Pakistani Spinner Abrar Ahmed Signed by Indian-Owned Sunrisers Leeds in 'The Hundred' League

London. Sunrisers Leeds, owned by an Indian company, has signed Pakistani mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed for the UK's 'The Hundred' league. Sunrisers CEO Kaviya Maran purchased Abrar for \u00a3190,000 in Thursday's auction. With this, Abrar becomes the first Pakistani player to join an Indian-owned franchise since 2009.

Due to political tensions between India and Pakistan, no IPL franchise has signed a Pakistani player since 2009. The Sun Group only acquired the ownership of Northern Superchargers last year and renamed it Sunrisers Leeds. 

Previously, no Pakistani player has been part of the IPL's Sunrisers Hyderabad or South Africa's Sunrisers Eastern Cape, both owned by this group. Alongside Abrar, another Pakistani spinner, Usman Tariq, was also bought by Birmingham Phoenix for approximately 22.8 million Nepali Rupees.

Recently, the conflict between cricket and politics has caused significant upheaval in the sports sector. Following strong criticism in India over the killing of Hindus in Bangladesh, Kolkata Knight Riders released Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman. 

Angered by this, the Bangladesh government banned the broadcast of the IPL in their country and also refused to play in the T20 World Cup held in India. Because of this, the ICC removed Bangladesh from the World Cup altogether and included Scotland.

Similarly, Pakistan also initially threatened to boycott the World Cup match against India. However, following the initiative of the Sri Lankan President, India defeated Pakistan by 61 runs in the match held in Colombo on February 15.