Renowned Indian politician Shashi Tharoor has blamed the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) for mishandling the saga surrounding wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson. The player was not included in the Kerala squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy and was subsequently not named in Team India's traveling contingent for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
According to KCA, Samson did not report to Kerala's training camp ahead of their Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign in December 2024. The governing body did not consider the wicketkeeper-batter for the List-A tournament, despite being informed of his availability ahead of the matches.
Team India went ahead with KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant as their two wicketkeeping candidates, leaving no room for Sanju Samson in the side yet again.
Tharoor blamed the KCA for being too hard on Samson despite the player informing well in advance about this absence from the training camp.
"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 X.
"A batsman who has a highest score of 212* in the Hazare, 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?" he added.
Kerala finished fifth in Group E in the 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy and failed to qualify for the knockout stages.
"That doesn’t mean you turn up only when you feel like for the Kerala team" - KCA President on Sanju Samson's exclusion from the squad
KCA Secretary Vinod Kumar revealed that Samson had informed beforehand that he would be unable to attend the three-day training camp in Wayanad ahead of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
KCA President Jayesh George later defended their decision to drop Samson, telling Media One (via the Indian Express):
"We went ahead and announced the squad and later he sent a message stating he is available for selection. Be it Sanju Samson or any other player, KCA has a policy in place that needs to be respected. We all know that Sanju does not need a camp to come into the squad, but is the Kerala team one that he can come and represent only when he feels like?"
"How did Samson reach the Indian team, it was only through the KCA. That doesn’t mean you turn up only when you feel like for the Kerala team,” he added.
Sanju Samson will be seen in the upcoming T20I series against England, scheduled to begin from January 22 onwards.
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