The UK-based Wisden Cricketers’ yearbook takes a gloomy view of India’s unhealthy and politicized dominance of the game globally.
Published April 14, 2026
Wisden criticized what it called India’s political interference in world cricket administration, labeling the current situation as “increasingly Orwellian”.
The UK-based Wisden Cricketers Yearbook dates back to 1864 and is an annual record of all major cricket games around the world, and is considered the ‘bible’ of the sport.
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In its 163rd annual edition, to be published on Thursday, editor Lawrence Booth highlighted what he sees as India’s unhealthy and politicized global domination.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has two Indian presidents, Sanjog Gupta, the Indian chief executive, and Jay Shah, the son of Home Minister Amit Shah and a long-time ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Wisden described the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which Mr Shah led before taking up his post at the ICC, as a “sporting subsidiary of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party”.
Booth also highlighted the interference of politics in the 2025 Asian Cup, which was held against the backdrop of a brief war between India and Pakistan, leading to players refusing to shake hands when the rivals played each other.
“In 2025, could there have been a clearer indictment of the governance of cricket than Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi’s assertion that “politics and sport are incompatible?” Booth wrote. “Perhaps he forgot that he was his country’s interior minister.”
Booth added: “It was clear long before this awards ceremony that the BCCI was a sports subsidiary of India’s ruling party, the BJP.
“But the connection became clear when India captain Suryakumar Yadav dedicated India’s maiden victory over Pakistan in the Asia Cup to the army.
“And the idea that cricket is now a legitimate proxy for more lethal activities was hammered home by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after India beat Pakistan in the final: ‘Operation Sindur in the stadium. The result is the same – India wins!'” Operation Sindur in the real world resulted in dozens of deaths on both sides of the border. ”
Booth also mentioned the case of Bangladeshi fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman, who was released from his $1 million contract with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders amid heightened tensions between the two countries following the murder of a Hindu man in Bangladesh.
Mustafizur’s IPL withdrawal set in motion a chain of events that led to his exclusion from this year’s Men’s T20 World Cup as the Bangladeshi government denied Bangladesh permission to travel to India.
“Governance in sports is becoming increasingly Orwellian, pretending that Indian exceptionalism has no consequences and blaming those lower down the food chain for the abuse,” Booth wrote.
“As expected, few prominent voices in the Indian game addressed the root cause of the carnage: the politicization of sport, no matter what Naqvi says. No matter what Naqvi says, it has not been unaffected by the real world, nor has it been further contaminated by the real world.”
