BAI assures strict action against age-fudging

Mishra flew down to Mohali on Saturday to personally interact with parents during the All India U-13 Ranking tournament and spent about an hour hearing the grievances of the parents who were protesting against a bunch of players whom they claimed were overage. After the meeting, Mishra assured them that the BAI ids of the two players, who were found guilty of submitting questionable documents during registration, would be cancelled while a detailed investigation would be carried out against other players named by the parents.

"Further appropriate action would be taken on those found guilty after the Age-Fraud Committee meeting to decide the quantum of action," Mishra said in a release. There was talk about whether the tournament that resumed after the meeting would be stripped of ranking points.

But Mishra took the opportunity to clarify that no such decision was made by BAI and the organisers had no authority to take a call on such an important issue. "Whether the tournament points are deducted or nullified is solely and wholly a discretion of the BAI and not of any outsider as in this case was when some local person created confusion and spread mis-communication among parents and have no business to be entertained.

"BAI has not reduced or cancelled any points," he further added.