A day after the controversial statement by Hanuma Vihari against the Andhra Cricket Association, the wicketkeeper batsman of the state Prudhvi Raj has come up with an explanation.
Prudhviraj KN identified himself as the player accused by Hanuma Vihari on Instagram of pressuring him to resign as captain during the Ranji Trophy 2024. The 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman refuted the claims on his official Instagram, dismissing them as false and emphasising that Vihari’s allegations had affected his self-respect.
Vihari posted a message on his Instagram, revealing that he confronted the ’17th player,’ who is the son of a politician, leading to his own resignation. Despite denying personal abuse towards the player, the right-handed batter announced his decision to refrain from playing for Andhra in the future.
Meanwhile Prudhvi Raj posted a message on his official Instagram handle and said,”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. Everyone in the team knows what happened that day, Nuvu inthaku minchi emmi pikkulevu mr so called champion. Play these sympathy games however you want.”
After the conclusion of the campaign, Vihari voiced his displeasure and accused the Andhra State Cricket Association of intentionally stripping him of the captaincy due to an incident with a squad member. He further stated his intention to depart from the Andhra team promptly.
“I was the captain in the first game against Bengal, during that game I shouted at the 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,” Vihari wrote on Instagram shortly after the defeat.
He further added,”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. I felt embarrassed but the only reason I continued playing this season was because I respect the game and my team.”
“Sad part is the association thinks that players have to listen to whatever they say and players are there because of them. 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 concluded.
Vihari played his last match for India against England in the year 2022.
