One Aadhaar Trail, Three Birth Years: How BCCI Caught Age Fraud

The BCCI has introduced a stricter system to detect age and domicile fraud in domestic cricket, asking its affiliated associations to examine players' Aadhaar update histories before registration.

The move, modelled on a process adopted by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), has already produced significant results in Bengal, where the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has declared 62 players ineligible for registration or transfer for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons following discrepancies in their documents.

Among those affected are current and former India Under-19 players Rohit Yadav and Ravi Kumar, who have been handed two-year bans.

How Aadhaar updates are helping detect age fraud

The BCCI's directive requires associations to examine the history of changes made to players' Aadhaar-linked documents, alongside digital birth certificates, before registering Under-19 and Under-23 cricketers.

The process has exposed discrepancies that may not have been apparent from the documents initially submitted by players.

In Rohit's case, records showed three different years of birth - 2007, 2009 and 2010. The changes were detected through his Aadhaar update history.

Rohit, a leg-break googly bowler, had recently represented India Under-19 on their tour of Sri Lanka in July. He claimed six wickets in a youth Test as India won by 211 runs and was subsequently included in India's Under-19 squads for the home matches against Australia Under-19 scheduled later this month.

Ravi Kumar, meanwhile, was part of India's Under-19 World Cup-winning team in 2022. CAB records showed a 45-month discrepancy in his age.

Left-arm spin all-rounder Vishal Bhati, who has played three first-class matches and two List A games, was also among those banned.

CAB checks around 4,000 players

CAB secretary Bablu Kolay said the association had examined documents belonging to around 4,000 players as part of the exercise.

"Aadhaar updates and digital birth certificates turned out to be the clincher to detect such discrepancies including the age fudging," Kolay told The New Indian Express.

The association now asks players for digital birth certificates registered within two years and checks their Aadhaar update histories.

Players receive one-time passwords to access their records, which allow the association to examine changes made to their documents, including birth certificates.

The process has also uncovered issues beyond age manipulation.

According to Kolay, CAB found cases involving allegedly false domicile documents. Bengal regulations require a cricketer to play club cricket in West Bengal for four years before becoming eligible to represent the state.

BCCI follows the WFI's approach

The move follows a similar initiative undertaken by the WFI earlier this year.

The wrestling federation began checking Aadhaar records ahead of the Under-15 national championships in Salem, Tamil Nadu, in February and subsequently extended the process to other age-group competitions.

The exercise reportedly identified around 500 wrestlers with discrepancies in their documents.

Rather than imposing blanket bans, however, the WFI directed those wrestlers to compete in their appropriate age groups.

The cricket board's approach has been more punitive in the Bengal cases, with CAB declaring the 62 players ineligible for registration or transfers for two seasons.

CAB treasurer Sanjay Das said the association began the process at the end of May after receiving instructions from the BCCI.

"We started it in May end after receiving instructions from the Indian board and results are there for everyone to see. It's not against any player but the system is to ensure fair competition. Not only age fraud, it will also help in detecting the original domicile of a player," Das said.

The BCCI's intervention therefore represents a significant tightening of verification procedures in Indian domestic cricket. By combining digital birth certificates with Aadhaar update histories, the board and its affiliated associations now have a mechanism to identify inconsistencies that could previously have gone undetected.

For Bengal, the first major exercise has already resulted in 62 players being ruled ineligible, while the CAB says the verification process will continue for all new registrations.