Age Fudging: OCA Drops Two Odisha Cricketers From U-23 Team

Cuttack: The Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) has dropped two cricketers from the U-23 state team after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) banned them for two years on charges of age fudging.

“The two cricketers Soumen Kumar Chand and Biswajit Mallick have been banned from playing in 2021-22 and 2022-23 domestic cricket seasons,” the OCA said in a statement.

Following the allegations of discrepancies in birth certificates of these two cricketers, OCA had sent their documents for verification to Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).

During verification, it was found that the birth certificates submitted by the two players to the BCCI did not match with their original birth certificates.

Notably, the BCCI had banned two Odisha cricketers Rajesh Mohanty and Krishna Palai for two years on similar charges in November last year.