Sunrisers Leeds recruitment in The Hundred not in BCCI's domain - Rajeev Shukla

Sunrisers Leeds signed Abrar Ahmed for a whopping price at the inaugural Men’s Hundred auction, which took place in London on Thursday, March 12.

However, this move caused resentment among several Indians, who slammed owner Kavya Maran. According to the fans, Sunrisers' buying the Pakistani cricketer has hurt their sentiments. The political tension between India and Pakistan has been intense after the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent Operation Sindoor.

Sunrisers Leeds, which has been renamed from Northern Superchargers, after a change in ownership, became the first franchise owned by an Indian conglomerate to buy a Pakistani player.

BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla stated that India’s cricket governing body does not have a say in Sunrisers Leeds signing Pakistan’s leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed in The Hundred. He earned a contract worth 190,000 GBP (INR 2.34 crore).

"Our domain is limited to the IPL. We have nothing to do with what they do in a league outside that. How can we interfere with them signing a player in a foreign league? That's up to them. It's purely up to the franchise that has bought a team outside India. If they are taking some player outside India in that league, we are least concerned because, in the IPL, there is no such player," Rajeev Shukla, the BCCI vice-president, was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz on Friday.

The Sunrisers' management, however, remained quiet, unofficially maintaining that it had received no instructions from any authorities regarding the recruitment of Pakistani players. It is, however, not the first time an Indian-owned franchise signed a Pakistani player for its overseas team.

Meanwhile, coming to Sunrisers Hyderabad, they start their campaign in the impending edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday, March 28. They face defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the curtain raiser at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The Orange Army would want to bounce back strongly after finishing sixth on the points table last year.