3 min learnUp to date: Mar 13, 2026 02:41 PM IST
The Board of Management for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) vp Rajeev Shukla has stated that it doesn’t have a say in Sunrisers Leeds buying Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed The Hundred public sale. The acquisition got here after hypothesis over whether or not The Hundred groups owned by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises will bid for Pakistani gamers or not, with the Leeds franchise being owned by Solar TV Community Restricted, which additionally owns Sunrisers Hyderabad within the IPL.
“Our area is proscribed to the IPL. We have now nothing to do with what they do in a league outdoors that. How can we intervene with them signing a participant in a overseas league. That’s upto them. It’s purely upto the franchise who’ve bough a workforce outdoors India. If they’re taking some participant outdoors India in that league, we’re least involved as a result of, in IPL there isn’t a such participant,” Shukla instructed ANI on Friday.
There had been stories earlier that the groups purchased by IPL franchise house owners wouldn’t be bidding for Pakistani gamers, and developments within the early a part of Thursday’s public sale appeared to comply with the script. Thriller spinner Usman Tariq, recognized for the angular method and the lengthy pause earlier than supply, was the one participant from his nation to search out any takers. Birmingham Phoenix obtained him for 140,000 kilos after a short tussle with Trent Rockets. Neither of those franchises has any IPL-owner involvement.
Different Pakistani gamers whose names got here up for bidding – Saim Ayub, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan – discovered no takers.
However that modified when Abrar’s identify got here up. He entered the public sale at a base value of 75,000 kilos and Sunrisers Leeds co-owner and CEO Kavya Maran promptly raised the paddle. They had been challenged by Trent Rockets because the bidding quickly crossed the 100,000 pound mark. As the competition touched the 150k threshold, there was some dialogue between Kavya and head coach Daniel Vettori, earlier than they determined to go additional. Trent Rockets finally opted out and Abrar grew to become a Sunrisers Leeds participant for 190k.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the eight franchises in The Hundred had launched an announcement final month saying that the choice can be based mostly completely on ‘cricketing efficiency, availability, and the wants of every workforce’.