PCB Suspends Under-13, 16 Tournaments Due To Age Fraud Concerns

Age fraud has been a big problem in Pakistan Cricket over the years. Recently the PCB has suspended its Under 13 and 16 tournaments due to the same concern as well. Amid the controversy, the PCB will now do bone age verification tests to ensure only deserving cricketers feature in the relevant age-group competitions.

The tournament was a brainchild of PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja to promote cricket development through age-group cricket. However, PCB high-performance director Nadeem Khan has said that there has been age fraud concerns detected which has forced the board to suspend the tournament for the moment.

Fresh Bone Age Tests To Be Conducted To Address Age Fraud Issue: PCB

“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,” Nadeem said in a statement.

“Falsifying age to become eligible to participate in age-group cricket is not only an offence but a menace that has been plaguing our system. This now needs to be corrected to protect the integrity of the tournaments as well as to stop the exodus of young talented cricketers” he further added.

Nadeem Khan further said that the PCB cannot allow this practice to continue so that the deserving candidates and players do not go through the mental stress of rejection as do their parents.

PCB Cannot Allow Over-Age Cricketers To Take Advantage: Nadeem Khan

“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,” added Nadeem Khan.

The PCB high-performance director concluded by saying that the board will address the problem and would take a lesson from this incident in the future to prevent such cases.

“A decision on their [overage players] future participation in PCB-organised events [will be] made. Separately, the PCB will also review its internal processes and try to put in place protocols whereby only cricketers who are genuinely the relevant age get an opportunity to compete in PCB-organised events so that they remain on track to fulfilling their dreams though our pathways programmes” he concluded saying.

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