Age old problem stumps cricket

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The suspension of India’s Under-19 cricket captain Ankeet Bawne for having two different birthdays in his birth certificate and in his passport is only the tip of the iceberg. Players who have declared their genuine birthdays and are playing age-group cricket like Under-13 have often been shocked to see colleagues regularly shaving their stubble while they themselves have barely attained puberty.
Some of the names mentioned by prominent cricket statisticians with regard to doubtful birth dates are quite shocking. Names like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Piyush Chawla and Irfan Pathan are mentioned too.
It is an ill kept secret in Asia that talented cricket players tend to fudge their real age in order to be able to stay in age-group cricket longer than they legally should. Renowned statisticians, Mohandas Menon and Sudhir Vaidya have often commented upon how many international players have more than one date of birth.
“Actually there are several players who have this (DOB) problem. Both Shahid Afridi’s and Mohammad Ashraful’s date of births are doubtful. However, to Afridi’s credit he has always maintained the date as 1-3-1980 throughout his international career since October 1996,” Menon, who was BCCI’s official statistician, told this newspaper.
“Ashraful’s DOBs recorded as 7-7-1984 and 9-9-1984. In 2001, when he became the youngest player to score a Test century against Sri Lanka, beating Mushtaq Mohammad’s record, and was named man of the match, a few said it was the day before his 17th birthday but according to most others, it was 63 days after it,” he added.
 “In fact Yusuf Pathan too has had this problem. We are not certain about his birth date,” Menon said. “Records show November 17. But when he won the man of the match award in 2008 on his birthday, he said on TV that he had celebrated his birthday two months earlier,” said Menon. “Also Sreesanth has some issues with his date of birth. He too has two different birthdays.”
That Asian teams have dominated the under-19 World Cup is often pointed out as proof of the common problem of fudging of age. Piyush Chawla and Irfan Pathan have also been under the radar for suspected tampering of age proof while playing for India in the Under-19 World Cup.
Cheating on age is one of junior cricket’s biggest problems. The system has many checks in place, like bone density tests and scans. But young cricketers are taught how to cheat on the system by clever coaches, managers and even parents.
For reporters who have been following the fortunes of talented players from a young age, the correct DOB still remains a mystery as players suddenly seem to lose a few years just as they are about to knock on the doors of national team selection. In this regard, the tale of Yuvraj is legendary. His Cricinfo page says he was born on December 12, 1981 but a picture of a very young Yuvraj (released years later) seeing off his dad before the tour of Australia in November 1980 did raise many eyebrows on the authenticity of his age.
It was rumoured in cricket circles that a player, just after winning the Under-19 World Cup for India in Colombo in 2001, failed the age test for an Under-22 state match.
Doubts have been raised about the age tests too. Nearly a decade ago an Under-19 cricketer walked upto Bishen Singh Bedi with his marriage invitation on which occasion the legendary spinner famously quipped, “Son, either what you are doing here is illegal or this invitation is illegal.”
It is whispered in cricket circles that body doubles in the style of Bollywood for age tests is a common practice. The BCCI started the age test about eight seasons ago to ensure players don’t gain unfair advantage. “We do a bone test that checks the growth centres of the bone. This method is not absolutely foolproof but merely an indicator as calcium levels and genetic growth varies from person to person. But it will be accurate to plus or minus six months. It is easy to forge certificates and the bone test has helped bring about a lot of credibility”, said a senior board official.
The BCCI does not usually check the passport for age. It is mainly used as a document to check residence address. In the case of Ankit Bawne, there was a huge disparity between his birth certificate and his passport that led to his exclusion. It is reliably learnt that the board did not even ask for his passport to check and it was the player who had submitted it himself. BCCI thinks it’s a honest mistake and has decided against any further action on him.