BAI secretary assures stringent action including 2-3 year bans to guilty
MOHALI: A day after TOI reported that ranking points will be stripped from the ongoing U-13 All India Ranking Badminton tournament in Mohali due to allegations of age fraud by more than 22 percent of the participants, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Thursday announced to form a panel to probe into the complaints and also issued a warning that the guilty will be handed a ban of minimum two years.
More than 67 aggrieved parents on Wednesday approached the organizing committee, protesting against the participation of overage players and demanding immediate expulsion, forcing the organizing secretary Tejinder Bedi to strip ranking points from the event.
This is the second such incident in as many weeks, after similar complaints of more than 60 percent of overage players' participation, were filed in Hyderabad during the U13 ranking meet held from June 19-25. The protest also gathered momentum after a member of the Age Fraud Committee wrote to the top BAI office bearers, reporting against the fraudulent activities.
However, BAI secretary Sanjay Mishra objected to his decision, maintaining that it was the federation's prerogative and it has decided to let the tournament go ahead as planned. Mishra along with a BAI observer are expected to visit Mohali on Friday at 5 pm.
"The federation understands the feelings of the parents, but one can't act in haste. This is a serious issue and needs proper investigation. As far as the ranking points are concerned, the organizing committee doesn't have the authority to freeze it, and considering the hard work put in by the honest players, freezing ranking points is not the solution," Mishra told TOI.
"We could not conduct the age group competitions in the past couple of years due to the pandemic, and now when the kids finally got a chance to prove their mettle, and earn some crucial ranking points, it won't be fair to snatch it away from them."
"The BAI will form a panel to conduct a thorough investigation into the complaints received from Hyderabad and Mohali, during the next two months (July & August) before we filter out the honest players and catch the offenders. This process will also involve each and every players' details, so it takes time," Mishra explained.
On being asked if the investigation process will involve only the BAI officials, Mishra said, "We already have an age fraud committee, but now we will form a team, including the state secretaries, so that a proper investigation can be done to gather evidence."
"We can act only after we have complete proof of wrongdoing by these players, and the guilty will be banned for a period 2-3 years from all domestic events, including district, state, national ranking tournaments," he said.
Mishra, however, isn't in favour of a life ban as he feels that could ruin a young career. He believes every young payer deserves a second chance as in most cases it is the parents and coaches who resort to such activities.
"It is harsh on a kid to be banned for all age groups, because in most cases the kid isn't ever aware of what's going on. Why should they suffer for something which they aren't even responsible for? These are prime years for a player, if you snatch that golden period, the career will be ruined," he said.
"Unfortunately, we can just minimize age fudging but we can't completely eradicate it because no age-verification test or doctor can say with 100 percent accuracy, the exact age of the players," Mishra added.
So what happens to the honest players? Will they be given a chance to earn rankings?
"I have already asked the chief referee to make a list of the suspected overage players, and let's see what the investigation process brings out. There will be a couple of more ranking tournaments in September, so we have around 2 months at hand to complete the probe," he said.
