Age fraud in sports: Indian federations need to impose long-term bans to bring age-old menace under control

Most NSFs do not treat age fraud with as much concern, except offering some lip-sympathy to those players who are affected by it all The Athletics Federation of India disqualified Nisar Ahmed — the toast of a hopeful track and field community not too long ago — from running the 100m final in the National Youth Athletics Championships in Raipur earlier this week for being over-age. At the moment, all National Sports Federations are emboldened to follow the National Sports Development Code of India 2011 which suggests in its Annexure XVI that upon conclusive proof being available that an athlete has committed age fraud, an NSF must ban that athlete from taking part in any sport for two years. After a Central Bureau of Investigation report, the Table Tennis Federation of India suspended four West Bengal table tennis players for committing age fraud. The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s former President Anurag Thakur introduced a private member’s bill in Lok Sabha, titled The Sports Ethics Commission Bill, 2016, aiming to set up the National Sports Ethics Commission to ensure ethical practices and fair play in sports including elimination of doping practices, match-fixing, fraud of age and sexual harassment of women.