Fans furious over SunRisers franchise buying Pakistan spinner who 'mocked' Indian Armed Forces in The Hundred

The Hundred witnessed a historic first when close players went under the hammer for the first time in six seasons. However, geopolitical controversy dominated the discourse around the event.

Sun Group, which owns SunRisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL), bid fiercely for Pakistani spinner Abrar Ahmed, triggering a storm on social media.

The Kavya Maran-led franchise, which owns the Leeds team in The Hundred, eventually won the battle, acquiring Ahmed for 190,000 pounds (approx. Rs 2.34 crore).

Sun TV Network acquired Northern Superchargers last year, buying a 49 per cent stake from the ECB and the remaining 51 per cent from Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

While the bid was appreciated in the UK, it drew sever backlash among Indian fans, with some calling to boycott the SunRisers franchise.

This comes as Ahmed is known for his controversial "anti-India" commentary on social media in 2025, during heightened tensions between the neighbours.

People stormed the comments section of SunRisers Leeds and SunRisers Hyderabad using hashtags like #ShameOnSRH, while #BoycottSunrisers began trending on X.

Netizens said the franchise ignored national sentiment for tactical gain after splurging on a player who publicly "mocked" the Indian Armed Forces.

In a dramatic escalation of events, SRH Leeds X account now stands suspended. However, it is not clear as to why the account is not accessible anymore.

ECB warning

It has ben reported that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had issued a strong warning to all eight franchises that excluding players based on nationality would violate UK anti-discrimination laws.

Ahead of the auction, there was month of speculation that the four Indian-owned teams in The Hundred -- SunRisers Leeds, MI London, Manchester Super Giants, and Southern Brave – would have an unwritten rule of boycotting Pakistani players.

It had become a pattern in South Africa's SA20 and UAE's ILT20, where Indian-owned teams kept their distance from Pakistani players.

In The Hundred auction, only two Pakistani players found teams. Other than Ahmed, spinner Usman Tariq was acquired by non-IPL owned team Birmingham Phoenix.

Other top players like Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan and Saim Ayub remained unsold.

Daniel Vettori justifies buy

While the Sun Group has not responded to the criticism yet, head coach Daniel Vettori said that the decision was based on auction dynamics and supply and demand of players.

“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," Vettori said after the auction.

He added that he was "very pleased" with the buy. Ahmed boasts of a brilliant T20I record, taking 52 wickets in his 38 T20Is at an extraordinary economy rate of 6.67.