The Pakistan Cricket Board high-performance director said that the age fraud to participate in U13, U16 tournaments has plagued the national cricket circuit.
On Monday, Pakistan cricket’s governing body took a decision to suspend the Under-13 and Under-16 national tournaments due to the menacing age fraud. The board will be carrying out fresh bone tests for age verification.
These tournaments act as pathways for the players in the Pakistan cricket system. The board has decided to take the third round of bone tests, after which the teams could be revised and then both the tournaments will start again next week from scratch.
The PCB high-performance director, Nadeem Khan said that the visual assessment confirmed that a few over-age players were participating at Under-13 and Under-16 levels, so cancelling these tournaments was the right move.
“After visual assessment confirmed that some over-age cricketers were participating in the U-13 and U-16 tournaments, suspending the events and conducting fresh bone age tests was absolutely the right thing to do,”
he said as per ESPNCricinfo.
Khan further added that the board will not allow overage players to take advantage of the system and deny the deserving budding cricketers chances to show their mettle:
“The PCB, as the sole governing body of cricket in Pakistan, cannot allow over-age cricketers to take advantage of the flaws in the system and cause demotivation and mental stress to deserving under-age cricketers as well as their parents.”
He added that age fraud has been rampant in domestic cricket, has become a menace to the sport and has plagued Pakistan cricket for years. He reiterated that this practice needs to be stopped to protect the integrity of these tournaments held by the PCB.
Khan concluded by informing that the decision on the over-age players’ participation in future tournaments will be taken in due course. Before the PCB takes any actions, these players will be given a two-day appeals window.
In this window, the players can opt for another round of bone tests or provide their original birth certificates and other documents for age verification.
