A goof up by the BCCI Operations Committee has seen seven members of India's 15 member Youth Asia Cup squad deemed inelgible for next month's tournament in Sri Lanka. According to sources close to Sportskeeda, BCCI committed an error by assuming the cut-off year as 1997. However, the actual cut-off age announced by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) was September 1, 1998.
This meant Sandeep Tomar, (Uttar Pradesh), Digvijay Rangi (Himachal Pradesh), Daryl S Ferrario (Kerala), Simarjit Singh (Delhi) Izan Sayed (Maharashtra) Chandan Sahini, (Hyderabad) and Rishabh Bhagat (Punjab)would all miss out on their debuts for the national team.
The team's wicker keeper Sandeep Tomar said, “My bags were packeded, my visa was ready and my passport was submitted. Even my cab to the airport for my flight to Bengaluru was booked. I'm really shocked at how everything happened. They didn't even tell us, my friend saw on the website and he told me that its changed. All of us are really sad, as even our families were looking forward to it. I'm heartbroken, don't know whether I can make it back to the India team or not. But, my family is very confident, I will make it back.”
On being asked about this, a senior BCCI official told Sportskeeda, “Just imagine what would happen if this would happen in Sri Lanka, we wouldn't have a team at all. Everyone makes mistakes, and so did we, but we had to take swift action, as if we would have sent a letter, they would say they received it late. We need to make the changes immediately. Hence only emails and letters were sent to the replacements.”
Another cricketer Izan Sayed said, “We were practicing together for a while also, the least they could do was let us know, but now all our practice and work-outs will go to waste. It's happened what can I do now? Absolutely nothing. I will keep giving my best.”
The replacements have for the group are Salman Khan, Yash Thakur, Vivekanand Tiwary, Het Patel, Himanshu Rana and Harvik Desai. BCCI is yet to release an official statement on this matter.
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