Close on the heels of their decision to ban 16 over-aged players from the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) summer vacation tournaments and coaching camps (as reported by this newspaper on May 4), the MCA has now banned another 28 players, who were found allegedly overage from U-14 to U-23, said a report in this paper yesterday.

The cricket body is determined it says to weed out the overage malaise from sport. Those who follow local tournaments at school and college level will know that overage players are an unfortunate but common reality here, local sports organisations have been trying for years to clamp down on overage players in sport.

Age-fudging needs to be tackled by going to the roots of the issue. Why are schools at first not checking the ages of the players they field? Do they know that these players are over age? Are coaches complicit in fielding overage players? It is difficult to understand why coaches are not checking the age of the players before fielding them in teams.