Indian cricketer Hanuma Vihari shocked the cricket community by resigning as the captain of the Andhra Pradesh Ranji Trophy team following their defeat to Madhya Pradesh in the quarter-finals on Monday. The unexpected move by Vihari came after an argument with a teammate, identified as KN Prudhviraj, who happens to be the son of a politician. Vihari left the captaincy after just one game into the 2023–24 Ranji Trophy season.
Andhra Pradesh had a promising start to the season with an impressive performance against Bengal, the 2023 runner-up. However, Vihari's sudden resignation brought attention to the internal conflict within the team. KN Prudhviraj accused Vihari of using foul and vulgar language during their argument, and he dismissed Vihari's claims as an attempt to gain sympathy.
"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," wrote KN Prudhviraj on Instagram.
In response, Vihari shared a letter written by the team to the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA), signed by 15 players, supporting him. The letter stated that the use of such language has been common in the team atmosphere and is aimed at bringing out the best in the players. The team, including the support staff, expressed no issues with Vihari's leadership and urged him to continue as the captain.
The letter read, "This is about the ongoing issue about Hanuma VIHARI. A complaint has been issued by a fellow teammate in the Ranji squad that vihari has used foul language and has approached him aggressively, but the truth is he has not approached him aggressively and this sort of language has been a very common thing in our team atmosphere and it is always in getting the best out of the team, and it has been used since long ages in team dressing rooms. Unfortunately one of the team member took it personally.”
"We all the team players including the support staff have been witness to it, and we want vihari to continue as our captain. Since we have no issues with him and he always bought best out of us and as you can see the team has done very well and united in his leadership and also qualified more than 7 times under his leadership. Sir this Ranji season means a lot us as players and we have prepared so well and also started the tournament with a win against Bengal. As Andhra Ranji team players we want vihari to lead our side," the letter by the Andra Pradesh cricket team to the Andra Pradesh Cricket Association (ACA) said.
Vihari, who has represented India in 16 Test matches, played a crucial role in India's Test series victories on Australian soil in 2018/19 and 2021/22. He has scored 839 runs at an average of 33.56 in Test cricket and has been a valuable middle-order batsman for the team.
In the latest development Hanuma Vihari shared a post on X, “What next? They’ll call supports staff for meeting as soft targets as they’ve jobs to say against me. Keep trying ACA!!,” he wrote.
Andhra Pradesh faced a heart-wrenching loss to Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals, falling short by just 4 runs. The defeat added more complexity to the already turbulent situation in the team.
