Kavya Maran, Sunrisers Face Heavy Backlash For Buying Pakistani Player At The Hundred Auction

IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad and its owner, Kavya Maran, have found themselves in the midst of significant controversy after buying Pakistan all-rounder, Abrar Ahmed, for Sunrisers Leeds in The Hundred 2026 Auction. For those wondering, The Hundred is England’s franchise-based T20 competition, and some of its teams operate as sister franchises of Indian Premier League sides. Pakistani players are banned from competing in the IPL and there were reports that Indian-owned franchises in The Hundred could opt against going for Pakistanis in its auction as well, but that didn’t exactly turned out to be the case.

Social Media Reacts To Sunrisers Buying Abrar Ahmed

The Sunrisers franchise and Kavya Maran received quite a bit of flak for buying Abrar Ahmed at The Hundred 2026 Auction. Here are some of the reactions:

Congratulations to @SunRisers for paying lakhs of pounds to a Pakistani player so he can make more “tea is fantastic” posts and spit on our armed forces with a smug smirk on his face.

I wish the absolute worst for your entire management team.

I hope sponsors pull out and…

— Hardik Rajgor (@Hardism) March 12, 2026

I have unfollowed and BLOCKED @SunRisers and @sunrisersleeds for buying Abrar Ahmed.

He mocked Abhinandan with his silly social media posts. Can’t support an IPL team which is not true to its own country

— Brutal Truth (@sarkarstix) March 12, 2026

🚨 Meet Kavya Maran and SRH.

They have a problem with CSK using Anirudh’s songs for video edits, but on the other side, they don’t have a problem while picking Pakistani player Abrar Ahmed in the Hundred League, who was openly used to mock Indian soldiers during the Operation… pic.twitter.com/l8oXNhysog

— Selfless⁴⁵ (@SelflessCricket) March 12, 2026

@BCCI pls ban @SunRisers as well and should impose ban from Indian based franchise if they want pakistani players #boycottsunrisers

— Arjun AN (@ArjunAN3118) March 13, 2026

Unfollowed And never going to follow back 👋 Dengai @SunRisers @sunrisersleeds

Please don’t forgot to report #boycottsunrisers pic.twitter.com/ir9UZilXBE

— Sagar Lohatkar (@sagarlohatkar) March 13, 2026

I am @SunRisers and deccan charges fan boy from the beginning but from now I became a hater

Funding paki players 🤡 ->tax to paki govt -> funds terr*rist -> Attacks in India

Not only SRH but all other teams who did this deserve the same hate #boycottsunrisers

— Random mowa (@Random_mowa) March 13, 2026

Extremely bad signing by Sunrisers Leeds which is owned by Sunrisers Hyderabad/Kavya Maran.

All other Indian owners of franchisees in Hundred Tournament have stayed away from signing Pakistani players.

Abrar is a player who had mocked our braveheart #abhinandan

— Jiten_Parmar (@FabrizioFam) March 13, 2026

Shame on SRH for signing this Paki bowler. Kavya Maran et al have lost all sense, this group should move to Pak now. Someone else can buy their SRH in India

— Ken Nippon (@ken_nippon32) March 13, 2026

As of this writing, the official X account of Sunrisers Leeds has also been suspended.

Reason For The Outrage Over Abrar’s Signing

Abrar Ahmed has previously drawn criticism for certain social media posts that appeared to be mocking the Indian armed forces.

One of the most widely discussed instances occurred during Operation Sindoor, a military operation launched by India in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in early 2025.

Given this backdrop, his signing, particularly by a franchise owned by an Indian entity, has not gone down well with fans on social media.