Cricket is the most loved, most watched and most rejoiced sport in India. But if one speaks about the most played game in the country, it has to be politics. Involvement of politics and politicians in the game, has stunted the growth of game, if not worsened it even further. From putting their egos over team's goodwill, or favouring their less talented favourite players over the real talent, politics has always been a dirty game which has massively affected the gentlemen's game. And many good deserving players have unfortunately been at the receiving end of it, with Hanuma Vihari being the latest.

Vihari, who's been an international sensation and one of the most amazing batters for the country, recently broke silence stating that politics and favouritism has affected him to the extent that he is going to stay away from his home team Andhra Pradesh. Although not naming any individual, he made is super clear stating that a son of a politician used his father's position to pressurise and remove Vihari as the skipper. And the man who played with one hand for Andhra, who put his team's interest behind his personal milestones, and who led his team to knockouts 5 out of 7 times he led the team, was forced to resign for making a mistake of shouting at the son of a politician for his onfield behaviour.

It's sad to see that the man, whose unwavering dedication at SCG in

2021 played a key role in India's famous draw, had to go through. If something like this can happen to a national hero, one can only imagine what might happen to grass root level of cricket in the country. If a proven match winner for the nation goes through this fate, without the action taken on the culprit in spite of clearly visible on who's wrong, then one cannot even fathom the level at which politics has penetrated into every possible level of cricket, which is never ever in the headlines or limelight.

The impact of involvement of politics in the game is far more than just the selection of the players. When rulers or politicians run any entity, they care only for their profit and their propoganda. They hardly care about the game, it's structure and future. A clear case of the same could be seen at the apex level of BCCI, who is now run by the politicians. The result of all this is the fact that cash rich IPL is given much more hype and importance, compared to the other places where the team plays as a nation. The same was the reason why IPL was held in spite of the COVID pandemic, while the nation was dealing with crisis for even the basic of things. The cash rich IPL has yielded the money, which the parties crave for, and what is at stake ias the national team's and it's progress, which eventually happened in the ICC events.

Due to the same, one sees undeserving and uncouth rude players becoming the captain, whereas deserving players not even getting a chance in the side. Lot of cases of the same were evident. And time and again, it was proved. Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Rana, Ayush Badoni, Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary, Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad and many others are the victims of unwritten and unseen politics which happens behind the closed doors. It was the same reason due to which Surya Kumar Yadav had to wait for half a decade, even after performing heavily in the domestic circuit. Just imagine if politics would've denied a superstar like Surya Kumar Yadav, would the world ever have had witnessed the magic he possesses?

As a cricket fan, it is really disheartening to see all of this happen. And with the number of instances like these coming ahead, one hardly gets shocked anymore. As a cricket fan, I was shell shocked back in 2008 as a kid. It was a moment when I used to read the newspaper backwards to know about sports page. The news was about an election to be conducted for the chairman of a state sports association, where a politician and a former veteran India cricketer were competing for the post. As a kid, I wondered on it must be an easy win for the former India player, but to my utter surprise, when I saw the politician winning all the votes and emerging victorious, to the cricketer winning only his own vote, I was left shocked and disappointed. That's when I understood on how politics works.

And this is exactly why and how, knowing the negative effects of political involvement can have on the game, the ICC has a strict policy against the same. The recent examples of the ban on Sri Lanka a few months back, and Zimbabwe few years back due to the same reason are clear examples of the same happening. South Africa getting banned for 3 decades was a big statement to the cricket playing nations to stop political interference in the game. But India doesn't seem to learn form the mistakes what these other countries made. While it was visible and proven in case of these countries, it is visible in India, but cannot be proved. And hence, extracting the loophole in the Indian system, unfair advantage of governing the game has always been taken of by those in power.

If Indian cricket was not controlled by the politicians, the team would have atleast 3 Virat Kohli's, 3 Rohit Sharma's and 3 Jasprit Bumrah's in the squad. Lucky were the older generation of cricketers who were picked on the basis of talent, otherwise the world would've missed Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and many others who went on to become legends. Had they been born in this generation, they might've struggled to find a place in domestic team due to the highly influential politicians and their agenda driven interests. As a firm admirer of Indian cricket, I hope the situation changes soon. And if it does, then the country of a billion people will have a team which will be invincible, and even more dreadful than Aussies of 2000's and West Indies of 1970's.