India U19 captain Anuj Rawat under BCCI scanner for playing T20 tournament in Mauritius

India’s U19 captain Anuj Rawat has come under the scanner of the authorities for having participated in a Twnty20 league in Mauritius in June last year. A top official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) describing the turn of events also termed the incident “very unfortunate”.

As per the rules, the players are required to take a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the BCCI to apply for a visa in order to play in cricket leagues in any other country. Indian nationals, however, do not need a visa for Mauritius if their intended period of stay is less than 60 days.

According to reports, cricketers from India could bypass the BCCI and play in the tournament in Mauritius which featured players of “questionable reputation” besides those from Pakistan, a country with which India hasn’t been playing for some time. It was also learnt that Manoj Kalra, one of the stars of the Indian team that won the U19 World Cup earlier this year, had sought permission for playing in the same league but was not given a go-ahead by the Indian cricket board.

Video shows Rawat playing the tournament

Eighteen-year-old Uttarakhand-born Rawat seems not to have taken an approval from the BCCI before joining the tournament in Mauritius. A video from the tournament also showed Rawat playing in a game between Flac Royals and Quatre Borne. Former England international player Owais Shah and Pakistan cricketer Hasan Raza, who featured in a recent sting operation carried out by Al Jazeera, were playing for Rawat’s opposition team.

Acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Chaudhary termed the incident as “very unfortunate.” “The age group players are educated by BCCI at the national level. This is very unfortunate if junior players have gone ahead and played unsanctioned tournament. This needs to be looked into seriously,” Choudhary was quoted as saying on TOI.

BCCI’s General Manager (Cricket Operations) Saba Karim said he wasn’t aware of the development. “For any tournament outside India, the players need to seek NOC from [the] BCCI. I am not aware whether [Rawat] sought permission or not. You could check with [Delhi and Districts Cricket Association],” he said.

DDCA sources confirmed that Rawat didn’t take any permission, the report said. The cricketer made his first-class debut in 2017 but was ignored for the U19 World Cup squad in this year’s tournament because of his poor show in the run-up to the event. He was later made the captain and led India to 2-0 victory in the Youth Test series in Sri Lanka recently.

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