Hanuma Vihari controversy explained: Why did batting all-rounder quit Andhra captaincy and what was the 'political interference'?

In a shocking revelation on Monday, all-rounder Hanuma Vihari revealed the backstory behind his decision to quit as skipper of the Andhra Pradesh cricket team. Vihari had quit as Andhra skipper in January due to “personal reasons” but as it turns out, that was never the case, and Vihari quit as captain due to political interference. In a statement released by Vihari on Monday, the cricketer goes onto state that he was forced to resign as captain for shouting at the 17th player of the team, who was the son of a politician.

Following his resignation as Andhra skipper, Ricky Bhui had taken over the captaincy hat and led Andhra to the quarter-finals, where they lost to Madhya Pradesh.

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Hanuma Vihari controversy explained

After just one match into the Ranji Trophy 2024 season, Vihari resigned as Andhra Pradesh skipper. This comes following a drawn contest against Bengal in an Elite Group B match in the first week of January, wherein Vihari had scored a half century in the first innings.

In a statement, Vihari says he was forced to quit as captain after having shouted at Prudhviraj, the son of a politician.

“This post is about some facts I want to put forward. I was the captain in the first game against Bengal, during that game I shouted on 17th player and he complained to his dad(who is a politician), his dad in return asked the Association to take action against me. Although, we chased 410 against last year’s finalists Bengal I was asked to resign from captaincy without any fault of mine. I never said anything on a personal note to the player but the association thought that player was more important than the guy who gave his body on the line last year and batted left handed, took Andhra to knock outs 5 times in the last 7 years and played for India in 16 Tests.

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“I felt embarrassed but the only reason I continued playing this season because I respect the game and my team,” Vihari states.

“I’ve decided that I’ll never play for Andhra where i lost my self respect. I love the team. I love the way we’re growing every season but association doesn’t want us to grow,” he adds.

However, Prudhviraj, in his reply, goes onto state that Vihari was just playing “sympathy games” and even rubbished the allegations by Vihari.

“I am that guy you are searching in that comment box. Whatever you guys heard is absolute false, no one is higher than the game and my self-respect is much bigger than anything. Personal attacks and vulgar language is unacceptable in any platform. Everyone in the team knows what has happened that day. Play this sympathy games, however you want,” Prudhviraj wrote on his Instagram story.

However, Vihari in another post on microblogging site ‘X’ says that he had his whole team supporting behind him and that Vihari had done nothing wrong. Vihari posts a photo of a letter containing the signatures 15 players, adding that none of them wanted Vihari to lose captaincy.

The whole team knows! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/l5dFkmjGN9

— Hanuma vihari (@Hanumavihari) February 26, 2024

Just minutes later at ACA, Vihari took another shot, putting a message on ‘X’ that said: “What next??They’ll call support staff for meeting as soft targets as they’ve jobs to say against me. Keep trying ACA!!

🤣 pic.twitter.com/yzyrhVDLi6

— Hanuma vihari (@Hanumavihari) February 26, 2024