Sunrisers Leeds’ official X account suspended shortly after signing Pakistan player

NEW DELHI: The Sunrisers franchise faced dense backlash connected societal media aft signing Pakistan enigma spinner Abrar Ahmed successful Thursday’s inaugural men’s The Hundred 2026 players’ auction.

Abrar became the archetypal Pakistani subordinate to beryllium signed by an Indian-owned squad successful The Hundred, with Sunrisers paying USD 255,000.The determination did not beryllium good with galore fans successful India, who criticised Sunrisers and squad proprietor Kavya Maran for signing a Pakistan player, saying it went against nationalist sentiment.

At the auction, Kavya Maran was seen astatine the array alongside caput manager Daniel Vettori. There had been dense scrutiny beforehand implicit whether Indian-owned teams would bid for Pakistan players amid reports of a imaginable shadiness ban.

Shortly aft acquiring Abrar, the Sunrisers Leeds authoritative relationship connected X was suspended. The level did not springiness a circumstantial reason, but users saw the connection “Account suspended” erstwhile visiting the page, with the announcement stating that “X suspends accounts which interruption the X Rules.”Last year, Indian media institution Sun TV afloat took implicit the Leeds franchise successful The Hundred, formerly called Northern Superchargers, by buying 49% from the ECB and 51% from Yorkshire.Sunrisers’ different teams, Sunrisers Hyderabad (IPL) and Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SA20), had ne'er signed an progressive Pakistan subordinate before. In the auction, Sunrisers won the bidding warfare against Trent Rockets to unafraid Abrar Ahmed.