In the recent player auction of England’s popular T20 league The Hundred, a decision was taken which has sparked debate among cricket fans. Sunrisers Leeds, the franchise of Indian business conglomerate Sun Group, has included Pakistan spin bowler Abrar Ahmed in its team. After this decision, a lot of discussion and controversy is being seen on social media.
Kavya Maran’s team took a big bet
In the auction held in the presence of Sun Group owner Kavya Maran, Sunrisers Leads bid heavily for Abrar Ahmed. According to the report, the team has bought him for 1 lakh 90 thousand pounds i.e. about Rs 2.34 crore. During the auction, there was a tough competition between Sunrisers Leeds and Trent Rockets to get Abrar. Finally, Sunrisers Leeds have included this Pakistani spinner in their team by bidding more.
Old ‘unwritten rule’ broken
This deal of Abrar Ahmed is also in the news because he has become the first Pakistani player to join an Indian-owned franchise. In fact, due to the long-standing political tension between India and Pakistan, IPL franchises have not included Pakistani players since 2009. For this reason, it was believed that Pakistani players would not get a chance in Indian-owned teams.
But this assumption seemed to be broken in this auction. After the Sun Group team bought Abrar Ahmed, many fans on social media raised questions on this decision. Some people called it right from cricket point of view, while some also criticized it.
Sun Group teams in many leagues
Sun Group owns teams not only in this English league but also in many other T20 leagues. This group also owns the Sunrisers Hyderabad team in IPL. Apart from this, Sunrisers Eastern Cape is also a team of this group in South Africa’s SA20 League. Last year, Sun Group also took control of the Northern Superchargers franchise in The Hundred, after which the name of the team has been changed to Sunrisers Leeds.
Entry of another Pakistani player
Before Abrar Ahmed, Pakistan’s Usman Tariq was also bought in this auction. Birmingham Phoenix has added him for 1 lakh 40 thousand pounds i.e. approximately Rs 1.72 crore.
The new season of The Hundred will start from 21st July and will be played till 16th August. Now it will be interesting to see how Abrar Ahmed performs in this league and whether this decision changes the attitude of other franchises in future or not.
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