India grapples with 'endemic' age-fraud menace in sports

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 : No fewer than 500 wrestlers were disqualified from India's under-17 championships for age fraud in June, highlighting a scourge experts believe is baked into the country's sporting culture and needs to be combated in the same way as doping.

The exclusions at the Gonda meet were the latest in a string of age-fraud cases and came less than a year after some 20 teams were expelled from India's top schools football tournament, the Subroto Cup, due to fielding overage players.  

"It is endemic," leading sports lawyer Aahna Mehrotra, who has authored a paper on the subject, told Reuters.

"Age fraud runs across most disciplines that have age-group competition, and it is at its worst at the sub-junior and junior levels, where the rewards are highest and the scrutiny is lowest."

India's chaotic system of birth registration and the absence of a single digital database for athletes have long left the door open for unscrupulous parents and coaches to exploit.

For those who have a couple of years shaved off their actual age, the potential rewards can be great. The unfair advantage of extra years of growth can lead to scholarships, sponsorships and fame. 

In the case of the national sport, it could also give aspiring cricketers a head start in the pursuit of a life-changing Indian Premier League contract worth millions of rupees.

PSM Chandran, president of the Indian Federation of Sports Medicine, believes it should be punished in the same way as another modern scourge of sport.  

"Age fraud is very much there, and the system is inadequate to stop it," he told Reuters.

"The federations have not done enough. The cricket board has taken a lead in recent times but we need more from other federations.

"We have such strict