New DelhiAugust 27, 2025 06:01 PM IST
First published on: Aug 27, 2025 at 06:01 PM IST
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Team India Test cricketer Hanuma Vihari’s decision to leave the Andhra Pradesh team and play for Tripura in the forthcoming Ranji Trophy season has turned into the latest flashpoint between the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
Hours after Vihari announced his decision, Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) president and TDP Vijayawada MP Kesineni Sivanath took to social media to lay the blame at the YSRCP’s door.
“In the past, politics overshadowed Andhra cricket and even players voiced their pain. Today, under the present government and the ACA, cricket in Andhra is free from interference – only talent and opportunity matter. Vihari’s earlier tweets reflect the difference. His move now shows players are free to pursue better chances. We wish him success, while continuing to back new and upcoming talent in the state,” he said in a post on X.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Vihari said the ACA had informed him last year that he would not be picked for T20s. “I told them I don’t want to play ODIs (Vijay Hazare Trophy) either. They told me they wanted to try younger players. I feel I still can play three formats… I got an opportunity from another place, so I wanted to try… If there are better options than (me) it is fine, but when they are not there and still I am not part of the (Andhra) side for two years… I stayed for the side and the players in it, (but) somewhere, I felt I did not get the respect I deserve,” he said.
Vihari, who has played 16 Tests for India, has been out of favour since his match-saving 23 off 161 balls in Sydney against Australia in 2021. Last year, he kicked up a storm just before the simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections after he accused the ACA of “deliberately humiliating him” by stripping him of the captaincy of the state team over an alleged dressing room brawl involving teammate Kuntrapakam Prudhviraj, the son of YSRCP Tirupati corporator Kuntrapakam Narasimha, who reportedly asked the ACA to take action against Vihari.
“I have decided I will never play for Andhra again, where I lost my self-respect. I love the team, I love the way we are growing every season, but the association does not want us to grow,” he had said in an Instagram post in February last year.
Vihari had found support from the TDP, then in the Opposition, with party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu claiming that “the ACA was succumbing to the YSRCP’s vindictive politics”.
The YSRCP, which was overthrown in the Assembly polls last year by the TDP, said Wednesday that it was wrong to blame it for Vihari’s decision to switch teams. “It is his personal decision. The TDP wants to politicise every issue. Even when the YSRCP was in power, we ensured politics was kept away from sports… The TDP is trying to politicise a non-issue to divert the people’s attention from real issues,” a former minister said on the condition of anonymity.
Another senior YSRCP leader said the TDP should be concentrating more on the flood situation in the state rather than slinging mud at the Opposition over “petty issues”. “He (Sivanath) is the Vijayawada MP and the city has seen floods twice in one year. Should he not be catering to this problem which affects people’s lives? However, he cannot show them his face as the TDP government has failed in all aspects,” he added.