Sunrisers Leeds’ acquisition of leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed has come under a lot of criticism with team owner Kavya Maran facing severe backlash on social media for signing a Pakistani in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor.
The franchise bought Abrar for £190,000 (US$255,000) during the Hundred auction in London on Thursday, making him the first Pakistan player signed by an Indian-owned team in the tournament.
Sun TV recently completed a full takeover of the franchise, formerly called Northern Superchargers, buying a 49 per cent stake from the ECB and the remaining 51 per cent from Yorkshire for around £100 million. Stakes in three other Hundred teams were also sold to investors who own IPL franchises.
Sunrisers haven’t issued any official statement but Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla has said that the Board has no authority to intervene in the controversy.
The presence of Kavya along with head coach Daniel Vettori, who is also in charge of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, at the auction table — seen placing the successful bid, beating competition from the Trent Rockets — has led to a lot of furore.
Vettori later explained that the team targeted Abrar after missing out on England spinner Adil Rashid, who had already been picked up by another franchise. He also said that Pakistan spinner Usman Tariq had been a part of the franchise’s plans earlier, but once Abrar was secured, the management decided against pursuing another spinner.
“Once we missed out on Adil Rashid (to Southern Brave), who was a priority early on, we obviously jumped into the overseas spinner,” Vettori said. “There
were four or five guys that we were looking at and Abrar was one of them. Very pleased
to get him.”
“We just planned for everyone that was in the auction. There wasn’t a discussion (about not picking Pakistan players)... it was just who was the best option. After we missed out on Adil Rashid, the priority was going to get a spin bowler and we didn’t think that quality was in the local market, so we had to jump overseas. Rishad Hussain, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed... they were all guys that were on our radar.”
There was a lot of scrutiny in the lead-up to the Hundred auction on whether the Indian-owned franchises would bid for Pakistani players after reports of a potential ‘shadow-ban’ surfaced. The eight franchises though had committed to selecting players based solely on “performance, availability, and the needs of each team” before the auction.
No Pakistan cricketer has featured in the IPL since 2008 due to the long-running geo-political tensions between the countries. However, Pakistani players have previously played for global T20 teams owned or part-owned by IPL franchise owners.
Just hours after the franchise got Abrar on board, Sunrisers Leeds’ official X account was temporarily suspended.