The age old age factor

The Cooch Behar Trophy is the biggest and most prestigious tournament at the junior level in India. But the saddest aspect of the tourney has been the unsporting attitude and the level of discourtesy shown by the teams. This year's tournament, which concluded in Pune on Saturday, was marred by protests from team managements, suspecting players to be over aged.

The allegations portray a very sorry picture about the future of Indian cricket. The very fact that the protests are made by teams losing the matches is even more disappointing. The entire concept of sportsmanship is affected by such incidents.

The coaches and the managers are mostly either retired cricketers or former Ranji or Test players. They are with the junior teams for a season or two. No doubt their influence on the youngsters is immense but the fact that they suspect the honesty of another state association is shameful.

Each association which sends a team for the age restricted tournament verifies the certificates of the players. A doubt, therefore is an automatic comment on the credibility of the associations and its members.

North Zone has allegedly fielded over aged players in their teams. This regular malpractice was put to check by the BCCI with the introduction of a medical examination for the players participating in the tournaments. This new stipulation portrays a very cynical attitude by The Management and the associations which field such over aged players.

The recently concluded tournament too was marred by such protests in the knockout stages. The Bengal team were skittled out in the semifinal for a paltry 68 runs in the first innings. Their opponents on the other hand scored ten times more before declaring at 614 for four.

The Bengal management did not accept the fact that they were outplayed; instead they doubted the credibility of the Haryana team and its management by lodging a protest.

The same Haryana team took the first innings lead in the final and protested against five of the Madhya Pradesh players. The MP management hit back, lodging a protest about six of the Haryana players. Almost half the competing teams found themselves in the doctors clinic on the last day of the final.

The protest could have been lodged on the first day of the match if there was any doubt, but it was made on the last day when MP had virtually lost the match. The protest was a rather optimistic ploy on the part of the teams, for in case a player was proved over aged, the decision would have reversed and MP would become winners by default and not by virtue of the cricket they played.

A boy who is under 19 years of age cannot think of such unsporting dealings. These unhealthy trends of the game are injected by the managers and the coaches of the teams who are with them for a brief period. Putting such doubts in the minds of the players is most unsporting. It is a sad fact that young boys are now more worried about the date of birth rather than the score on the board. Such is the state of India's junior cricket, which also answers the question as to why India fails to produce more talented players. The boys, who are over aged, are occupying positions in the teams that other legitimately aged boys should have been holding. By the time these overage boys get through the tournament, the boys who are actually deserving of a position in the team are also over aged. These boys who did not get a chance to be in the teams are now tempted to change their states and their date of births so that they can get a chance like their seniors did before them. This system needs to be checked and some level of credibility should be brought back to the game and to the country's premier tournament at the junior level.