SRH IPL contract termination loading? BCCI breaks silence on Abrar Ahmed controversy

SUN TV and Kavya Maran have bought stakes in one of the Hundred franchise, named Northern Superchargers, and since taking over the name of the franchise has been changed to Sunrisers Leeds. Kavya Maran, the owner of the franchise, owns the Sunrisers franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL). She has been trending all over social media since last night.

Kavya Maran and Sunrisers Leeds became the only IPL-owned franchise to buy a Pakistan National Cricket Team player. The IPL-owned franchise bought Abrar Ahmed for a approx price of INR 2.34 crore. Kavya Maran, since then have faced serious backlash across social media, especially on the X (formerly Twitter), and even the official X handle of Sunrisers Leeds has been suspended.

BCCI vice-president drops verdict on SRH

The Sunrisers management is yet to respond to the backlash they are facing from India. There will be some serious consequences for Kavya Maran and the Sunrisers franchise during the IPL, as the fans might turn salty after the pick of Abrar Ahmed. As no other Indian-owned franchise in the same league has bought any player from Pakistan.

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Amidst all this controversy, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has released its first statement, and BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla has shared his views and made it clear that it is up to the franchise to make a decision, and that the BCCI has no power over overseas leagues.

Rajeev Shukla said, "This is not at all concerned with the IPL. It's an overseas league. This is not in our domain. We cannot do anything. They have to take a call."

Abrar Ahmed is causing problems

Daniel Vettori, the head coach of the Sunrisers Leeds, revealed that the franchise was looking for a mystery spinner, and another Pakistan spinner, Usman Tariq, was on the list; however, the spinner was picked by Birmingham Phoenix, and Adil Rashid went to another team. That is the reason they went for someone like Abrar Ahmed.

Coming to the auction of the Hundred, on Thursday, March 12, 2026, the Hundred (men's competition) held its first-ever player auction at Piccadilly Lights in central London. Previously, the tournament was organised differently, with a draft system used to assign players to franchises in the first five editions.

Sunrisers Leeds are facing the backlash

Four of the eight franchises have been bought by Indian-owned business tycoons, who also own IPL franchises. The Oval Invincibles are now known as MI London, the Manchester Originals as Manchester Super Giants.

The Northern Superchargers are Sunrisers Leeds. Only the Southern Braves have retained their names, as they are owned by the GMR Group, which also owns the Delhi Capitals in the IPL.

Since the inception of the new Indian owners, there were rumours that there would be a partial ban on Pakistani players, and no team involving Indians would pick up Pakistani players. However, except for the Sunrisers Leeds, all the other Indian-owned franchise have maintained their stance and did not pick any players from Pakistan.

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