LONDON: England veteran pacer James Anderson heaped praises on Babar Azam, saying he would spend the whole budget on the star Pakistan batter after none of the franchises picked him in the Hundred draft. 

Babar was reserved a price of £100,000 for the draft but went unsold in the drafting process held last week.

While speaking in BBC’s Tailender Podcast Anderson expressed surprise over the development, asserting, “there might have been an availability issue”, which was why Babar had not been picked for the tournament.

“Why was Babar not picked up? Was his price too high?” asked the host.

“I’ll pay double for him [Babar Azam]. I’ll spend the whole budget on Babar Azam. The only thing I can guess is that there might have been an availability issue, which is why he wasn’t picked.” replied Anderson.

The 40-year-old revealed how, at one point, he too was passed over in the IPL auction.

“I went into the IPL auction once and didn’t get picked up,” he recalled.

It is pertinent to mention here that none of the teams at the Hundred draft showed their interest in picking Pakistan batters, including the all-format captain Babar and second-ranked T20I batter Mohammad Rizwan due to concerns over their availability.

Only four Pakistani players, all bowlers, were picked by three teams for the Hundred 2023 which include Shaheen Shah Afridi (Welsh Fire), Haris Rauf (Welsh Fire), Shadab Khan (Birmingham Pheonix) and Ihsanullah (Oval Invincibles).

READ: England’s Bairstow hopes to return for Ireland Test