Ranji Trophy 2024: Odisha's Sumit Sharma Banned By BCCI For Fake Age Certificates

In a recent development, the BCCI has handed a 2-year ban to an All-Rounder named Sumit Sharma who was set to play for the Odisha team in Ranji Trophy 2024, for handing 2 age certificates that do not look identical to each other and is referring to the fact that the player is doing Age Fraud.

The term Age Fraud is not anything new to Indian cricket as there have been many instances of it. As a measure to stop, the BCCI started the banning policy on whoever found doing so and Sumit Sharma is the latest addition to the Deplorable list.

The Odisha player is now set to stay off all BCCI domestic tournaments until 2027 and he will not participate in this year’s Ranji Trophy either. This news must have taken not just the player but the Odisha state team aback because Sumit had traveled with the team for their ongoing opening Ranji match against Baroda at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara.

What happened was that Sumit Sharma handed an Age certificate during his Junior level days in 2015/16 which did not match with the one he submitted before the start of the new Ranji season. Thus it was a no-brainer for BCCI to go forward and impose time off the cricket field.

Sumit Sharma is a left-handed batter who also has a decent left-arm off-break. The Odisha team might have selected him for Ranji Trophy 2024, hopefully, based on merit and not through influential connections, something that is as prevalent as the Age fraud in Indian cricket. Though this particular case directly came under the eye of BCCI, there is very little idea as to how many more players are committing Age fraud.

Nonetheless, the player has been replaced by Odisha with a player named Tarini Sa and it remains to be seen if Sumit Sharma’s exclusion will have any impact at all.

“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.” – Odisha Cricket’s Secretary Sanjay Behara said.

Amid Sumit Sharma’s Age Fraud Setback, Odisha Gets Off To A Mixed Start On Day 1 Against Baroda

Meanwhile, Odisha have ended the First day of their opening match against Baroda strongly as they have removed 6 Baroda batters for 222 runs at stumps. Opener Jyotsnil Singh scored a stellar 73 while wicket-keeper Mitesh Patel is currently at the crease for 94 along with tailender Atit Sheth who is on 51.

From Odisha’s perspective, the bowling unit did well enough to stop the flow of runs but no one was that splendid. 5 of the 6 bowlers they used, picked up a wicket each including a run-out.