual Price

Following is list of best valuable buy in IPL 2022 auction by all teams.

Chennai Super Kings

Delhi Capitals

Kolkata Knight Riders

Punjab Kings

Mumbai Indians

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Sun Risers Hyderabad

Lucknow Super Giants

Rajasthan Royals

Gujarat Titans

Lanka Premier League Best Players

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Best Players

Abu Dhabi T10 League Best Players

Most Valuable Retention for IPL 2022

IPL 2022 Mega Auction Players List with possible auction price

The reverse countdown for IPL 2022 mega auction has begun. There is final list of 590 cricketers published by IPL and they will go under hammer on 12^th and 13^th February-2022 at Bengaluru.

Below are total numbers from final pool of cricketers.

IPL Mega Auction 2022 - Team wise Purse Available 

There is lot of discussions going on for final auction price of cricketers. Sporstra team tried to figure out possible auction price for around 100 cricketers. This is based on various criteria of IPL performance, recent performance, interest by teams, specific roles, age. Below table is just indication of auction price of cricketers.

Disclaimer - Below list is only for indication. Actual auction prices will be as decided during mega auction. 

Sports team preparation for player auction: IPL mega auction 2022

 

It is most important and hard to find out right team combination for any sports league. There is always dynamic situation at auction table and strategy needs to be looked after each player auction. This is very big task when there are a greater number of teams. Each fan eagerly waits for auction day and predicts players to be part of his favorite team. This is also very important when there will not be such kind of big auction in next foreseeable future. So, each team needs to create their best team looking at long future in mind. However, teams will get chance in future to trade players between teams and small auctions. But that will only serve minor short-term requirements. Full mega auction is highly crucial to build team.

 

Every team works as per their own way. But there are few points common for all teams which they consider while selection of player auction strategy. Following are some points:

1. Deciding core idea of a team

Every team wants best team utilizing optimized resources. So why core idea of a team is important? Before answering to this question, let’s understand about core idea of a team.

A team management decides together before mega auction and as first step to prepare for mega auction about core idea. This core will be different for all teams. For example, one team may decide all batsman from India and key bowlers from foreign or some may target only all-rounders or some may prepare complete young squad or some may go for right mix of experience and youth or some may go for 4-5 best star players and others are uncapped. Ideas are plenty but it should be decided in first place.

Core idea of a team is very important. For example, CSK and MI are most successful IPL teams and they did not change their core idea like captainship, team combination, player roles. It is one of the reasons for their success in IPL.

 

2. Decide target players and divide them as per priority

After deciding core idea of team, next step is to decide on players which can be part of team. This step is to shorten down funnel from ‘all available’ to ‘all required’ players.

Then decision is to be taken for priority of players. Some players are required for making playing team and some players are required for back ups for main team. Some players are required as reserved which can be mentored and prepared for future.

For example, let’s say teams can divide all players in A, B, C categories. Players in A category will constitute main playing team. Players in B category will constitute back ups for category A players and Players in C category will be uncapped young scouted players.

 

3. Decide possible auctioned price range for each player

Every player in auction has his base price. From this base price, team starts auction process. Team decides performance of players in their selected categories (A, B, C). Also, it is good to predict about number of teams targeting individual player. Based on the same, each player is given possible auctioned price range within their categories A, B, C.

 

4. Decide auction purse value among categories of players

Each team has its remaining purse for auction. Teams need to play within their purse range. So, after deciding target players in various categories with possible auctioned price range, purse amount is to be divided between A, B, C categories. Based on this data, team management can understand how far they can go in auction to get one player. This will create auction price cut off for each and every player.

For example, each team in IPL has remaining purse after their retention and draft players finalization. Mumbai Indians has INR 42 Cr to spend. Out of which, they may decide ratio of spend as 50% in A category (INR 21 Cr), 40% in B category (INR 17 Cr) and 10% in C category (INR 4 Cr). This is just for an example. Each team decides its own strategies.

 

5. Real time auction simulations

Auction is very dynamic and each situation needs quick decision to make. So as last step before auction, team needs to simulate real auction experience among team members and try to find out observations, experiences. Also, teams can check past auction proceedings and learn from those experiences.

 

Above steps are basic steps and each step needs lot of brain storming, data gathering. It is also difficult to pick and choose from large pool of players. After so much preparation, nobody can confirm surely about actual proceedings at auction.

Building Successful Sports League – Important factors with Volleyball League India example

 

Second edition of Volleyball league is going to start at Hyderabad from February 5^th, 2022. This is young league in India and coming again after 2 years of interval. Sports league helps engaging new fans to sports, attracting new players, motivating kids to play sports, creation and maintenance of sports infrastructure and helping economy around the sports to prosper. It is full ecosystem building around sports and related activities.

First edition of Volleyball league created lot of buzz and there is enough evidence to support it. The first edition witnessed 14.3 million viewers sample on Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India. As mentioned by SPN Chief Revenue Officer, Volleyball is famous in South India however, it gained interest in other parts like Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat and Haryana. Another way to see popularity is to judge performance of fantasy game developed by popular platforms. Volleyball fantasy game built by MyTeam11 has seen consistent rise in daily users leading company to double prize pool during first edition.

However, starting a total new league in itself is very difficult process. It is more difficult when the league is in such sports having less interest compared to most popular categories. For example, In India, cricket is most popular sport so success of Indian Premier League for cricket gained extremely good momentum even unexpected results by far compared to expert opinions.

Following are few important points to take into consideration to start any sports league in any part of the world.

 

1. League Structure Stability

Main aim of any sports league is always long term and delivering annual growth to League founders and investors. League structure should be engaging, with viewership growth potential, with involvement of complete sports ecosystem including but not limited to viewers, sponsors, sports authority bodies, broadcasters, investors, players, sports infrastructure.

For example, Volleyball league in India started with short duration of 21 days, 18 matches and with just 6 teams. All teams play with each other on round robin basis and top 4 teams enter into semi-finals. This small structure is helpful for getting experience on various aspects of league operations and economy. It also helps in gauging fan interest. Inputs from this learning will help next season to improve more effectively.

 

2. League Financial Stability

Every league needs money to run the show. More money is needed if sport needs to be promoted extensively to generate fan base. Money required at various levels like starting a league, operational cost during league, marketing expenses at league start and in operation.

For example, Volleyball league in India set benchmark for any new league. They have followed format in which team owners are also stakeholders in the respective leagues. This gives financial stability to league.

 

3. Relation with local sports bodies

If league is started by sport body itself with private support, it is most desirable way of starting any league. Sport body is governing mechanism for specific sport in country or region. They manage sport related infrastructure, scheduling sport tours & games, spending on training and development of young talents, promoting sport within country and region. So, it is easy to schedule sport league and making it part of yearly sport calendar of sport body.

If league is completely started by private entities, it needs to collaborate with sports bodies such that they are also interested in overall proceedings. Otherwise, there will be issues and disputes related to sport calendar, not getting NOC (no objection certificate) for national team players, not getting good infrastructure for league.

For example, Volleyball league in India started by Baseline with support of Volleyball Federation of India but then they both went into disputes. Federation terminated 10-year contract with Baseline and dispute went into arbitration. Arbitration rule was given in favor of Baseline however, second edition is going to be complete private league. For long run of league, it is always advisable to get support of local sports governing bodies.

Other example of private league is Indian Cricket League which started separately without involvement of BCCI but it did not last long without support of BCCI which is apex body of cricket in India.

4. Fan Base

For any league, fans are important part. Fans Engagement is extremely crucial for long term brand viability of any sport or team or league.

Volleyball league in India started with six teams out of which four are from South India where Volleyball is most popular. In second season, one new team is added from South India to increase fan base. Matches are scheduled in South India venues like Kochi, Chennai and Hyderabad.

5. Competitiveness

It is also important for any league to prepare strong teams including combination of national and international players. If players are available, team formation will be very good and without any bias. People watch sports because of excitement and fun. If matches played are very close fought, viewership will rise.

6. Reputation

Governing of any sport league with transparency and with complete ethical behavior is important factor. This helps in gaining trust from investors, sponsors, players and fans in to the league. Strong rules for governing, proper financial auditing, transparent selection process for teams and player auctions are crucial for building reputation for the league. So, it requires experienced sports experts, professionals to run the league as complete business entity.

 

7. International Market

It is very important to have international sport audience in mind. Broadcasters are helping matches go live internationally. This helps in attracting good international players to play in the league and thus increase fan base.

For example, the global volleyball market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period, from 2021 to 2028 as per Industry Growth Insight. Volleyball is included in Olympics since 1964.

Volleyball is very popular in Brazil, United States, China, Japan and it is played by men and women. Field Volleyball and Beach Volleyball are different versions. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) organizes international calendar for various Volleyball related competitions. It is estimated that over 300 million people are playing volleyball worldwide.

     Indian Icon players of Volleyball league

Sports Fan engagement on social media - IPL, PKL, ISL perspective

 

For any sport events, main important part is fan engagement. Every loyal fan can help boost brand of any team, player, league.

In simple language; Fan Engagement is connection, communication and experience sharing among fans and team or league or player. All teams or leagues or players in sports world always want to engage themselves with their fans. In other way, fans are also excited by connecting with their favorite team or league or player. This engagement is voluntary.

 

There are debates about important aspect of any sports. Some people say sport itself is most important. Some say players are important. Some say league or teams are important and some say sponsors are important. These all aspects for any sports business are dependent on one common thing and that is Fanbase.

 

Loyal fanbase will create great sports brand in long run. They affect decisions on sponsorship and players. For any successful leagues in the world, there is always most loyal fan engagement.

 

For creating fan engagement, communication and connection should be positive. Negative sentiments among fans will have adverse effect and it is not good for brand health. So, content creation is essential key to engage fans positively.

 

Fan engagement is helpful for creating strong base for different leagues. For example, Indian Premier League (IPL) is most successful cricket league in India. However, other leagues like Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and India Super League (ISL) for Football have made their mark thanks to fan base. League like PKL focused on various attributes of Kabaddi sport, player profiles, critical moments in game to get attention of new fans for the sport. Loyal fan base can give boost to leagues in different sports which are less known and make these sports world events.

 

In line with IPL, PKL, ISL; there are other leagues started in India for Tennis, Badminton, Volleyball. These new sport leagues will do great work to engage fans and generate more fans to popularize sport culture in India.

 

On Field and Off Field fan engagement

 

Fan engagement can be on field and off field. On field fan engagement example is event happened inside stadium during live match. It is by cheering for favourite team, enjoying live game in a league, capturing special fan moments. It is all about living every moment of game in a league.

Off Field fan engagement is mainly happened on social media, internet, hoardings, advertisements out side stadiums. During time of pandemic when matches are played in absence of fans in stadiums, social media becomes top priority for all leagues for engaging with their fans. Content creation targeting moods and choices of fans is in great demand.

Stadium place is limited so every fan cannot come and watch live match. This is limited to 60,000 to 70,000 fans at maximum who can enjoy league live at stadium. Lot of fan base is actually off the field so it is very important to engage fans in other ways off the field.

 

On social media, it is possible to connect 24/7 and 365 days a year. One can access social media at any time and see happenings in league.  

 

Transactional and Non-Transactional fan engagement

Fan engagement can be viewed as transactional and non-transactional basis also. If a fan is buying ticket or t-shirts or caps or paid content voluntarily to enjoy every bit of his/her favourite sport, it is transactional engagement which involves money.

Non-transactional engagements are not including monetary aspects but mainly emotional connects on social media platforms, participation in survey, work as volunteer for any event.

 

Social Media content and fan engagement

 

All leagues are on various social media platforms like facebook, twitter, Instagram. They engage their fans by various innovative ideas like Coaches speech, Informative data & analysis, news, match schedule & timings, small clips from games, match highlights in photographs, match interesting moments, season points table, behind the scenes like warm up, practice, team meeting, fan voting etc.

 

 

 

There is minor difference in each social media platform engagement. Instagram and Facebook can be used for Reels and photographs. Twitter can be suited for fan voting apart from photographs and short videos.

 

Many leagues or teams create positive stories around players. After watching such content, fans can be attracted emotionally with league or team or player. More positive stories around various players or team or league, more will be fan engagement.

 

Posts shared on social media by league or team or player create long lasting memory for small milestones. Fans share and enjoy such memories among each other. Hashtags are used on social media to share such memories with big mass. Looking at fan engagement, these hashtags can be named as ‘Fantags’. Hashtags given by fans are ‘Fantags’.

 

Effective digital strategy is the one which can effectively engage fans with team or league or player. Social media insights on fans and their behavior will help companies to market their products effectively and thus it is helpful for business as a large.

 

Social media content writers, digital marketer, video makers, photograph editors are in great demand from sports league due to effect of social media on fan engagement. No league or team or player want to miss such a great engagement opportunity.

Emergence of fantasy sports business in India is pure example of fan engagement effect. Sport lover always want to provide his/her input on starting team, combination of players, auction of player and want to have experience in real life. This became inputs for all fantasy sports companies and they created various formats for fantasy team, selection of players which can be played along with match.

Fans want to learn lot about various business aspects of leagues and thus it creates platform for all relevant field experts to share their thoughts with league fans. So, fan engagement is helpful for full league eco system be it business or player or auction strategy or sponsors or broadcaster or team or supporting business avenues or field experts or sports commentators.