The ages of Subcontinent players

[BhupinderSingh]

This trend is more common in Pakistan & Bangladesh as compared to India that the real ages of about half of the players are 2 to 3 years more than their official ages.They do it to play & get selected for more time than they would with their real ages.Recently,PCB delayed the announcemet of team for U19 World Cup to ensure no overaged player makes the team and becomes a reason of disrepute for the country.I know that all players don't do it but to be sure,all of them should go through bone marrow tests before starting their FC players.In Pakistan,you can easily do it because most of the players are uneducated and hance fail to provide high school certificate which would ensure them to be registered with real ages.So,in that case their ages are believed to whatever they tell.But in case of educated player's its not possible or possiblity is vey minute though.I remember Waqar admitted last year that his real age is 2 years more than his official age and after that his age changes wee made to his cricinfo profile accordingly afterwards.I don't believe Hasan Raza was 14 when he made his debut and Afridi was 16 when he started playing cricket.In fact Afridi told his age to be 15 but they registered him with age 16 in 1996.This trend should change IMO.To ensure this,all of them should go through bone marrow tests before starting their FC players.

 

[Richard]

I'd be fully behind any form of age-testing means. However, the trouble is that this bone-marrow testing of which you speak is, as I understand it, not an exact science. Things may of course have changed markedly since 1996, which is when the article I've read on the subject was written - due in fact to the remarkable Hasan Raza case. Apparently some USA-based Pakistani doctor wrote to Wisden editor Matthew Engel stating that the test was only intended to show whether someone's growth was in accordance to what would be expected for age, not to prove how old they were.

As I say, since 1996 it is quite possible with the rate at which medical science has progressed that some sort of test may indeed have been developed which enables the possibility of discovering a person's true age. But I've not yet heard about it.

 

[SJS]

This trend is more common in Pakistan & Bangladesh as compared to India that the real ages of about half of the players are 2 to 3 years more than their official ages.They do it to play & get selected for more time than they would with their real ages.Recently,PCB delayed the announcemet of team for U19 World Cup to ensure no overaged player makes the team and becomes a reason of disrepute for the country.I know that all players don't do it but to be sure,all of them should go through bone marrow tests before starting their FC players.In Pakistan,you can easily do it because most of the players are uneducated and hance fail to provide high school certificate which would ensure them to be registered with real ages.So,in that case their ages are believed to whatever they tell.But in case of educated player's its not possible or possiblity is vey minute though.I remember Waqar admitted last year that his real age is 2 years more than his official age and after that his age changes wee made to his cricinfo profile accordingly afterwards.I don't believe Hasan Raza was 14 when he made his debut and Afridi was 16 when he started playing cricket.In fact Afridi told his age to be 15 but they registered him with age 16 in 1996.This trend should change IMO.To ensure this,all of them should go through bone marrow tests before starting their FC players.

Its true that the tendency to say you are younger than you are is as bad with Pakistani and Bangladesh cricketers as it is with Bollywood's young actresses. In some cases it is laughable. But beyond that. . . . ? Who cares.?

If tomorrow a country fields a cricketer who claims to be 15 months old lets all have a big laugh and leave it at that. I do the same when I see the kind of things some people do to get into the Guinness book of world records !

All these are good enough for a smile or maybe a laugh but do you really care who the characters in those pictures are ? Or whether their feats were genuinely performed or a con job with the help of trick photography?

Exactly my point

The only person who might be concerned about it could be the one whose "record" was broken or the idiot who is looking to establish a new one.

If this is their only claim to fame. well who gives a flying . . . . anything

 

[Sanz]

Its true that the tendency to say you are younger than you are is as bad with Pakistani and Bangladesh cricketers as it is with Bollywood's young actresses. In some cases it is laughable. But beyond that. . . . ? Who cares.?

The above claim is as laughable as this whole thread itself. That One's Birth Certificate says that he/she is 2 years younger than the actual age is a decision taken by the parents. Most people do it because of stupid age restrictions the governments have put up for various job/educational applications.

 

[shivfan]

Well, Pakistan has done well at under-19 World Cups, and that can be upsetting for other teams, if some Pakistani players are getting away with saying that they're younger than they really are....

But is there any link to any story verifying such a claim as that made in the OP?

 

[morgieb]

Afridi was born in 1978 rather than 1980, similarly Waqar was born in 1969 rather than 1971.

Pretty sure there's heaps more too. Hasan Raza was at least 15 when he made his debut, and there's no way Aqib Javed was 16 when he made his debut. That's just recent Pakistani players too.

 

[Jayzamann]

I know this has been prevalent in major league baseball over the years. But the reasoning for that has been bargaining power for larger contracts. Claiming a teenager has the body of a young adult sounds more promising to a scout than just some fully developed man.

 

[silentstriker]

Yup, it's only due to ageism on behalf of government and selectors. I don't worry too much about it, it's not a big deal.

 

[Aritro]

The BCB have been doing their bit to stamp age cheating out of the Bangladeshi game apparently. Not only are they now using dental records as part of an age test (I'm not sure how this works) but they're also now avoiding selecting any U/19s player with a birth certificate that has them born within 6 months of the cut-off.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I'm sure a bit of age shaving might go on from time to time, but I also think chaps of south Asian origin possibly mature physically a few years earlier than Anglos, which might also explain their success at youth level legitimately.

When I was younger and played rugby for my school our local rivals had a Sikh lad play prop for them and, not only was he built like an Irish navvy, he also had a full, proper beard at the age of fourteen. Not wispy bumfluff, but a full, bushy beard.

 

[GIMH]

I still can't grow a full beard now

 

[Sir Alex]

I still can't grow a full beard now

So cannot Parthiv patel

 

[G.I.Joe]

I'd be fully behind any form of age-testing means. However, the trouble is that this bone-marrow testing of which you speak is, as I understand it, not an exact science.

The gold standard nowadays is to chop off a leg and count the number of rings.

 

[Shri]

The gold standard nowadays is to chop off a leg and count the number of rings.

Won't make a difference to Akhtar or Flintoff.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Metallics telling it like it is, warts and all.

 

[Richard]

Its true that the tendency to say you are younger than you are is as bad with Pakistani and Bangladesh cricketers as it is with Bollywood's young actresses. In some cases it is laughable. But beyond that. . . . ? Who cares.?

If tomorrow a country fields a cricketer who claims to be 15 months old lets all have a big laugh and leave it at that. I do the same when I see the kind of things some people do to get into the Guinness book of world records !

All these are good enough for a smile or maybe a laugh but do you really care who the characters in those pictures are ? Or whether their feats were genuinely performed or a con job with the help of trick photography?

Exactly my point

The only person who might be concerned about it could be the one whose "record" was broken or the idiot who is looking to establish a new one.

If this is their only claim to fame. well who gives a flying . . . . anything

Waqar Younis said much the same when he demanded to know why his age mattered when, in 1996, he was first asked of it. To a great extent, how old one is doesn't really matter - "age is just a stupid number" after all. However, the point is that if an age is given at all it should be an accurate one.

 

[silentstriker]

Theoretically, that may be true but saying you're 22 means you won't get selected when saying 19 means you will - well, it doesn't really lead people to being accurate in that department.

 

[Jayzamann]

So cannot Parthiv patel

He doesn't have enough chin space anyway.

 

[SJS]

Waqar Younis said much the same when he demanded to know why his age mattered when, in 1996, he was first asked of it. To a great extent, how old one is doesn't really matter - "age is just a stupid number" after all. However, the point is that if an age is given at all it should be an accurate one.

Oh yes, I agree with that but to suggest that ICC should get involved and we should have mandatory bone-marrow tests before a player starts his first class career is a bit too much.

We cant even get dope testing in place for Christ's sake. There are much more urgent things to be taken care of in the game

 

[Migara]

Age testing should be there in junior levels like U-19, U-15 etc. It's not needed in FCC and in test matches.

BTW, it's a unheard problem in SL. Almost all births are registered within one week in SL. the rate is >99.999%