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BCCI Gets Serious About Age Cheats; External Sleuths To Vet Young Cricketers

Aakash Saini

BCCI [Source: @BCCI/X.com]BCCI [Source: @BCCI/X.com]

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has stepped up its drive against age fraud in Indian cricket. The Indian governing body has already started the process of hiring an external agency to verify the credentials of the players. The agency will be expected to be put in place by the BCCI by the end of this month.

Over the past few years, the BCCI has adopted various measures to tackle domicile and age fraud in cricket. Back in mid-2020, the board announced that any player found to be playing after manipulating their date of birth will face a ban of up to two years.

BCCI Tackles Suspect Documents And Certificates

The BCCI adopts a two-tier verification system against age fraud, which includes the intense inspection of documents and birth certificates and a bone test of players. Such verifications are usually applied to young emerging cricketers from the Under-16 boys and Under-15 girls divisions.

The BCCI, in the middle of hiring an external agency, has already outlined its requirements for the bidding entities. As reported by Cricbuzz, the interested parties must have a minimum experience of three years of experience in providing background verification for reputed firms. Moreover, the external agency must also have a nationwide network in a bid to check the background of the players across all states and union territories.

Interestingly, back in mid-2020, during the tenure of then-President Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI adopted several measures to tackle age fraud. For instance, players who have manipulated their date of birth were asked to voluntarily declare their offence with a promise of escaping any punishment. Moreover, if players were found to have submitted forged documents, they would be eligible to face a two-year suspension.