BCCI bans two World Cups for India U19 players

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has amended one of its rules stating that the India U19 players cannot play in more than one U19 World Cup. This roughly translates into the fact that those who have featured in the U19 World Cup earlier this year will be ineligible to play in the upcoming U19 world Cup.

This also means that even if the player meets the age criteria, he would still be ineligible to take part in the upcoming editions of the tournament.

Moreover, this will certainly come as a blow to the likes of Washington Sundar, Mahipal Lormor, Sarfaraz Khan and a few others who would be eligible in terms of age to not get a chance in the future edition. This would mean that these boys would now have to prove themselves at the domestic level in order to make a case for themselves in the broader context of selection for the Indian team.

The suggestion was moved by junior committee and it was approved by the board in its working committee. The BCCI working committee has also decided that a player can have only two seasons of domestic cricket.

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The move will snub a chance to the deserving candidate, for ex: A 15-year-old boy who has the ability to compete with U19 boys may be seen playing at the U16 level for few years as he can only play U19 cricket for two years. While this opens up chances for more U19 players to make their case, it restricts the chance of a talented player to have a prolonged career at this level.

There are many players who have represented Indian team at the junior level twice; few of them are Sandeep Sharma (2010 & 2012), Vijay Zol (2012 & 2014), Ricky Bhui (2014 & 2016) and Sarfaraz Khan (2014 & 2016).

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