PUDUCHERRY: Old habits die hard. Perhaps, this idiom best describes a scourge that has been rampant in our country’s sporting fold – age-fraud. There are myriad cases to choose from in as many disciplines across state lines, but the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) took some strong steps to discourage them in an Executive Board meeting here on Saturday.
Working hand-in-hand with the Central Bureau of In vestigation’s Sports Integrity Cell, the federation has slapped Bengal’s Oishwarya Deb, Suthirtha Mukherjee and Priyadarshni Das with two-year ban and `25,000 fine. In addition, the national federation will strip them of all national and international titles.
The three players, already under suspension for misrepresenting their age, will serve the ban until the January 2016 Nationals. TTFI president Prabhat C Chaturvedi made no bones about the seriousness of the issue. “This issue was the most important decision taken at the meeting. There was a complaint by somebody to the CBI Sports Integrity Cell, who in turn investigated the four junior women players concerned. CBI submitted its report to us and asked us to take appropriate action, which we have done immediately,” he declared.
A fourth paddler, Bengal’s Ayhika Mukherjee, was also probed by the Cell for having two separate birth certificates, but unlike the other three she was deemed not guilty. “Ayhika was competing in the right age-group events and was not found to have taken any advantage by the probe panel. We let her off with this season’s ban and no fine was imposed.”
Mukherjee will be eligible to play from next season, beginning in August 2015.
The clean-up drive has yielded good results with 24 North Bengal, 20 West Bengal and a few Assam paddlers coming forward voluntarily. In turn, the committee viewed them sympathetically. “We had introduced an amnesty clause under which all those players admitting their follies and declaring correct dates of birth will be punished with the withdrawal of titles, if any, while allowing them to play from next season,” he added.
Henceforth, offenders will have to contend with a two-year ban and fine of `50,000, a reasonable deterrent. The TTFI president also said that the national federation will be making some amendments to its guidelines on registration of birth certificate as per the 1969 Act (registration of birth). “We would insist on players that have registered his or her birth date one year after, should obtain a judicial order from the First Class Magistrate,” he said.