It did not take long for the simmering antipathy on the Indian sub-continent to erupt after the auction of players for the men’s franchises in The Hundred.
This centered on the purchase of Pakistani spinner Abrar Ahmed by Sunrisers Leeds. The franchise is owned by Indian media conglomerate Sun TV Network, which acquired the former Northern Superchargers franchise in two stages. First, it bought a 49 per cent stake from the England and Wales Cricket Board and then the 51 per cent balance from Yorkshire County Cricket Club in a deal worth around $32m (£100m). Sun TV also owns Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League and Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the SA20.
Abrar entered the auction with a base price of $100,000 and was subject to a bidding contest between Trent Rockets and the Sunrisers, who secured his signing with a bid of $252,000. This made him the first Pakistani international to be signed by an Indian-owned franchise in The Hundred.
Present and active at the bidding table was Kavya Maran, executive director of Sun TV Network and the CEO of the group's sports interests. She is the daughter of Kalanithi Maran, the founder of the Sun Group. The apparent determination to secure Abrar’s signing put her under the spotlight, to the extent that the Sunrisers’ X account was suspended within six hours of the signing in reaction to provocative posts. Two comments illustrate the strength of feeling: “This shows the power of Indian people. Now Kavya Maran will understand what people’s emotions mean,” and “They earn money from India and spend it on Pakistani players. Keep boycotting the anti-national Sunrisers.” It ought to be recorded, for balance, that the Sunrisers also acquired players from Australia and South Africa.
