In a recent development, the BCCI imposed a 2-year ban on an all-rounder named Sumit Sharma who was going to play for the Odisha team in the 2024 Ranji Trophy, for submitting 2 age certificates that do not look identical to each other and refer to the fact that the player is committing age fraud.
The term age fraud is nothing new in Indian cricket as there have been many cases of it. As a measure to stop him, the BCCI started the policy of banning those who caught him and Sumit Sharma is the latest addition to the Deplorable list.
The Odisha player will now remain out of all BCCI domestic tournaments till 2027 and will also not participate in this year’s Ranji Trophy. This news must have taken not only the player but the Odisha state team by surprise because Sumit had traveled with the team for their inaugural Ranji match against Baroda at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara.
What happened was that Sumit Sharma submitted an age certificate during his Junior level days in 2015/16 that did not match the one he submitted before the start of the new Ranji season. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for the BCCI to go ahead and impose time off the cricket field.
Sumit Sharma is a left-handed batsman who also has a good left-arm break. The Odisha team could have selected him for the 2024 Ranji Trophy, hopefully, on merit and not through influential connections, something that is as prevalent as the Age fraud in Indian cricket. Although this particular case came directly under the attention of the BCCI, there is very little idea of how many more players are committing age fraud.
However, Odisha replaced the player with a player named Tarini Sa and it remains to be seen if Sumit Sharma’s exclusion will have any impact.
“Sumit Sharma, a player of the Odisha senior men’s team, has been disqualified by the BCCI from playing in the BCCI national tournaments for 2 years due to submitting multiple age certificates. The certificates that he presented when he played at the junior level in the year 2015-16 do not match the ones he presented for the current season.” – said Odisha Cricket Secretary Sanjay Behara.
Amid Sumit Sharma age fraud setback, Odisha make mixed start on Day 1 against Baroda
Meanwhile, Odisha finished the first day of their opening match against Baroda strongly as they removed 6 Baroda batsmen for 222 runs at stumps. Opener Jyotsnil Singh scored a stellar 73, while wicketkeeper Mitesh Patel is currently on 94 along with wicketkeeper Atit Sheth, who is on 51.
From Odisha’s perspective, the bowling unit did well enough to stem the flow of runs, but no one was as splendid. 5 of the 6 bowlers they used picked up a wicket, each including a run-out.
