Hanuma Vihari accuses ACA of wrongfully removing him from captaincy, vows to never play for Andhra Pradesh again

Indian cricketer Hanuma Vihari, in an unforeseen development, decided never to play for Andhra Pradesh again after their loss against Madhya Pradesh in the fourth quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy 2024 on February 26 in Indore. Chasing a target of 170 runs in the fourth innings, Andhra's innings folded at 165, leading to a narrow defeat by five runs, with Vihari top-scoring with a 55-run knock.

Following the team's defeat, Vihari shared a heartfelt message on social media, alleging political interference within the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) as the reason for his captaincy being stripped after the Bengal game. The 30-year-old revealed during the season opener that he had shouted at a player in his team who used his father’s political influence to get him removed from the captaincy despite Andhra chasing 410 to win the game against last season's finalists, Bengal.

Following the incident, Andhra’s captaincy was handed over to Ricky Bhui, who’s also the leading run-scorer of the Elite Group this season with 902 runs from 13 innings. Moreover, Vihari accused the association of elevating individual players above the team's collective goals, impeding the team's overall development.

Also Read: Ranji Trophy: MP beat Andhra by 4 runs in nail-biter to reach semis

“We fought hard till the end but it wasn’t meant to be. Gutted to lose an another quarters with Andhra. 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,” wrote Vihari in his caption.

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

“Sad part is association thinks that players have to listen to whatever they say and players are there because of them. I felt humiliated and embarrassed but I’ve not expressed it out until today. 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 further wrote.

KN Prudhviraj came out in open to accuse Vihari of playing sympathy games

Also Read: Ranji Trophy 2024: Musheer Khan converts maiden first-class ton into double century

Notably, Vihari had a good season with the bat scoring 522 runs from 13 innings at an average of 40.15 with one hundred and three fifties to his name. Meanwhile, Andhra’s wicketkeeper-batter KN Prudhviraj came out in the open to reveal that he was the player Vihari was talking about. Taking to his Instagram story, Prudhviraj accused Vihari of spreading misinformation. Furthermore, he alleged being subjected to personal insults and crude language while accusing Vihari of resorting to playing the sympathy card.