Journalism of Courage
In order to weed out the fraudulent practice of over-age players fudging records to play in under 16 and under 19 cricket teams for the capital,the Delhi High Court on Tuesday made it mandatory for every player to undergo a medical test that will be conducted by a medical board comprising three doctors. Directing the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) to constitute a board comprises of a dentist,radiologist and either an orthopedic or a general physician,a Division Bench of Justices B D Ahmad and Veena Birbal said that the move will reduce chances of manipulation.
The court has also directed the DDCA to form a Complaint Redressal Mechanism that in future would,in a time bound and a prompt manner,decide any complaint pertaining to age dispute. The courts guidelines have come in accordance with the guidelines in the National Code against Age Fraud in Sports.
At present,to know the age of a player,DDCA would simply send a letter to a private hospital asking about the age of an aspiring young cricketer. The hospital’s opinion will subsequently be testified by a single doctor.
The court’s order came on a petition by an NGO,’Lokniti Foundation’,seeking directions to the DDCA for selecting the players only after getting their annual age confirmation tests done by a medical board from a government institution of repute like AIIMS. The petition,moved through advocate Bipul Kumar,further sought adoption of more equitable means,like MRI of wrists as done in Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) world cups and also as suggested in the consensus statement of the International Olympic Association. The society had also sought a directive to the DDCA to adduce all the records pertaining to the selection of the under 16 and under 19 teams after ascertaining their age. We have cited eight such cases where players were found to have two different birth certificates in order to mislead the federation. The court has,however,not quashed their selection and has asked the redressal board to look into these complaints, said advocate Kumar.
