The move by Sunrisers Leeds to buy Pakistani spinner Abrar Ahmed in the Hundred auction has led to the franchise owners getting flak from fans on the social media. However, head coach Daniel Vettori said that the decision to bring him is a purely cricketing decision as the team missed out on Adil Rashid. The franchise owned by Sun TV acquired Abrar for USD 255,000, making him the first Pakistani player to be bought by an Indian-owned team in The Hundred.
The social media is criticising the team and owner Kavya Maran for not reading the room and going against the national sentiments. The official X account of Sunrisers Leeds has also been suspended, and growing outrage is surfacing on social media.
“Once we missed out on Adil Rashid [to Southern Brave], who was a priority early on, 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 after the conclusion of the auction on Thursday.
Vettori also said that there was no specific discussion for Pakistani players and the plan was made keeping everyone in mind.
“We just planned for everyone who was in the auction. There wasn’t a discussion about not picking Pakistan players. It was just a matter of 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, and Abrar Ahmed were all guys that were on our radar,” said Vettori. “It’s a bit of a mystery. I don’t think many English players have seen him, and he recently played in that Australian series. The feedback from the Australian guys was that he was going to be tricky to face, a lot of variations and an ability to strike in the powerplay, and still through the middle stages, which I think is a key requirement at Headingley. Spinners have been the only ones to really succeed there. To have him there is going to be a big difference for us,” he added.
The Sun TV completed the takeover of the Northern Superchargers team last year after buying a 49 per cent stake from the ECB and the remaining 51 per cent from Yorkshire. However, no other team owned by the Indians picked up a Pakistani player in the auction.
Earlier, there were reports of a shadow ban on Pakistani players in the Hundred for Indian-owned teams. However, all eight franchises had then issued a statement, saying the selection of players would purely be done on merit and cricketing skill.
