Falsify Your Age, And Risk Being Off The Cricket Field: BCCI Announces Two-Year Ban For Age Frauds, As Cases Mount

Age fraud has been a plague haunting sports in India for a long time, as it not only affects team morale with older players dominating categories which they do not belong in, but also leaving no scope for talented youngsters to shine.

In a step taken to rectify the malaise, the BCCI on Tuesday announced that any cricketer found guilty of age fraud will be barred from all its recognised tournaments for two years, reports The New Indian Express.

“The BCCI has a zero-tolerance policy for age fraud in sport and has taken strict action against cricketers found guilty of manipulating their date of birth certificates while registering for BCCI tournaments,” the BCCI said in the statement.

“As conveyed to state associations at the start of the season, BCCI wishes to reiterate that from the 2018-19 season, any cricketer found guilty of tampering his/her date of birth will be disqualified and barred from participating in any BCCI tournament for a period of 2 years, i.e. 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons,” it added.

The BCCI had earlier banned a Meghalaya- bound Delhi player for a year. Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva was banned for producing a fake birth certificate to play in an under-19 tournament. Former Indian Cricket Team captain and legend Rahul Dravid has acknowledged that age fraud had been a significant problem in Indian cricket and had welcomed BCCI’s decision to allow a player to compete only once in the U-19 World Cup.