Hanuma Vihari has been at loggerheads with his state cricket team, Andhra Pradesh.© AFP
Out-of-favour India batter Hanuma Vihari recently called out his state cricket association, Andhra Pradesh, alleged ‘mistreatment’, saying that he was that he was asked to resign from captaincy after an altercation with a teammate whose father is a politician. It all happened after Vihari allegedly “shouted and scolded” at the politician’s son during a match. To further back his case, Vihari has posted a signed letter from his teammates with the state unit president. The politician’s son, KN Prudhviraj, said that Vihari is doing the same to gain sympathy.
The Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association (ACA) also said that the players were threatened to sign the letter of support from Vihari.
Speaking in a recent interview, Vihari has once again clarified his stance and revealed how the entire controversy unfolded.
“It so happened that I shouted at a player, the 17th player who was not supposed to be in the dressing room. According to rules, he was not supposed to be there. But he took it the wrong way and he complained to his father. And everything went wrong from there. They complained about me. And without any wrongdoing from my side, they removed me from the post of captain. Still, I continued playing for the team, because I loved the game and respected the game. Once the tournament was over, I put out a message on social media because I felt people should know the truth about what happened,” Vihari told India Today in an interview.
Vihari also revealed that the incident took a couple of month back and also shed light on the challenges he had to face.
“It has been a couple of months since the incident took place. I kept it inside me all these months. It was really tough because I’m a player who’s been playing for so long and, in a professional way. It really hurts my self-respect. I only thought about the tournament and team. Once the tournament was over, I wanted to stand up for myself or else I would have never excused myself,” he added.
According to a report, the ACA had accused Vihari of creating a ‘class difference’ in the team under his captaincy with a few players complaining about his misbehaviour and use of foul language.
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