Abrar Ahmed is first Pakistani player to be signed by Indian-owned Hundred team

2026-03-12 - 19:23

Leg-spinner signed by Sunrisers Leeds for £190,000 James Coles is most expensive player sold on day of auction Abrar Ahmed has become the first Pakistani player to be signed by one of the four Indian-owned Hundred teams after he was bought by Sunrisers Leeds for £190,000 in the inaugural men’s player auction. The signing was a badly needed relief for the England and Wales Cricket Board, which was recently forced to publicly deny reports that the four sides would operate a “shadow ban” on picking players from Pakistan. The Sunrisers are owned by the SUN media group, which also runs franchises in Hyderabad and Eastern Cape. It had to fight hard for him after being drawn into a bidding war with the Trent Rockets. Ahmed, 27, is third in the world in the men’s international T20 bowling rankings. He is one of only a handful of Pakistani players to be signed by Indian-owned teams around the world. The head coach, Dan Vettori, insisted it was strictly a cricket decision. “There wasn’t a discussion, it was just about who was the best option for is. We missed out on Adil Rashid, so then the priority was to get a spin bowler, and we didn’t think that quality was in the local market so we had to look overseas.” Continue reading...