On Friday, the news of Rajvardhan Hangargekar being a potential fraudster broke the internet. According to the reports, India’s U-19 player Hangargekar was accused of age fraud by Maharashtra Sports Ministry.
Age fraud is nothing new in the game of cricket. Several players have been accused of date tampering to find a good chance at the international stage.
Some very famous players included in the list of date fraudsters are Shahid Afridi of Pakistan and Rashid Khan of Afghanistan.
The issue of Hangargekar came to light when two different birthdates on his various documents were spotted. Om Prakash Bakoria, the commissioner of youth and sports services, accused Hangargekar of manually changing his birthdate in one of his schooling documents.
Rajvardhan Hangargekar accused of age fraud
In a letter to BCCI, Bokaria wrote, “If the Head Master requires any correction in the birth date, it is necessary to take prior permission of Education officer of concern district. However, no such permission has been taken for making changes in the birth date of Mr. Rajvardhan Hangargekar from 10/01/2001 to 10/11/2002 by Head Master of the Terna public school… he has completed 21 years of age at the time of the tournament.”
This case seems to be important, considering that India won the U-19 world cup. And Hangargekar played a huge role in the tournament for his team.
He made a late entry into the IPL 2022 mega auction. But CSK was adamant to pick their man. They must have formulated a strategy around the young all rounder and picked him up for 1.50 cr.
Many reactions were witnessed on social media only hours after the news broke out.
While some wanted the matter to be investigated appropriately, others wanted Hangargekar to be banned immediately.
Everyone on the internet has this question, what will BCCI do?
Answer: Nothing. The Board of Control for Cricket in India is very unlikely to take any action.
On the contrary, one of their officials has already stated that no fraudulent activity is involved in this case. The BCCI official confirmed that when Hangargekar represented Maharashtra in 2016, he had to undergo an age test.
In that test, his age was the same as the one in the stated document. Hence, the verdict on Rajvardhan Hangargekar is already out. And the other news is anything but a fluke.
