On a swing and a prayer

What is it like to see your future come up on the auction block? Rudraneil Sengupta sits with state-level cricketers who are hoping to be picked for the Women's Premier League. There is ambition, exuberance, but how will it end?

- Rudraneil Sengupta

As the spectacle of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions unfolded on December 16, watching it held a different meaning for me.

Two weeks earlier, I had witnessed something that is usually reserved for players and their families. I had watched an auction built around a clutch of young woman players, each hoping for their big break. They asked me not to reveal their identities, so I will not name them or the states they represent.

On the hazy morning of November 27, two Under-23 state teams played a T20 match at a school cricket ground in a north Indian city. One team was led by M, whose calm composure and classical batting skills mark her out as a player with a great future. Coaches and scouts from Women’s Premier League (WPL) teams are effusive in their praise of her, and track her performance every time she takes the field. She is effortlessly lean, with a mass of curly hair and a subtle swagger that comes from years of athletic training, and perhaps from being chosen as a leader from a young age.

M's team starts out strong, on the back of a thrillingly fast and accurate spell from their pacer, who uproots the stumps twice in two overs (but has decided not to be a part of the WPL auctions, which is strange because good fast bowlers are in great demand in the tournament). Her opening bowling partner S, a lanky spinner with a flowing action, sends in balls that skid, speed up and turn, tying batters into knots.