"From my perspective, I don't think any of us ever led the conversation in terms of monetary value," she said. "I think there's something at play that's much bigger than that. Of course, remuneration and the chance to earn that kind of money is wonderful, but much larger than that I think is just the general growth of the sport right around the world.

"India is kind of, I guess, the spiritual home of cricket in a lot of senses. And I think now that women are starting to have a really strong presence in the Indian market and also in the Indian game, that is so much more important than any kind of dollar value that is placed on any player. So from that perspective, the chat was just around wanting to be involved.

"Of course, after the auction, those discussions come in about certain value and how much people are sold for, which in itself is a weird kind of concept to swallow. But yeah, I just think it's so much bigger than that. The discussion from us as a group was just what it's going to do for the game, not so much what it's going to do for an individual."

"Ash is a phenomenal player," Perry said. "I was fortunate enough to play with Ashleigh in her first WBBL campaign with the [Sydney] Sixers and I don't think she's looked back since then. Year on year, she's just got better and better.

"Probably what stands out to me the most now is the contribution that she's making with her bowling. Added to the obvious power that she possesses as a batter and ability to take games away there, now the consistency in her bowling and what she's contributing during our fielding innings just makes her such a threat. She has every facet of the game covered off and really is just perfectly built for T20 cricket.

"The consistency that she has for that now has probably made her as rich as what she is," Perry added with a smile.

"It was so awesome to see Wolfy play again," Perry said. "Such a long road back from a really devastating injury. I think any athlete who hears the word ACL in terms of an injury, it's a pretty tough one to swallow.

"To have the patience that she's had to work as hard as she has and the other part of it is she's hardly played any games of cricket in the last 16 months and she just comes out and does that. And that's so Wolfy. She's just the most naturally talented and laid-back sort of cricketer that I've come across. Often after long injuries, it takes a long time to perform again but she's done it straight away."

Australia and Sri Lanka will both be seeking their third straight wins of the tournament when they meet at St George's Park on Thursday.