BCCI announces a two-year ban on age-related fraud

NEW DELHI: The BCCI announced Tuesday that a cricket player guilty of fraud because of his age would be excluded from all his recognized tournaments for two years.

"BCCI has a zero tolerance policy on age-related fraud in sport and has taken strict measures against cricketers convicted of handling their certificate of birth while registering for BCCI tournaments, "said BCCI in a statement.

"As indicated to the state associations at the beginning of the season, BCCI wishes to recall that, starting in the 2018-2019 season, any cricketer found guilty of falsifying his date of birth will be excluded and prevented from participating in any BCCI tournament for a period of two years, namely the 2018-19 and 2019-2020 seasons, "he added.

Earlier, a cricket player had been banned for a year.

In September, the BCCI banned Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva, a Delhi player linked to Meghalya, from producing a fake birth certificate to play in a U-19 tournament.

Age fraud is a perennial phenomenon that junior cricket faces. In 2016, former Indian captain Rahul Dravid had acknowledged that Indian fudging was a major problem of Indian cricket and had welcomed the decision of the BCCI to allow a player to compete only once in the Under-19 World Cup.