The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) vice president Rajeev Shukla has said that it won’t involved itself in the Sunrisers Leeds acquiring Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed The Hundred auction. The acquisition came after speculation over whether The Hundred teams owned by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises will bid for Pakistani players or not, with the Leeds franchise being owned by Sun TV Network Limited, which also owns Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.
“It is not in our domain (IPL), they have done it for some foreign league. They will have to take a call; we cannot do anything,” Shukla told ANI on Friday.
There had been reports earlier that the teams bought by IPL franchise owners would not be bidding for Pakistani players, and developments in the early part of Thursday’s auction seemed to follow the script. Mystery spinner Usman Tariq, known for the angular approach and the long pause before delivery, was the only player from his country to find any takers. Birmingham Phoenix got him for 140,000 pounds after a brief tussle with Trent Rockets. Neither of these franchises has any IPL-owner involvement.
Other Pakistani players whose names came up for bidding – Saim Ayub, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan – found no takers.
But that changed when Abrar’s name came up. He entered the auction at a base price of 75,000 pounds and Sunrisers Leeds co-owner and CEO Kavya Maran promptly raised the paddle. They were challenged by Trent Rockets as the bidding soon crossed the 100,000 pound mark. As the contest touched the 150k threshold, there was some discussion between Kavya and head coach Daniel Vettori, before they decided to go further. Trent Rockets eventually opted out and Abrar became a Sunrisers Leeds player for 190k.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the eight franchises in The Hundred had released a statement last month saying that the selection would be based entirely on ‘cricketing performance, availability, and the needs of each team’.
