Kolkata : A major age-fraud crackdown has hit Bengal cricket, with the BCCI suspending leg-spinner Rohit Yadav from domestic cricket for two years after discrepancies were found in his age-related documents.
The action comes shortly after Rohit was picked for India’s Under-19 assignments against Australia. The youngster had also featured in India’s U-19 tour of Sri Lanka in July, where he took six wickets and helped the team secure victory in the final Test.
Rohit, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, had recently been part of India’s U-19 tour of Sri Lanka in July. He claimed six wickets on the tour and played a key role in India’s victory in the final Test. The spinner was subsequently selected for India’s U-19 home assignments against Australia, with multi-day and one-day matches scheduled to be played in Rajkot and Ahmedabad later this month. However, his selection came under scrutiny after inconsistencies were found in his age-related documents during the Sri Lanka tour.
According to the PTI report, Rohit has three birth certificates that list different years of birth – 2007, 2009 and 2010. The discrepancies make him ineligible for age-group cricket and prompted further verification of his records.
The 19-year-old, who has represented Bengal in age-group cricket, was found to have an age discrepancy of 27 months, according to the CAB. The ban is effective immediately, with all BCCI-affiliated state associations notified of the decision.
Rohit’s case is part of a much wider crackdown by the CAB on age and documentation irregularities. The association has declared 62 players ineligible for registration or transfer for competitions during the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons.
The CAB has also barred 62 other players over similar age discrepancies. Among them is former India Under-19 World Cup-winning pacer Ravi Kumar, who played a key role in India’s title-winning campaign in the 2022 edition in the Caribbean.
Ravi, a left-arm pacer, made his senior debut for Bengal in 2022 but last featured for the state in 2023. His age-group records from his debut through the 2025-26 season will now be considered invalid. His age discrepancy is understood to be more than 40 months.
CAB pledges strict age verification protocols following two-year ban for Rohit Yadav
Following the imposition of a two-year ban on leg-spinner Rohit Yadav for age discrepancies, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) on Friday said it is very much committed to following rigorous age verification protocols for its registered players.
Yadav was pulled out of the India Under-19 squad for their upcoming red-ball and white-ball series against Australia, to be played in Rajkot and Ahmedabad later this month, after internal documentation audits flagged irregularities in his age records, prompting a broader investigation by the governing body’s authorities.
“The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), during its routine verification process, identified certain discrepancies/inconsistencies in the documents of the player Rohit Yadav.
“The matter was promptly reported to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) within due time. Following due examination, the BCCI took appropriate action and removed the player from the India Under-19 squad for the Australia series,” said the CAB in its statement on Friday.
It further said that a replacement player for Yadav has been picked, though they didn’t specify his name. “Thereafter, BCCI, in consultation with CAB, undertook further verification of the player’s age and supporting documents.
“Following the verification process, the player was replaced by another eligible player in the squad. CAB remains committed to ensuring proper verification and adherence to the prescribed regulations governing age-group cricket,” added the CAB statement.
“Basically, for underage tournaments, the BCCI has made it mandatory to look into other update history, and they want digital birth certificates. So that is their policy, and according to that, we were also going through these other update checks and digital birth requirements for underage players.”
“So once we got into the process, many players have been found to have discrepancies. When we went into his other update history and everything, we found that there is a discrepancy there also. Now it’s for the board to take whatever decision they do “, Bablu Koley said.
Koley reiterated that the CAB will continue to take a firm stance against record falsification in junior developmental programs. “The national board is going to have a zero-tolerance policy as far as age discrepancies are concerned.
“So I don’t think they’ll entertain this, and they will inform us accordingly also. So this is the scenario basically, and we’ve taken our own decisions in CAB. But since he was in the India U19 team, the decision relating to him was taken by the board.”
In all, 65 players have been barred by the CAB from registration or transfers across the 2026–27 and 2027–28 domestic seasons due to age discrepancies and documentation irregularities. Among those sanctioned is former India Under-19 World Cup winner Ravi Kumar. The left-arm pacer delivered a standout spell of 4-34 in the 2022 Men’s U19 World Cup final against England in the Caribbean to help secure India’s fifth title.
But official CAB records list Ravi with a 45-month age discrepancy, which means all age-group participation records from the 2021/22 season through the 2025/26 campaign across junior and senior levels will be deemed invalid. Left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Vishal Bhatti, who has made three first-class and two List A appearances for Bengal, has also been flagged for the same charges.
