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Elbow examination to solve age issue
Jan 14, 2001, 18:30 Hrs (IST)

Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to conduct elbow examination to determine the exact age of the cricket players to solve the problem of overage in the game. Earlier, the nails of the players used to be tested to detect to the exact age of the players.

In the recently concluded finals of the Cooch Behar tourney in Pune, both the finalists Madhya Pradesh and Punjab accused each other's team of fielding as many as six to seven overage players. Those found to be overage after the finals of the Cooch Behar tournament in Pune recently were all cleared by the board after conducting tests on them before the selection of the team for the first under-19 Test against England in Mumbai.

The question how the players who were found to be overage a couple of weeks back, passed the medical test ahead of the first Test against England remains unanswered. The role of BCCI in hushing up the issue and the tests conducted in Pune are the issues to be solved.

The secretary of the BCCI, Jyoti Bajpai had stated in Mumbai that all these complaints of players being overage were only rumours and that there was no truth involved in it. The question, however, remains whether the tests to be conducted would be able to properly determine the age of the players.

Till the board comes up with a broad policy about the issue and frames guidelines, instead of trying to sweep the whole issue under the carpet this overage issue will continue to come back and haunt Indian cricket.

UNI