Wisden condemns India over ‘Orwellian’ governance (screengrab/x)

The 2026 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, to be published on Thursday, says the game’s previous USP as a “refuge from realpolitik” has been poisoned by the increasing politicization of the game under the “Orwellian” influence of India.The “Notes by the Editor” of the 163rd edition of the annual took aim at India’s growing political influence on the game, saying “Cricket has become a key piece on the BJP’s geopolitical chessboard”.Editor Lawrence Booth writes, “Was there a more blatant indictment of the governance of the game in 2025 than Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi’s claim that ‘politics and sports cannot go together’? Perhaps he had forgotten that he was also his country’s interior minister.”Booth refers to 2025 Mains asia cupHeld in the United Arab Emirates, “a tit-for-tat showdown ensued, with players from both sides making tasteless gestures about fighter planes, and India refusing to come on stage to receive the trophy from Naqvi”. The Asia Cup was played amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan as it was the first time the two faced each other on the cricket field after Operation Sindoor following the massacre by terrorists in Pahalgam. India won and refused to join hands with Pakistan.“It was clear long before this latest assumption that the BCCI was a sporting arm of India’s ruling BJP,” Booth wrote, “but the relationship became clear when India captain Suryakumar Yadav dedicated the first of his team’s three Asia Cup victories over Pakistan to the armed forces.” And the idea that cricket was now a legitimate proxy for more lethal activity was hammered home on “Now it was being compared to the game of T20.”Booth lamented that the administration of the game was “becoming more Orwellian, pretending that Indian exceptionalism comes without any consequences”. He also wrote that the decision by Kolkata Knight Riders to release Mustafizur Rahman “confirmed cricket’s fall into the hands of political masters”.