The global magazine, which is called the Cricket Bible, has strongly reacted to the intervention of the Indian government and politics in international cricket, calling it a fantasy and saying that the Cricket Board of India (BCCI) has become a branch of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
According to foreign media reports, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac, which has been published in Britain since 1864, has criticized India’s political interference in managing cricket at the international level and called the current situation Orwellian.
According to the report, the 163rd annual edition of Wisden will be published on Thursday, but editor Lawrence Booth has described India’s influence in international cricket as negative and political.
It should be noted that International Cricket Council (ICC) President Sanjog Gupta and President Jay Shah are both Indians. ICC President Jay Shah is the son of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah and is a longtime ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Wisden described the Board of Cricket in India (BCCI) as a sports arm of India’s ruling party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party).
Lawrence Booth has shown how the 2025 Asian Cup was politically tainted, with players refusing to shake hands during matches because of the brief war between India and Pakistan that took place earlier.
Could there have been a clearer critique of the game’s governance in 2025 than when Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi said that ‘politics and sport should not mix’, he wrote, perhaps forgetting that he was also his country’s home minister..
Lawrence Booth added that before the new rhetoric it was clear that the BCCI was actually a sports arm of India’s ruling party, the BJP.
It is further said that this relationship was evident when Indian captain Surya Kumar Yadav credited his army with India’s first win against Pakistan in the Asia Cup.
Laurence Booth said the perception that cricket now represents highly dangerous activities was reinforced when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in X after defeating Pakistan in the Asian finals that the playing field was Operation Sindoor. The result was that India won.
The Wisden editor also mentioned the case of Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman, whose $1 million contract with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders was canceled amid tensions between the two countries following the killing of Hindu men in Bangladesh.
After Mustafizur Rahman’s dismissal from the IPL, a series of events took place which resulted in Bangladesh being kicked out of the T20 World Cup this year as their government did not allow the team to travel to India.
Lawrence Booth wrote that the management of the game is increasingly Orwellian where it tries to show that Indian sovereignty is immune while other parties are blamed for the reaction.
