A big moment happened in cricket this week. An Indian-owned franchise has signed a Pakistani cricketer in an overseas league.
On Thursday, Sunrisers Leeds, a team owned by India’s Sun Group, bought Pakistani mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed in the auction for The Hundred tournament.
The team’s CEO Kavya Maran personally placed the winning bid of £1.90 lakh (around ₹2.34 crore) for Abrar.
With this deal, Abrar Ahmed has become the first Pakistani player to join an Indian-owned franchise in The Hundred, which will start on 21 July.
However, this move has also sparked criticism on social media, where some fans questioned why an Indian-owned team signed a Pakistani player.
Why this news is getting attention
Because of the tense political relations between India and Pakistan, Indian Premier League teams have not signed Pakistani players since 2009.
That is why Abrar joining an Indian-owned franchise, even in a foreign league, is being seen as a rare and surprising development.
How Sunrisers Leeds was created
Last year, the Sun Group bought the English team Northern Superchargers.
- First 49% stake was bought from the England and Wales Cricket Board
- The remaining 51% stake was purchased from Yorkshire County Cricket Club
The total deal was worth around £100 million (about ₹1000 crore).
After the purchase, the team was renamed to Sunrisers Leeds.
The Sun Group already owns:
- Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL
- Sunrisers Eastern Cape in South Africa
But none of these teams currently have Pakistani players.
Another Pakistani player also sold
In the same auction, another Pakistani mystery spinner Usman Tariq was bought by Birmingham Phoenix.
- He was sold for £1.40 lakh (around ₹1.72 crore).
However, two Pakistani players remained unsold:
- Haris Rauf
- Saim Ayub
Previous controversy with a Bangladeshi player
A similar controversy happened earlier with Bangladeshi fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman.
During the Indian Premier League mini auction in December 2025, Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for ₹9.20 crore.
But later, protests started in India due to reports of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. After discussions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, KKR decided to release Mustafizur from the squad.
This decision made the Bangladesh government unhappy, and they temporarily stopped broadcasting the IPL in their country.
Bangladesh also refused to play the T20 World Cup in India, which led to the International Cricket Council removing them from the tournament. Their spot was later given to Scotland.
India vs Pakistan World Cup match drama
There was also drama involving Pakistan during the T20 World Cup.
The Pakistani government initially boycotted the match against India. But after intervention by the Ranil Wickremesinghe, Pakistan finally agreed to play.
The match took place in Colombo on 15 February.
In that game, India defeated Pakistan by 61 runs, with Ishan Kishan scoring a brilliant half-century.
In short:
Abrar Ahmed joining Sunrisers Leeds is a historic and controversial moment, because it’s the first time a Pakistani player has been signed by an Indian-owned franchise since relations between the two countries became tense in cricket.