The Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. Age fraud has returned to haunt the OCA. Cricketer Sumit Sharma, who is a part of the Odisha Senior Men's Ranji Team, has been banned for two years by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The BCCI found discrepancies in the age of Sharma from the documents he had submitted earlier and the documents submitted for the Ranji team, sources said.
He was expelled from the Ranji team while Tarini Sa has been announced as his replacement in the team. This recent episode of age fraud in OCA has surfaced as the Odisha team is scheduled to start its Ranji campaign against the Baroda team tomorrow.
Sumit started his cricketing career as a left-arm spinner. After his impressive performance at the club level, he found a place in the Odisha senior Men's Ranji Trophy team.
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In a press statement, OCA secretary, Sanjay Behera informed, “Sumit Sharma, a player of Odisha Senior Men's Team, has been disqualified by the BCCI to play in the BCCI Domestic Tournaments for 2 years as he has produced multiple age certificates. The certificates produced by him when he played at the junior level in the year 2015-16 do not match with the ones he produced for the current season.”