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A key player of the Odisha Ranji Trophy team found himself in hot waters after he got a ban from the Indian cricket governing body. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) imposed a ban on an Odisha cricketer Sumit Sharma for two years for age fraud. The disciplinary committee of the BCCI has reportedly taken strict action against Sharma for producing multiple fake age certificates.
As per the reports by ETV, the apex body took the step after observing differences in the age of Sharma going by the documents he had submitted earlier and the ones submitted for the Ranji team. An all-rounder by trade, Sharma was found guilty of producing fake age certificates. After Sumit’s age fraud incident, the Odisha cricket selection committee named Tarini Sa as his replacement.
Tarini Sa has travelled to Vadodara to take on Baroda at the Moti Bagh Stadium. The OCA secretary Sanjay Behera announced in a press statement, “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.”
The 2023-2024 season of the Ranji Trophy started on Friday, December 5, and it will have the top state teams competing for the coveted title. Madhya Pradesh is the defending champion of the tournament. Notably, this isn’t the first time that such an age-fraud incident has taken place in the BCCI.
