Age fudging proves costly for this Odisha cricketer

Cuttack: Manipulating age in the documents by Anurag Kanojia, an under-19 cricketer from Odisha, proved costly for him as the young player has been dropped by Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) on Thursday.

An OCA official confirmed the news by saying the young cricketer was shown the door for submitting untrue birth certificates.

“We have dropped him (Anurag Kanojia) for discrepancies found in the documents submitted by him as proof of,” said OCA working committee Chairman Dhiren Palai.

He said the the matter came to light when they checked the birth certificate provided by Anurag earlier and this year.

“If needed we can take legal action against the erring cricketer as he has submitted a false court affidavit,” Palai informed by adding OCA has no role in it.

Sources in the OCA hinted that Anurag might have face one or two years of ban for the age manipulation.

Earlier, the OCA had dropped 30 players who were found fudging their proof of age documents and certificates in 2016.

The CBI, which is probing the alleged age-fudging scam, had said the 30 players, who were suspected to be overaged, allegedly furnished fake voter ID and PAN cards to lower their age. It is also suspected that the players manipulated Tanner-Whitehouse 3 (TW3) test report, which is usually conducted on players by doctors to know their age.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had also dropped seven women players and issued show-cause notices to four senior players from Odisha in connection with age fudging controversy.