Supreme Court refuses to direct BCCI on fixing cut-off dates for age group eligibility

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to the BCCI to fix the cut-off date for age eligibility in domestic cricket tournaments. A bench of Justices S A Nazeer and P S Narasimha said these are matters which should be looked into by the BCCI.

"How can we entertain this petition? Its not in our hands all these things. No you withdraw with liberty to approach. We don't know much about cricket also. Please withdraw, we can't go into all this," the bench said.

The top court asked the petitioner to withdraw and approach the competent authority for his grievance. The apex court was hearing a plea filed by an under 19-year-old player Rhitwicq Additya Sharma seeking directions to the BCCI to fix the cut-off date for eligibility in domestic tournaments.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that the Himachal Pradesh High Court had directed the BCCI to take a stand in six months and the order would come in his way to seek relief. The matter was dismissed as withdrawn.

The plea sought directions that the BCCI be directed to set the eligibility cut-off date for as April 1 rather than September 1 each year. According to the plea, this was for the reason that the advertisement, which is published in March/April states that players born between April 1 and August 31 are ineligible to compete in age group category tournaments, and only players born between September 1 and March 31 are eligible.

According to the petitioner, this subjective cut off date led to his eligibility period being reduced to seven months instead of 12 months.