SunRisers Buy Pakistani Player: Social Media Explodes!

Considering the border conflict and the subsequent fall out in bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan, there is no cricketing camaraderie between the two teams. It is at a point where India does not travel to Pakistan and vice versa, except for ICC tournaments which are held at neutral venues. 

But something extremely unexpected and detrimental has happened with IPL team ownership, Sunrisers.

Incidentally Sunrisers, which is owned by Sun TV based out of Tamil Nadu is participating in the upcoming Hundred tournament in England. Ahead of the start of the season, the auction was held today and Kavya Maaran, who operates Sunrisers Hyderabad participated in the same.

Incidentally, this Sunrisers Leeds team which is operated by Kavya has reportedly acquired Pakistani player Abrar Ahmed in the auction today. This was not what was expected from the Indian based sporting team. 

Shortly after news came out that Sunrisers bought Pakistani player, Abrar Ahmed, all of Indian social media broke loose. People started to outrightly criticise the Sunrisers franchise for buying this Pakistani player.

People are commenting that it is shame on the Indian franchise to acquire a Pakistani player for whatever fee while the two countries are openly at conflict. At a time when Indian players are refusing to even shake the hands of Pakistani players in ICC games, this move by Sunrisers to acquire the Pakistani player has not gone well.

The point to be noted here is that this tournament happens in England and it does not feature Indian players. But the sentimental value is far to strong here as Sunrisers franchise is facing the heat on social media for buying a Pakistani player who has history of sledging the Indian team.