Sunrisers Leeds have made a big bid on Pakistan’s mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed in ‘The Hundred’ auction going on in London. Sunrisers Leeds, the sister franchise of IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad, has bought Abrar for 1.90 lakh pounds (about Rs 2.34 crore). This decision of Sunrisers Leeds owner Kavya Maran is very shocking.
Indian-owned franchises in any league in the world have avoided buying Pakistani players. Even before this auction, there were reports that the franchises which are owned by Indian companies would boycott Pakistani players, but Sunrisers Leeds have bought trouble by including Abrabar in their team. Recently there was an uproar over the purchase of Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim in the IPL. Now bidding on Abrar may target Kavya Maran and Sunrisers franchise.
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First Pakistani to be bought by an Indian owned franchise
Four franchises of The Hundred are Indian-owned. Ahead of the auction, which is being held for the first time in the history of the tournament, media reports had claimed that Indian-owned franchises would follow a ‘shadow ban’ on Pakistani players. However, all the franchises said that players will be bought according to performance, availability and need of the team. It is understood that Sunrisers Leeds bid for Abrar on the advice of head coach Daniel Vettori.
South Africa’s SA20 also has Sunrisers Eastern Cape team owned by Kavya Maran but it has not bought Pakistani players till date. As far as The Hundred is concerned, Abrar is the first player bought by an Indian-owned franchise in this tournament. Many Pakistani players have gone unsold in the auction. There were no bids for players like Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf. Whereas Usman Tariq was bought by Birmingham Phoenix for 1 lakh 40 thousand pounds. The Birmingham Phoenix are owned by their host county Warwickshire and American Investor Group.
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