Published: Mar 13, 2026, 11:14 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 13, 2026, 11:14 AM (IST)
The Hundred 2026 player auction made big headlines when Sunrisers Leeds, owned by Sun TV and Kavya Maran (who also own IPL’s Sunrisers Hyderabad), bought Pakistani leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed for £190,000 (around Rs 2.34 crore).
This move put Kavya Maran and the team in the spotlight, with heavy criticism on social media from Indian fans who were unhappy about an IPL-linked franchise signing a Pakistani player.
Top Pakistani stars like Haris Rauf, Saim Ayub, and Shadab Khan went unsold with no bids at all.
Another Pakistani spinner, Usman Tariq, was bought by Birmingham Phoenix for £140,000 (around Rs 1.72 crore), but that team has no IPL ownership links.
As soon as Sunrisers Leeds announced Abrar Ahmed’s signing on their official X (Twitter) account, the news spread like wildfire. Many Indian cricket fans targeted Kavya Maran directly, sharing angry posts and memes.
Soon after, the team’s official X account got suspended. When users try to visit it now, a message pops up: “This account has been suspended for violating X’s rules.”
It’s widely believed the suspension happened because of massive reports and backlash from users upset over the signing.
Other IPL-linked teams in The Hundred stayed away from Pakistani players:
None of them bid on any Pakistani players.
Last year, Kavya Maran and Sun TV bought 100% ownership of Northern Superchargers in The Hundred for £100 million (around Rs 1,100 crore). They rebranded it as Sunrisers Leeds.
Sun Group also owns Sunrisers Eastern Cape in SA20, but that team has never signed a Pakistani player.
The Hundred 2026 season starts on July 21 and the final is on August 16.
Abrar Ahmed was the second Pakistani player sold in the auction (after Usman Tariq).
Sunrisers Leeds head coach Daniel Vettori spoke after the auction and cleared the air.
“When we missed out on Adil Rashid (Southern Brave) then we obviously jumped into the overseas spinner. There were four or five guys that we were looking at, and Abrar was one of them. Very pleased to get him,” Vettori said.
“We came into the auction with every player available to us. As soon as this option was available there were a number of very good spinners from international teams that were an option, but Abrar was a priority,” he added.
‘Rishad Hussain, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed – these players were all guys that were on our radar.’
Vettori said there was no internal talk about avoiding Pakistani players it was purely about finding the best spinner after missing Adil Rashid.
