Over-aged cricketers playing in specific age-group tournaments is the biggest menace that Indian cricket faces, said Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, General Manager (Game Development), BCCI, at the launch of the Mumbai leg of the Coca-Cola Cup under-16 school tournament here on Monday.
“We need to fight this menace. Genuine players should not be denied an opportunity to get a level playing-field in their age group. In spite of tough measures put in place, the BCCI receives complaints.
“Unfortunately, parents and some institutions are behind this particular problem.
“I request the organisers to carry out proper scrunity; this will only validate the tournament,” said Prof. Shetty.
The winning school teams from Mumbai, Baroda and Delhi will join teams from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for the ten-team inter-city challenge at Delhi from April 24 to 30.
The national winner will receive prize money of Rs.1 lakh and the runner-up Rs.70,000.
After the final, 22 players will be chosen and put them through a seven-day intensive training programme under Saba Karim (mentor of the Coca-Cola programme).
From among them, 15 will be selected to play an international school team.
