Shikhar Dhawan Will Sue Over a Hong Kong Squad Listing

Shikhar Dhawan said on October 13 that organisers of the World T20 Continent Cup used his name without permission, and that his team will take legal steps. The former India opener asked fans and the media not to rely on unauthorised announcements about him.

He had been named for Asia Warriors, a December event in Hong Kong billed by Atherra Sports, a Haryana company formed in November 2025. Some promotional posts even called him captain. He says he never agreed to any of it.

Dhawan Found His Name on a Squad Sheet

The post went up on his official account, @SDhawan25, on October 13. It was short, and it left little room for a later climbdown.

I have come across my name as a participant in the World T20 Continent Cup. My name has been used by the organisers without my knowledge or permission, and my team will be taking the appropriate legal steps to address this.

Shikhar Dhawan, @SDhawan25, October 13, 2026

He asked the media and his fans “to not report or rely on any unauthorised announcements,” then thanked them for their support. That is the whole public case so far. He has not published a legal notice, named a court, or identified a defendant beyond the organisers of the cup.

I have come across my name as a participant in the World T20 Continent Cup. My name has been used by the organisers without my knowledge or permission, and my team will be taking the appropriate legal steps to address this.

I request the media and my fans to not report or rely…

— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) October 13, 2026

The listing was not a rumour that appeared overnight. Sandeep Kumar, speaking as media executive for Atherra Sports on August 7, had already put Dhawan in the Asia Warriors group with Abhimanyu Mithun and Rahul Sharma. He described a week of cricket in Hong Kong in mid-December, four continental sides, nine matches, and a final. Additional names, he said, would complete a 20-member Asia Warriors squad.

Dhawan is not a random extra on that kind of poster. He has 6,793 ODI runs at 44.11 in 167 matches, with 17 hundreds, and he retired from international and domestic cricket on August 24, 2024. A retired India opener still sells a T20 night in a new market. That is why his name was useful. It is also why printing it without a deal is now a legal problem.

The Organiser Filed Papers Only Last November

Atherra Sports Private Limited sits on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs register as CIN U93190HR2025PTC138408. It was incorporated on November 22, 2025, with ROC Delhi, a registered office at C/O Kapoori, Linepar, Sampla, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Haryana, and Rs 5 lakh in both authorised and paid-up capital. The directors on file are Nisha Kumari, Sandeep and Anurag Dwivedi, all appointed the same day the company was born.

The public face is a player-management shop that places overseas cricketers with clubs. The same roster already carries Oman wicketkeeper Suraj Kumar, a name Sandeep Kumar also read out for Asia Warriors in August. Testimonials on that site use well-known cricket names in a way that does not match any known client list. The cup itself is the first time this company has tried to put a continental T20 in front of a paying crowd.

HOW DHAWAN’S NAME GOT ON THE SHEET

1. November 22, 2025: Atherra Sports Private Limited is incorporated in Haryana with Rs 5 lakh paid-up capital.
2. August 7, 2026: Sandeep Kumar briefs that the World T20 Continent Cup will be a week in Hong Kong in mid-December, with four sides and nine matches, and names Dhawan for Asia Warriors.
3. October 12, 2026: Promotional posts circulate an Asia Warriors group “led by” Dhawan, next to Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain, Upul Tharanga, Sohail Tanvir and Iftikhar Ahmed.
4. October 13, 2026: Copy goes out presenting Dhawan as sharing a dressing room with Iftikhar Ahmed and Sohail Tanvir. Hours later, Dhawan posts that the organisers used his name without knowledge or permission.

That is a thin corporate base for a tournament sold as a gathering of retired internationals from four continents. Rs 5 lakh does not, on its own, prove the event is fake. It does show that the company asking the public to believe a Hong Kong week in December is new, small, and still answering for a squad list it put out in August.

Why the India-Pakistan Pairing Travelled

The August briefing already had Pakistani names on Asia Warriors: Muhammad Imran Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shoaib Masood, alongside Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Afghan and Omani players. By October the pairing that moved was narrower. Dhawan, the Indian opener, would share a room with Iftikhar Ahmed and Sohail Tanvir.

That is the product. An unofficial four-team cup in Hong Kong, with no published fixture list, does not travel on its own. An India-Pakistan dressing-room line does. It ran as fact on October 13 before Dhawan had said a word, and it is the version of the story that reached people who had never heard of Atherra Sports.

Hours before Dhawan posted, a sports editor wrote that he was not playing this event and would not turn out in a side with Pakistan players. That guess treated politics as the reason. Dhawan’s own text did not mention Pakistan at all. He objected to the use of his name. The pairing explains why the listing spread. It does not explain the legal claim, which would be the same if the teammates had been Australian.

Unofficial legends cups sit outside BCCI squad protocols and outside the ICC event calendar. There is no board announcement, no central contracts list, and no requirement that a name on a poster match a signed deal. That gap is how a player can first learn he is in a tournament by seeing himself in someone else’s graphic. Replies under Dhawan’s post went looking for the ICC to police that gap. The board does not license private four-team cups in Hong Kong, and it is not going to start with this one.

Mithun, Rahul Sharma and Gurkeerat Are Silent

Dhawan is the only Indian on the Asia Warriors sheet who has spoken in public. The August briefing already had Mithun and Rahul Sharma beside him. Later lists added Gurkeerat Singh Mann. None of those three has posted a denial, a confirmation, or a request to be taken off the page.

INDIANS NAMED ON THE ASIA WARRIORS SHEET

Silence is not consent, and it is not a denial. Mithun, Sharma and Gurkeerat may have deals, may be in talks, or may not know they were listed. Until they speak, the only Indian name on that sheet with a clear record is Dhawan’s, and that record is a refusal.

The rest of the published Asia Warriors group is a mix of retired internationals from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Oman. Upul Tharanga, Lahiru Thirimanne, Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain, Imrul Kayes, Iftikhar Ahmed and Samiullah Shinwari were among the names read out in August. None of those players has been quoted on whether they signed. The cup’s public case still rests on a list, not on confirmed contracts.

The High Court Already Told Them to Ask

Dhawan does not need a new theory of law. The Delhi High Court spent July telling people who use a cricketer’s name for money that they need permission first.

On July 9, Justice Jyoti Singh protected Abhishek Sharma’s personality rights, stopping social media accounts and online sellers from using his name, image, voice or likeness without consent, including through AI-generated pictures and unauthorised merchandise. On July 29, in Yuvraj Singh v. Ashok Kumar, the same judge went further for Yuvraj Singh.

Violators of personality and privacy rights need to be dealt with a heavy hand.

Justice Jyoti Singh, Delhi High Court, July 29, 2026

The court held that Yuvraj has an exclusive right to commercially exploit his name, image, voice, likeness and other attributes, and that no third party can use them without his consent. Amazon, Flipkart and Meta were told to take down listed URLs within 36 hours. The order also reached AI tools, deepfakes, chatbots and face-swapping, because that is how a lot of the theft now happens. The older holding underneath it is simpler: a famous cricketer’s name is his to sell.

CRICKETERS THE DELHI HIGH COURT HAS ALREADY PROTECTED

• Abhishek Sharma: Interim order on July 9, 2026, covering name, image, voice, likeness, AI fakes and unlicensed merchandise.
• Yuvraj Singh: Ex parte injunction on July 29, 2026, including the nickname Yuvi, with 36-hour takedowns for major platforms.
• Gautam Gambhir: Named among public figures who have already obtained similar interim protection from the same court.

A squad listing is not a deepfake. It is still a commercial use of a name. The August briefing sold “star-studded” Asia Warriors on the back of Dhawan, Mithun and Rahul Sharma. The October copy sold an India-Pakistan dressing room on the back of Dhawan, Iftikhar and Tanvir. If Dhawan never signed, those uses are the exact thing the July orders describe as unauthorised exploitation, only in a press note instead of on a T-shirt.

He is a serious commercial property on the numbers alone. Besides the ODI tally, he made 2,315 Test runs at 40.61 in 34 matches, with seven hundreds, and 1,759 T20I runs at 27.92 in 68 matches, with 11 fifties. In the IPL he scored 6,769 runs in 222 matches. The 2013 Champions Trophy, where he made 363 runs in five innings with two hundreds, is still the innings people hire him to remind them of. That value is what a Hong Kong poster was trying to borrow.

December in Hong Kong Has No Match List

Sandeep Kumar’s August remarks remain the fullest official description of the event: mid-December, Hong Kong, four sides named Asia Warriors, Europe Champions, Africa Lions and North America Eagles, nine matches, a final. Later copy repeated those four names and still had no dates, no ground, and no broadcast plan. Atherra did not post a public reply after Dhawan’s statement.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The denial: Dhawan said on October 13 that the organisers used his name without his knowledge or permission.
• The company: Atherra Sports Private Limited was incorporated on November 22, 2025, with Rs 5 lakh paid-up capital.
• The August list: Sandeep Kumar named Dhawan, Mithun and Rahul Sharma for Asia Warriors more than two months before the denial.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A filed case: Dhawan said his team will take legal steps. No public notice or docket number has been shown.
• The other names: There is no on-record confirmation that Mithun, Rahul Sharma, Gurkeerat or the overseas players signed.
• The December week: No fixture list, venue contract or broadcast deal has been published.

He can still play exhibition cricket on his own terms. What he has closed off is the habit of putting Gabbar on a poster and waiting to see if he objects. For a company that filed its first papers last November, that habit was the marketing plan. It is now the thing his lawyers have been told to address.

The four-team draw in Hong Kong may yet be played with a different India name, or with none. Until Atherra answers, the only firm line on Dhawan and this cup is the one he wrote himself on October 13.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a public statement and publicly available company and court records. It is informational only and is not legal advice, a prediction of any lawsuit’s outcome, or a finding that any organiser has been found liable. Readers who have a dispute over the use of a name, image or likeness should consult a qualified advocate in the relevant jurisdiction before acting. Figures, listings and case statuses reflect the records and statements cited here and may change if a notice is served, a reply is issued, or a court takes up the matter.