SRH Owners Influenced Team Selection In IPL 2026, Overseas Star Drops Bomb

Do the IPL team owners have influence in team selection? This is one subject that has been often discussed with no concrete proof. The IPL owners, who pump in hundreds of crores each year, are known to be a passionate lot. Many are seen in the stadium supporting their teams. But do they cross the line and 'have a say' in team selection too? Sunrisers Hyderabad star Liam Livingstone thinks so. He gave his own example in IPL 2026. The England spin-allrounder played only two matches, scoring 1 and 14. Livingstone said that a player was preferred because the owners loved him. He added that SRH played three overseas players in the XI but did not try him on a consistent basis.

"I think there are like three ways of the IPL. You are locked in and everything 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 Mumbai Indians really wanted. We had more money, so we ended up getting him. The owners loved him. So he was locked in to play for us. When we didn't have Cummins, we were playing only three overseas (players). So I asked Dan (Vettori), why we are playing only three overseas?" Livingstone said in a podcast.

"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.'

"What expertise do these owners have?" asked cricket expert David Lloyd.

"A lot of money," replied Alastair Cook, also part of the podcast.

"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.

SRH is co-owned by Kavya Maran. The team entered the IPL 2026 playoffs but lost to Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator.

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