A petition seeking directions to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was refused by the Supreme Court on Tuesday which pertained fixing of the cut-off date for eligibility in the ‘domestic tournaments’, on 1st of April/May of every year, instead of 1st September.
While the Bench comprising Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice PS Narasimha who were hearing the matter refused to take up the petition they have allowed liberty to the petitioner to approach the competent authority.
“How can we entertain this petition? It is not in our hands all this. No, you withdraw with liberty to approach the competent authority. We don’t know much about cricket also. Please withdraw, we can’t go into all this. What is cut off age for cricketers and all, we can’t do all this.” Justice Nazeer said.
Petitioners were represented in court by Advocate Aditya Dhawan .The current petition seeks directions to BCCI for making the eligibility for Under-19 tournaments and other age group tournaments, on the basis of bone age as determined with the TW3 bone age test.
As per the petitioner , only if the BCCI makes the cut off date from 1st September of the particular year to 1st April/May, he would become eligible to play Under-19, tournaments for 2022-23 season. The petitioner also claims that he, would eligible be able to play under-19 cricket for two more years if his bone age, as determined with the TW3 test, is taken in to consideration.
Speaking further , the petitioner said that this can also be made an exception or alternate method as due to the covid pandemic the cricket season was not very appealing and there were hardly any matches.
The petition has stated that he is not alone in the fight, as many other players have been equally affected as one full cricket U-19 season of 2020 and more than half of the 2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic was washed out.
It was told that for the purpose of under- 16, the BCCI has adopted a scientific method for age determination which is the TW3 bone age test.