The 2026 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac, published on Thursday, said the sport’s former USP as a “refuge from real politics” has been poisoned by the growing politicization of the game under India’s “Orwellian” influence.The “Editor’s Notes” of the 163rd edition of the annual, noting India’s growing political influence over the sport, states, “Cricket has become an important piece on the BJP’s geopolitical chessboard”.“Was there any clearer indictment of sports governance in 2025 than Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi’s claim that ‘politics and sports cannot go together’? Perhaps he forgot he was also his country’s home minister,” writes editor Lawrence Booth.Booth refers to how 2025 Mains Asia CupHeld in the United Arab Emirates, “the tit-for-tat descended into ridicule, with players from both sides making tasteless gestures about fighter jets, and India refusing to take the stage to receive the trophy from Naqvi”. The Asia Cup was played amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan as they were meeting for the first time on the cricket field since Operation Sindh following the Pahalgam massacre by terrorists. India won and refused to join hands with Pakistan.“Long before this latest grandstand, it was clear that the BCCI was tied to sports by India’s ruling BJP,” Booth wrote, adding, “But the connection became clear when Indian captain Surya Kumar Yadav dedicated his team’s first of three Asia Cup wins against Pakistan to the armed forces. Dozens of people were killed in the real-world Operation Sindoor…” Booth wrote. “Now it was being equated to a T20 game.”Booth lamented that the game’s governance “further goes Orwellian, pretending that Indian exceptionalism comes without consequences”. He also wrote that Kolkata Knight Riders’ decision to release Mustafizur Rahman “confirmed cricket’s fall into the hands of the political masters”.
