Minor Adjustment! Aakash Chopra Recalls Playing Against a 13-year-old With 'a Full Grown Beard'

Former India cricketer recalled an incident of him playing against a ‘bearded’ 13-year-old from his initial days on Thursday after reports surfaced online of a player being arrested for age fraud.

Aakash Chopra said that he remembers playing an age-category match in his childhood with a ‘youngster’ in the opposite team having ‘a full grown beard’.

“Minor adjustment, it seems I remember playing U-16 in a Delhi v Punjab game where one guy in the opposition had a full grown beard…and was a couple of years younger to me on paper (I was 15…he was 13) He said…hamare family mein beard thodi jaldi aa jati hai, (Facial hair grows very early in our family)," Aakash Chopra wrote on Twitter.

The Times of India reported on Thursday that a ‘young’ cricketer from Pune, Amol Kolpe, was arrested by the Baramati City police in an age-fudging case and sent to a 14-day magisterial custody.

The player had played in the qualifying round of the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s (MCA) Under-19 invitational league back in January.

Kolpe submitted documents that had September 28, 2007 as his date of birth but an inquiry found another document which had February 15, 1999 as his date of birth.

“We had verified the documents submitted by the complainant. Post-verification, we questioned the Malegaon (Nashik district) boy on the issue of hiding his real age and later arrested him. On Sunday, a magisterial court had ordered his three-day custodial remand which ended on Tuesday. Now that he has been sent to magisterial custody, he can seek a regular bail," Inspector Sunil Mahadik of the Baamati City police was quoted as saying by TOI.

“We will collect all the documents related to Kolpe’s real date of birth and what the boy has submitted for the tournament he played in Baramati earlier this year. We will also explore the role of other persons in the case," Mahadik added.

“When Amol left for Baramati to play in a cricket tournament earlier this year, we were unaware about the standard/level of matches he would be playing or the age group he would be competing in. I have no idea," Kolpe’s elder brother Kiran told TOI.

“I approached the police because of the incompetent handling of the case by the (tournament) authorities concerned. Not addressing the overage issue properly is nothing but playing with the careers of those young players who follow the regulations," Nana Satav, a team representative of one of Kolpe’s opponents in the tournament, told TOI.