New Delhi, March 13 (IANS) Sunrisers Leeds’ ‘X’ account has been suspended hours after the franchise completed the signing of Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed during The Hundred 2026 auction held on Thursday.

Abrar became the first Pakistani player signed by an Indian-owned franchise in the tournament. The move to sign Abrar didn’t go down well with fans, who took to X to criticise the team’s owner and the franchise, terming them anti-national.

Just hours after the team signed Abrar for 190,000 pounds (Rs 2.3 crore), Sunrisers Leeds’ official X (formerly Twitter) account was suspended. While the platform hasn’t provided a specific reason, users attempting to access the account are met with a pop-up message stating, “Account suspended. X suspends accounts that violate the X rules.”

Sun TV completed its acquisition of The Hundred franchise, previously known as Northern Superchargers, by buying a 49 per cent stake from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the remaining 51 per cent from Yorkshire for about 100 million pounds

Earlier reports suggested IPL franchise-owned teams would avoid bidding for Pakistan players, and the early stages of Thursday’s auction appeared to support that expectation till Abrar was picked.

No Pakistan player has featured in the Indian Premier League (IPL) since 2009, and IPL franchise owners who have invested in franchise T20 leagues worldwide have generally avoided signing cricketers from the country.

The ECB said last month that selections in the auction would be based solely on ‘cricketing performance, availability, and the needs of each team.’ Nine Pakistan players have appeared across the competition’s first five seasons, though none of the female cricketers from the country were picked in the women’s auction on Wednesday.

Abrar was the second Pakistan player sold in the auction on Thursday after mystery spinner Usman Tariq was bought by Birmingham Phoenix for 140,000 pounds. Several other Pakistan players like Saim Ayub, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan went unsold.

Sunrisers Leeds, captained by Harry Brook and coached by Daniel Vettori, also picked up South Africa’s Ryan Rickelton, England’s Zak Crawley, Matt Potts and Dan Lawrence in the early stages of the auction. The squad already includes Brydon Carse, Mitchell Marsh and Nathan Ellis.

The 2026 Hundred will run from July 21 to August 16 and will feature 34 men’s and 34 women’s matches.

–IANS

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