As soon as the Ranji Trophy 2024 started on Friday, a controversy has erupted. At first many were surprised to see Bihar play a 12-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi in their match against Mumbai, but as it turns out, the player in question is actually 14.
While his birth certificate and records with the BCCI suggest he’s 12, in an interview given last year, Suryavanshi himself suggested, that he’d be turning 14 in November 2023. The truth might just take some time to come out, but it has once again brought forward the menace of age fraud.
A Few Records Broken?
In case, Suryavanshi’s actual age is 12, then he might have just broken a few records here. He could be the fourth youngest to make first-class debut. The record right now stands in the name of Alimuddin, who made his first-class debut in 1942-43, at the age of 12 years and 73 days, and played for Rajputana.