CHENNAI: Taking a cue from the Wrestling Federation of India's (WFI's) book, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has instructed its affiliated members to review history of players' Aadhar updates for the past one year before their registration. The BCCI's mandate meant the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has declared 62 players, including a current and a former India U19 player, ineligible for registration or transfer for any tournaments during the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons. There were discrepancies in their documents including the age certificates. It was learnt that the BCCI made it mandatory before registration of U19 and U23 players.
Rohit Yadav and Ravi Kumar are among the players banned for two years. Rohit represented the country during the U19 team's tour of Sri Lanka in July. The leg-break googly bowler claimed six wickets in a youth Test against the hosts to help India win the match by 211 runs. He was included in India's U19 home one-dayers and multi-day games against the touring Australia U19 side in Rajkot and Ahmedabad, slated later this month. Left-arm pacer Ravi, meanwhile, was a member of the India team that lifted the U19 World Cup in 2022.
It was learnt that Rohit's documents showed three different years of birth — 2007, 2009 and 2010. The discrepancy got caught through his Aadhaar updates as the year of birth changed on three occasions. Similarly, CAB records show a 45-month discrepancy in Ravi's age. Vishal Bhati, a left-arm spin all-rounder, who has played three First-Class matches and two List A games was also banned.
"Aadhaar updates and digital birth certificates turned out to be the clincher to detect such discrepancies including the age fudging," Bablu Kolay, CAB secretary, told this daily. Elaborating on the exercise started by the association, Kolay said, "Documents of around 4000 players were scanned during this period. We have an agency who serves us round the year. Besides, we have capable committee members who are well qualified on this. We now ask for digital birth certificates registered within two years. We also check Aadhaar updates. For the updates, the players receive one-time passwords (OTPs), which they share with us and it shows all the updates done in their documents including the birth certificates."
Notably, the WFI too started the drive ahead of the U15 national championships held in Salem, Tamil Nadu between February 27 and March 1 this year. The federation then extended it to other age-group tournaments and found around 500 wrestlers with discrepancies in their documents. "Instead of banning them, we directed the wrestlers to compete in their respective age-groups as banning 500 wrestlers does not make sense. But yes, the Aadhaar updates proved to be of a massive help," a WFI official said.
Sanjay Das, CAB treasurer, said the BCCI made it mandatory for each of its affiliated units to follow the process before registration. "We started it in May end after receiving instructions from the Indian board and results are there for everyone to see. It's not against any player but the system is to ensure fair competition. Not only age fraud, it will also help in detecting the original domicile of a player," Das said.
Kolay, meanwhile, said the CAB will continue with the process. "We got the list now and we will ask for digital birth certificates registered within two years and also verify documents through Aadhaar updates for new registration. Apart from age-fudging, there were also issues with domiciles. As per CAB regulation, a cricketer has to play club cricket in West Bengal for four years before turning up for a Bengal team. So there were cases where the players submitted fake domiciles as well," the CAB secretary signed off.
