HYDERABAD
In a first-of-its-kind move, the Hyderabad Cricket Association banned two cricketers registered in different age groups - Mohammad Babillail (under-19) and Shashank Mehrotra - for five years for allegedly submitting fraudulent documents to be eligible to play for Hyderabad.
Mr. Suneel Kante, Chief Executive Officer of HCA, said on Sunday that there were allegations about some cricketers indulging in fraud regarding domicile and age, and the HCA had asked the police to make an enquiry into them.
“In the enquiry, these two players were found to be guilty and one of them was originally selected for Hyderabad under-19 and the other one for Hyderabad under-23 teams. Subsequently, on finding the truth, we have excluded them from the respective teams,” he said.
“We want to convey a stern message to everyone - the coaches, the support staff, the clubs and all officials - not to resort to these sorts of things. We hope we will not witness these instances again,” said Mr. Suneel Kante, flanked by the selectors. “This has to be a precedent and we hope those who come to power after the HCA elections on October 20 will also take similar measures,” said the top HCA official who still has another three years of five-year stint as the CEO.
Mr Suneel Kant also informed that they would be distributing about 2,000 tickets to the students of the Tribal Welfare and the Minority Welfare schools for the next two World Cup matches between New Zealand vs The Netherlands on October 9 and Pakistan against Sri Lanka on October 10 at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) here.
