Cuttack, Dec 16: On a petition filed by the All India Anti-Corruption Association with the Sports Integrity Wing of CBI and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI),
it’s disclosed that six more cricketers of the Odisha U-19 cricket team are involved in the age fudging scandal. The cricketers against whom the petition has been filed by the are Soumen Kumar Chand, Sanjay Dash, Raghunath Malla, Umesh Jadav, Ayushkant Sahoo and Preetsingh Chowhan. It’s stated that the birth certificate of Soumen Kumar Chand received from the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) states that he was born on 24 July, 1997 and as per the BCCI guidelines, players born after September 1, 1997 can only be in the U-19 team. With questions being raised as to how Chand was in the team, the petitioner that is convener of All India Anti-Corruption Association, Subrat Nanda has demanded that all the aforementioned players should not be given their certificates and match fee. The concerned cricketers and their guardians declined to comment on the allegations. The OCA secretary Ashirbad Behera in support of the Association recommended them to conduct a probe into the cricket associations of other states and also ask them to file an affidavit on the ages of their players.
Earlier, the BCCI had banned 20 Odisha cricketers, including 7 women cricketers for 1 year for their involvement in age fudging.
