Published: March 14, 2026 at 2:57 pm
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s owner Kavya Maran, who also co-owns Sunrisers Leeds in The Hundred cricket tournament in the UK, recently decided to sign Pakistani bowler Abrar Ahmed in her Leeds-based team that will take part in the event to be held from July. The decision opened a Pandora’s box and led to a huge online backlash from some sections of angry cricket fans in India.
What is The Hundred? It is a UK-based tournament that was started in 2021. The current season will be the sixth season of the event that involves 8 men’s and 8 women’s teams located in major cities across the United Kingdom. However, there are four Indian owners who have teams playing in the event. One of the Indian owners is the Sunrisers group.
Kavya Maran has been closely associated with the Sunrisers teams in India and the UK for several years. But now she finds herself at the centre of a massive controversy and is being targeted by right wing trollers on the internet
Kavya is a member of the prominent and politically powerful Maran family. She has been closely associated with the Sunrisers teams in India and the UK for several years. But now she finds herself at the centre of a massive controversy and is being targeted by right wing trollers on the internet. It all began when the Sunrisers’ UK franchise secured the services of Pakistan’s mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed for $255,000, making him the first Pakistani cricketer to be signed by an Indian-owned team in the tournament.
https://x.com/crickiara/status/2032099465436483756?s=20
The backlash has been mainly directed at her because she was present at the auction table alongside the team’s head coach Daniel Vettori of New Zealand when the bid was made. She is one of the most visible faces associated with the Sunrisers group and thus trollers bombarded her with nasty comments immediately.
Cricket is more than a sport in India
The unsavoury development once again highlighted the fact that in India, cricket is viewed as more than just a sport. Many emotions are tied up to the contests especially when Indian and Pakistani players are concerned. Because of the sensitive relationship between India and Pakistan, many people believed that these teams, even though they are based in the UK, would avoid picking Pakistani players.
The India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the most intense sports rivalries on the planet. Matches between these two teams are among the most-viewed across all sports events.
The two teams first played against each other after the 1947 partition, in 1952 Since then numerous Test series and ODI series have been played. But several tours by both teams have been cancelled or aborted due to political factors. No cricket was played between the two countries from 1962 to 1977 due to two wars in 1965 and 1971. Later the Kargil War in 1999 and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, also disrupted cricket ties.
The backlash has been mainly directed at Kavya because she was present at the auction table alongside the team’s head coach Daniel Vettori of New Zealand when the bid was made. She is one of the most visible faces associated with the Sunrisers group and thus trollers bombarded her with nasty comments immediately
Players from both teams routinely face severe pressure to win and are threatened by extreme reactions if defeated. Such violent fan reactions to defeats have further created tension in the relationship. The Asia Cup edition of 2025, coming after the Pahalgam attack, soured the equation.
Before the tournament, there were calls for a boycott, but eventually the government of India gave the green signal. During the group stage, the Indian team led by Suryakumar Yadav refused to shake hands after defeating Pakistan. Later Yadav dedicated the victory to the victims of Pahalgam attack and the Indian Army.
ECB advised players’ selection on merit
However, The Hundred league is organized by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which advised the teams that the selection process should be based purely on merit with no politics involved. According to that principle, franchises were free to pick any player if they felt he fitted their team’s ideal composition.
But even after the ECB’s advice, no other Indian franchise picked a Pakistani player in the auction. However, Sunrisers Leeds went ahead and bought Abrar Ahmed.
Abrar is first Pak bowler to take 11 wickets in Test debut
The 27-year-old Abrar began his international career when he was called up to represent Pakistan in December 2022 for the home Test series against England. Ahmed made his Test debut on December 9, 2022 in the second match of the series and took 7 wickets for 114 runs in the first innings and 4 for 120 in the second, becoming the first Pakistani bowler to claim 11 wickets on debut after 1995.
Abrar Ahmed made his Test debut on December 9, 2022, in the second match of the series and took 7 wickets for 114 runs in the first innings and 4 for 120 in the second
Now, apart from Tests and ODIs, Abrar has played 38 T20I matches in which he has taken 52 wickets at an average of 17.36 and a best performance of 4 for 9. Abrar is known as a mystery spinner and few batsmen are able to read his art. This factor may have gone in his favour and prompted the Sunrisers to pick him for the coming battles.
Only ECB can decide, says BCCI VP Shukla
Rajeev Shukla, vice president of the BCCI, said that it is for the ECB to make the rules and handle the issue. Even after that clarification, the backlash on social media kept growing. There were also reports that the Sunrisers Leeds X account was suspended, and criticism against Kavya continued.
Now some of the furious fans have called for Sunrisers to be boycotted during the forthcoming IPL season. The mega event in Indian cricket is scheduled to start from March 28, and this controversy in the UK, could impact SRH in the IPL as well.
The most interesting thing to note here is that Sunrisers Hyderabad is actually one of the most entertaining teams in the IPL right now. With explosive players like Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, and Heinrich Klaasen, the team is known for its adventurous and entertaining style of cricket. But in India, the India-Pakistan factor overrides other aspects of sport. The present scenario has the potential to create problems for the Sunrisers outfit if it continues to linger for a long period of time.
