Age fraud has come back to haunt Indian cricket as Odisha's Sumit Sharma has been barred from participating in domestic tournaments after the BCCI found discrepancies in the player's documents
Indian cricket is again come under the scanner of age fraud. The Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) has reportedly banned a cricketer from Odisha, Sumit Sharma from playing any domestic cricket tourneys for the next two years. (More Cricket News)
BCCI disciplinary committee have reportedly taken action against Sharma for producing fake multiple age certificates. Sharma was part of the Odisha cricket team for the Ranji Trophy 2023-24.
Sharma is an all-rounder by trade and was found guilty of producing multiple fake age certificates. He gave a different age certificate to the Odisha cricket team and it differed to the one he had submitted during the 2015-16 season.
Sharma had travelled to Vadodara to play Odisha's opening game against Baroda on Friday. The new Ranji Trophy season will start from Friday, January 5, 2024.
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In the wake of Sumit Sharma's age fraud, the Odisha cricket selection committee named Tarini Sa as his replacement in the squad that has travelled to Vadodara to take on Baroda at the Moti Bagh Stadium.
“Sumit Sharma, a player of Odisha Senior Men’s Team, has been disqualified by the BCCI to play in the BCCI Domestic Tournaments for 2 years as he has produced multiple age certificates. The certificates produced by him when he played at the junior level in the year 2015-16 do not match with the ones he produced for the current season,” OCA secretary Sanjay Behera said in a press statement.
The BCCI has a strict stance on age-fraud cases in it's domestic circuit and has imposed bans to the players. There have been many cases in the past that has prompted the Board to act strictly in this regard.