‘I’ve decided that I’ll never play for Andhra…….’ – Hanuma Vihari opens up on why he left captaincy after end of Ranji Trophy campaign

Former Andhra captain Hanuma Vihari clarified in extensive detail why he quit as captain right after the Ranji Trophy 2024 opening match in an extended post on Instagram. Notably, the 30-year-old cricketer stated that he would never again play for his home state.

The great all-rounder stated that one of his team’s players—with whom he argued after the season’s first game—is more important to the association due to his status as the son of a politician. Moreover, Hanuma Vihari provided more information about the entire incident after Andhra lost by 4 runs to Madhya Pradesh in Indore, eliminating themselves from the Ranji Trophy 2024. Furthermore, the right arm-off spinner revealed that association had more importance for that player as compared to him, despite him performing extremely well for Andhra Pradesh in the past few years.

“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,” Hanuma Vihari said in a post on Instagram.

I’ve decided that I’ll never play for Andhra where I lost my self-respect: Hanuma Vihari

Meanwhile, Hanuma Vihari asserted that he will now never ever play for Andhra Pradesh as he has lost his respect for the team where he has always tried to take the game at the epitome of the level.

“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 added further.

Meanwhile, after Hanuma Vihari shared the incident, the player in controversy, Prudhvi Raj, allegedly took offence at the former captain of Andhra Pradesh’s outburst and came up with a sly dig on his Instagram story.

Check out Prudhvi Raj’s  post:

Response by Prudhvi Raj to Hanuma Vihari.

Andhra Cricket is turning into a box office. pic.twitter.com/F0TZMIKfbi

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 26, 2024