Hanuma Vihari pledges to 'never play for Andhra' after alleging political motivations behind captaincy sack
Hanuma Vihari has announced his decision to switch domestic teams after Andhra's Ranji season ended, stating he felt humiliated upon being stripped of captaincy after the season opener. The former Test regular has claimed a politically connected father of a teammate was behind his sacking.
Hanuma Vihari started his career at Hyderabad but moved to Andhra in 2015/16 and went on to captain the side in 30 games before being replaced by Ricky Bhui earlier in the season. The official line at the time had been that Vihari had given up the captaincy voluntarily to focus on his batting but the 30-year-old revealed through social media on Monday that the Andhra Cricket Association had forced him to resign after getting into a row with a reserve player during the season opener against Bengal.
"I was the captain in the first game against Bengal. During the game, I reprimanded the 17th player, and he complained to his dad (who is a politician). His father then asked the association to take action against me. Despite our successful chase of 410 against last year's finalists (Bengal), I was asked to resign from the captaincy without any fault of mine (sic)," Vihari wrote on his Instagram account.
During his time at Andhra, Vihari played 16 Tests for India and shot to the national consciousness with a belligerent 161 vigil against Australia in Sydney in 2020/21 with a torn hamstring that ultimately proved to be pivotal for the Men in Blue's series victory Down Under. The middle-order batter has built a reputation throughout his career for such gritty displays, including batting left-handed in a Ranji Trophy game against Madhya Pradesh last season with a fractured forearm in an attempt to save his team from a tricky situation.
"I never made any personal remarks to the player. However, the association deemed the player's importance greater than mine, despite my contributions to Andhra's cricketing success over the years, including representing India in 16 Tests (sic)," the social media post further read.
Vihari ended the season as Andhra's second-highest run-getter with 522 behind new skipper Ricky Bhui, including a high score of 183 against Chhatisgarh. The latest revelations came after Andhra bowed out of the competition following a four-run loss in the quarter-final against Madhya Pradesh.
"I felt embarrassed, but I continued playing this season out of respect for the game and my team. Unfortunately, the association believes that players must adhere to their directives unquestioningly, asserting that players owe their positions solely to the association. Feeling humiliated, I have decided that I will never represent Andhra again, where I lost my self-respect. I still hold affection for the team," Vihari wrote.
Even though Vihari refused to disclose the name of the player involved, batter Prudhvi Raj has since identified himself as the player in question on social media and rubbished Vihari's claims.
"Hello everyone I'm that guy, you guys are searching in the comment box, whatever you guys heard is absolutely false, no one is higher than the game and my self respect is much more bigger than anything, personal attacks and vulgar language is unacceptable in any kind of human platform. Everyone in the team knows what happened that day, Nuvu inthaku minchi emmi pikkulevu [you can't get any better than this] mr so called champion. Play this sympathy games however you want," he wrote on his personal profile.
It remains to be seen where Hanuma Vhari ends up for the subsequent domestic season with the cricketer stating there is ample time left for him to make a decision.
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