Raju Rijal has been accused by a Ranji Trophy cricketer of being over age © Getty Images (representational image)
The joy of Nepal’s success in the ongoing ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2016 came under threat when allegations were made by a Ranji Trophy cricketer, Kaustub Pawar, about their captain Raju Rijal indulging in age fraud. In a Facebook post Pawar said he had played with Rijal in the under-15 Mumbai team and the players of that batch were currently aged 24 and 25. Pawar implied that even Rijal belonged to a similar age group and had gotten through by committing age fraud. He accompanied his post with hashtags like ‘shame’ and ‘save cricket’. FULL SCORECARD: India vs Nepal, match NO. 18 of ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup
Rijal responded to these allegations but was not very forceful in his reply. He only said he was not aware of the post in question as he is inactive on the sphere of social media. “I don’t have any idea about this. I am not in social media [As Pawar accused Raju via Facebook]. So I can not comment on this,” Rijal told Cricwizz. ALSO READ: Is Nepal Under-19 Captain Raju Rijal Actually 25?
Further research revealed that a player by the name of Raju Ramachandra Sharma has in fact played for Mumbai, albeit in the Under-19 age group in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons as opposed to Under-15 as being claimed by Pawar. The said Raju Sharma has even captained the Mumbai Under-19s in certain Polly Umrigar fixtures.
However, in conflict with the official records of Raju Rijal which state he was born in Dhangadi Nepal, documents state that the Under-19 Mumbai cricketer Raju Sharma was born in Ramnagar Maharashtra. There is certain to be further investigation into the matter.