The IPL owners inject hundreds of crores each year, and are seen in the stadium in support of their teams. But do the owners surpass the professional strategy and 'have a say' in team selection too? Sunrisers Hyderabad star Liam Livingstone claims it 'yes', by giving his own example in IPL 2026.
Speaking to a podcast, as quoted by NDTV, Livingstone said, "I think there are like three ways of the IPL. You are locked in, and everything is kind of set out for you. There's like a fringe: you may or may not play. And your thoughts are, 'If I play, this is how it's going to go.' And like me, this year, when I went there, we got a lad (Salil Arora) in the auction that the Mumbai Indians really wanted. We had more money, so we ended up getting him. The owners loved him. So he was locked into play for us. When we didn't have Cummins, we were playing only three overseas players. So I asked Dan (Vettori), " Why are we playing only three overseas?"
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"He was like, 'The owners love this lad. When Cummins comes back in, we are not going to change our thing'. Which is great. I knew that I was not going to play unless somebody got injured. So then it's a completely different mindset when you know, you are not going to play," he added.
The expertise of the owners
While discussing throughout the podcast, cricket expert David Lloyd asked about the expertise of the owners regarding cricket. The reply was given by Alastair Cook, who was also part of the podcast, claimed about the abundance of money of each franchise.
"I don't know if they call the shots fully, but they obviously have a say. But I guess the biggest thing for me this year from Dan Vettori was that he told me what was happening. I knew," Livingstone said.
Kavya Maran, who is the co-owner of the SRH franchise, formed a great team for the IPL season of 2026. The team entered the playoffs but faced defeat to the Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator.
Livingstone Reveals SRH Owners Influenced Team Selection Decisions
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Liam Livingstone said, “And like me, this year, when I went there we got a lad in the auction that Mumbai Indians really wanted. We had more money, so we ended up getting him. The owners loved him. So he was… pic.twitter.com/9Nat0fCMfk
Other controversies
A controversy broke out after Sunrisers Leeds, a franchise owned by the Sun Group, signed Pakistani spinner Abrar Ahmed during The Hundred auction. The move sparked criticism from a section of Indian cricket fans, who pointed to the long-standing absence of Pakistani players in Indian-owned teams and their exclusion from the IPL amid strained India-Pakistan relations. Social media users called for a boycott of Sunrisers Hyderabad, the IPL franchise under the same ownership group. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar also questioned the decision. However, the franchise management defended the signing, stating that the selection was based solely on cricketing merit and team requirements.
