U13/U16 tournaments re-start after PCB takes action against 'age-fudging'

[MenInG]

PCB takes serious view on over-aged cricketers

Lahore, 17 January 2022:

Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday suspended the ongoing National U13 and 16 One-Day Tournaments after it became aware that some over-aged cricketers had been participating in the events taking place in Karachi and Multan, respectively.

To protect the spirit and essence of these U13 and U16 tournaments by ensuring that only deserving cricketers feature in the relevant age-group competitions, which act as pillars of the PCB’s Pathways Programme, the PCB has decided to conduct a third round of bone age verification tests, following which the teams may be revised before both tournaments commence next week from scratch.

Bone age tests in Multan, where each Cricket Association has fielded two teams each, will be conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, while tests on 150 cricketers (including playing members, traveling reserves and reserve pool of players per side) participating in the U13 event in Karachi will be held on Tuesday.

Players found over-aged following the latest bone age tests, will not be allowed to participate in these competitions. However, before the PCB takes appropriate actions, it will provide these players a two-day appeals window at the back of the fresh tests, during which the players can either undergo another round of bone age test or submit their original birth certificates and other supporting documents to verify their ages.

Until the tournaments resume, the teams will remain at their stations and will continue to train and practice under the supervision of the PCB-appointed coaches.

PCB Director – High Performance, Nadeem Khan: “After visual assessment confirmed that some over-age cricketers were participating in the U13 and U16 tournaments, suspending the events and conducting fresh bone age tests was absolutely the right thing to do.

“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.

“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.

“The PCB will carry-out third round of bone age tests and players who are ultimately found to have breached the process, will be ejected from the tournaments before a decision on their future participation in PCB-organised events is 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.”

[MenInG]

About time!

[zacattakk]

Finally they are cracking down on this. Long overdue. Good move by the current PCB administration.

[MenInG]

Finally they are cracking down on this. Long overdue. Good move by the current PCB administration.

catch 'em 'young' I say.

[finalfantasy7]

great move by the pcb, they should do the bone test on shaheen afridi, Abdullah Shafique , Haider Ali , Mohammad Nawaz ,Shahnawaz Dahani , Shadab Khan,Usman Qadir ,Imam-ul-Haq , Mohammad Wasim, naseem shah - as they all look few yrs older

[Ismailtoca]

great move by the pcb, they should do the bone test on shaheen afridi, Abdullah Shafique , Haider Ali , Mohammad Nawaz ,Shahnawaz Dahani , Shadab Khan,Usman Qadir ,Imam-ul-Haq , Mohammad Wasim, naseem shah - as they all look few yrs older

Why? They all play Senior International cricket where age doesn't matter.

[zacattakk]

great move by the pcb, they should do the bone test on shaheen afridi, Abdullah Shafique , Haider Ali , Mohammad Nawaz ,Shahnawaz Dahani , Shadab Khan,Usman Qadir ,Imam-ul-Haq , Mohammad Wasim, naseem shah - as they all look few yrs older

Too late to test them, they are all in their 20s.

[finalfantasy7]

Why? They all play Senior International cricket where age doesn't matter.

so the trainers and coach know where they stand for training, doesn't matter if they've made international, you don't want to invest too much in players if thr actual 33yrs old but stating thr 27 - 27 is in prime and 33 is out of prime - got to allow the staff to know where they stand to develop

[RedwoodOriginal]

Seriously. About time!

[Flat_Track_Bully]

Good move, this will make sure our kids are not being dominated by age fudgers and international players will peak at the right time in their careers.

[Maher96]

Interesting step taken by RR & co, let’s see how much changes that brings! But vital to play within the spirit of the sport at grass root level to ensure fair play.

Can we may be know Afridi’s real age now too

[Saj]

How ridiculous.

Why are these culprits getting through the system when it's clearly obvious they are overage. Why aren't they being spotted earlier.

[Bewal Express]

So the PCB realise this in the middle of the tournament. Why wouldn't you do this before the tournament started, its not as if its a new phenomenon. Absolute rubbish and the guys in charge of this tripe should be sacked.

[Maher96]

So the PCB realise this in the middle of the tournament. Why wouldn't you do this before the tournament started, its not as if its a new phenomenon. Absolute rubbish and the guys in charge of this tripe should be sacked.

Agreed but then paper trail can easily be forged and manipulated in Pakistan.

Latest bone age testing technology is paramount and should be the first way to determine the actual age.

[Artaxerxes]

great move by the pcb, they should do the bone test on shaheen afridi, Abdullah Shafique , Haider Ali , Mohammad Nawaz ,Shahnawaz Dahani , Shadab Khan,Usman Qadir ,Imam-ul-Haq , Mohammad Wasim, naseem shah - as they all look few yrs older

You can’t determine age by looks.In fact there is no method available to find out exact age of a person.Bone density tests can only give an estimate a person’s age.

[Bewal Express]

Agreed but then paper trail can easily be forged and manipulated in Pakistan.

Latest bone age testing technology is paramount and should be the first way to determine the actual age.

But what they are about to do now should have been done before the tournament started. It just takes a bit of organising and people doing their jobs.

[Bewal Express]

You can’t determine age by looks.In fact there is no method available to find out exact age of a person.Bone density tests can only give an estimate a person’s age.

It would stop the worst abuses. Some guys are 3/4 years older

[Maher96]

But what they are about to do now should have been done before the tournament started. It just takes a bit of organising and people doing their jobs.

It’s probably not until someone influential person child had to miss out and they threw fuss.

PCB is always to re-act.

[finalfantasy7]

You can’t determine age by looks.In fact there is no method available to find out exact age of a person.Bone density tests can only give an estimate a person’s age.

i know it cant, but it can give u closer look/ idea

[Flat_Track_Bully]

So the PCB realise this in the middle of the tournament. Why wouldn't you do this before the tournament started, its not as if its a new phenomenon. Absolute rubbish and the guys in charge of this tripe should be sacked.

It's just kids playing relax, it's not the PSL

I reckon they spotted some potential age fudgers and started to have doubts and made the call.

You can't have 16 year olds pretending to be 13 and then dominating the younger players who could have had the potential to be better than the age fudgers. We could be losing a potential world class player.

The actual age kids would need to perform better than a 16 year age fudger just to get noticed?

They should do tests on everyone in FC cricket and international players and lets see how many over 30s are actually in our system.

[moghul]

Last time a serious crack down on age fudging was done by Majid Khan and now, as expected by Ramiz Raja. Majid, as I know him is a very honest person and same is RR.

[moghul]

Age fudging is a serious problem. A committee headed by Razzaq and Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis as its members should tackle this issue.

[zacattakk]

Age fudging is a serious problem. A committee headed by Razzaq and Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis as its members should tackle this issue.

But atleast 2 out of those 3 themselves have been accused of being age fudgers....

[Nasty Naz]

This is great to see and I hope more strict rules are implemented going forward. It's crazy kids who are actually deserving on being in their age group are getting pushed out by ones that shouldn't be there and they're also dominating against a younger age group because of their age. It makes you think they have more potential when they really don't and deserving kids are losing out on precious developmental time as a result.

[Shafi]

Age fudging is a serious problem. A committee headed by Razzaq and Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis as its members should tackle this issue.

Unfortunately all 3s are age fudgers. How can a corrupt person can catch another corrupt one? Is this some kind of joke?

[shamaan]

Well done RR and his team.

[Anis10]

Unfortunately all 3s are age fudgers. How can a corrupt person can catch another corrupt one? Is this some kind of joke?

sarcasm

[Varun]

The PCB should keep at it, even though it will take a generation to show results.

[Couch Cricketer]

From what I understand bone age can be about 2 years + - from real age so I am not sure how this can actually pick out age cheaters.

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/im...9~PEDS%2F94180

[Babeikh]

Definitely needs to be cracked down on - people should be banned when caught. Make an example and that will mean people stop doing it.

I think with the digitisation of birth certificates it will be harder to do now but that only happened in the last few years so will be a decade before we see results of that.

[topspin]

Age fudging is a serious problem. A committee headed by Razzaq and Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis as its members should tackle this issue.

I hope this is a joke because they're all age fudgers themselves

[sweep_shot]

Good job, PCB.

All boards should ensure no age-fudging takes place. It is not fair to other players.

[Boycottisno2]

What are the results of wrist scans .... does anyone know>

[finalfantasy7]

across the border - india are having the same issue - rajwardhan hangarekar - sports commissioner of Maharastra has accused the u19 cricketer for fudging his age by 2 years, according to this article hangarekar's actual age is 21 not 19

https://cricfit.com/india-u19-world-...udging-report/


Heres futher reports of many under 19's indian criceters age fudge:
https://sportzpoint.com/cricket/bcci...-in-bone-test/

And dravid mentioned 1 country only over age fudging - Mmmmmm, im guessing no questions will be asked

[pratiktc]

You can’t determine age by looks.In fact there is no method available to find out exact age of a person.Bone density tests can only give an estimate a person’s age.

Ifti chacha 31 yrs young