Follow UsAfter Sanju Samson was not included in India’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Kerala politician Shashi Tharoor lashed out at the state’s cricket administrator- Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) on January 18 (Saturday).
Tharoor accused them of destroying Samson’s career by not including him in the squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) 2024-25, which turned out to be crucial given how Arshdeep Singh managed to get into the squad after his brilliant showing in the tournament.
“The sorry saga of the Kerala Cricket Association and Sanju Samson -- the player wrote to KCA, in advance, regretting his inability to attend a training camp between the SMA and the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournaments, and was promptly dropped from the squad -- has now resulted in Sanju's exclusion from the Indian team,” Tharoor wrote on his X handle.
“A batsman who has the highest score of 212* in [the Vijay] Hazare [Trophy], who averages 56.66 in ODIs for India (including a century in his last outing, against South Africa) is having his career destroyed by the egos of cricket administrators.
"Doesn't it bother the KCA bosses that by leaving Sanju out, they ensured Kerala didn't even reach the quarter-finals of the Hazare? Where does this leave him?” the politician questioned.
Apparently, after leading the state team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024, Sanju wanted a break from the KCA camp ahead of the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) 2024-25. However, he was not granted the special demand and was not picked for the premier List-A tournament in India.
After a tremendous showing in 2022, where he played 10 matches and scored 284 runs with an average of 71, Sanju was not picked in the Indian World Cup 2023 squad. In fact, after that, he has not been part of the Indian ODI set-up.