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Wisden has criticised<\/a> Indian political interference in global cricket administration, labelling the current situation \u201cincreasingly Orwellian\u201d.<\/p>\n The UK-based Wisden Cricketers\u2019 Almanack, which dates back to 1864, is an annual record of all major cricket worldwide and is regarded as the sport\u2019s \u201cBible\u201d.<\/p>\n In its 163rd annual edition, to be published on Thursday, editor Lawrence Booth highlighted what he sees as an unhealthy and politicised Indian dominance of the global game.<\/p>\n The International Cricket Council has an Indian chief executive, Sanjog Gupta,<\/a> and an Indian chairman, Jay Shah,<\/a> who is the son of Amit Shah, India\u2019s minister of home affairs and a longstanding ally of the prime minister, Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n Wisden describes the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which Shah led before taking over at the International Cricket Council (ICC), as \u201cthe sporting adjunct of India\u2019s ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)\u201d.<\/p>\n Booth also highlighted how politics intruded upon the 2025 Asia Cup, which took place against a backdrop of a brief military conflict<\/a> between India and Pakistan, leading to the players refusing to shake hands<\/a> when the rivals played each other.<\/p>\n \u201cWas there a clearer indictment of the game\u2019s governance in 2025 than Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi\u2019s assertion that \u2018politics and sport can\u2019t go together\u2019?\u201d Booth wrote. \u201cPresumably, he had forgotten he was also his country\u2019s interior minister.\u201d<\/p>\n Booth added: \u201cIt was obvious long before this latest grandstanding that the BCCI were the sporting adjunct of India\u2019s ruling BJP.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the relationship became explicit when India captain Suryakumar Yadav dedicated<\/a> the first of India\u2019s Asia Cup wins over Pakistan to the armed forces.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the idea that cricket was now a legitimate proxy for more lethal activity was hammered home on X by India\u2019s prime minister, Narendra Modi, after his country beat<\/a> Pakistan in the final: \u2019Operation Sindoor on the games field\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Booth also cited the case of Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman, who was released <\/a>from a $1 million deal with Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders \u2014 amid rising tensions between the two nations following the killing of Hindu men in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n Mustafizur\u2019s exit from the IPL sparked a chain of events that led to Bangladesh\u2019s removal from this year\u2019s men\u2019s T20 World Cup<\/a>, after their government refused to let them travel to India.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sport\u2019s governance grows ever more Orwellian, pretending that Indian exceptionalism comes without consequence, and blaming those lower down the food chain for lashing out.<\/p>\n \u201cPredictably, almost no prominent voices in the Indian game addressed the root cause of the carnage: the politicisation of a sport that, whatever Naqvi may say, has never been untouched by the real world, yet never more poisoned by it either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>\u2018Indian exceptionalism\u2019<\/h2>\n
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