Wisden editor slams ‘Orwellian’ cricket authorities for being beholden to India’s ruling party

The editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack has called out India’s cricket board for aligning closely with Narendra Modi’s right-wing government. Lawrence Booth, editor of the annual publication dubbed the Bible of Cricket, pointed to the growing influence of Indian politics on the sport in his latest editorial and said that the BCCI’s connection with the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP was no longer subtle. “It was obvious long before this latest grandstanding that the BCCI were the sporting adjunct of India’s ruling BJP,” he wrote.

“But the relationship became explicit when India captain Suryakumar Yadav dedicated the first of his side’s three Asia Cup wins over Pakistan to the armed forces. ” In April last year, militants killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in the restive Himalayan region of Kashmir, triggering a four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan. The fighting kicked off when the Indian military launched airstrikes on what it alleged was terrorist infrastructure across the border, calling it “Operation Sindoor”.

Pakistan reported that Indian missiles had struck multiple civilian locations, including a mosque in the province of Punjab, resulting in casualties, and carried out retaliatory strikes. Although the fighting was halted by a ceasefire brokered by the US, tensions continued to simmer and overshadowed the cricket matches between the two sides at the Asia Cup in September as well as the T20 World Cup earlier this year. “The idea that cricket was now a legitimate proxy for more lethal activity was hammered home on X by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, after his country beat Pakistan in the final: ‘Operation Sindoor on the games field.

Outcome is the same – India wins! ’” Mr Booth wrote. “The real-world Operation Sindoor had left dozens dead, on both sides of the border.