Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 8: The Director General (DG) Youth Services & Sports (YSS) has today ordered fresh selection trial matches in accordance with the recommendations by the report of a Committee which found irregularities in the selection of a team comprising 16 players and 7 standby players after the conclusion of UT level competitions at District Budgam.
The fresh selections and technical committees have been constituted for the selection trial matches of Cricket U-14 boys.
The selection committee has Pankaj Sasun as Convener, Arshad Bhat, Jagtar Singh, Mukesh Sharma, Paraminder Singh, Umesh Gupta-all as selectors.
The technical committee included Satika Sharma, Payal Choudhary and Naina while the Umpires included Satpaul Singh, Opinder Pal Singh, Vickram Dogra, Venus Partap Singh and Rajinder Sharma and Suresh Singh, Coach.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Inter-District UT Level competition for Cricket (Under-14 Boys) was held at District Budgam from 3rd to 8th November, 2025 and a complaint was received regarding an allegedly overaged player from District Bandipora after which a probe yielded that the age of players were around 14.
However, with the conclusion of the UT level competitions at District Budgam, a team comprising 16 players and 7 standby players was selected by the selection committee. The selection list was thereafter submitted by the Joint Director, Youth Services and Sports, Kashmir to the Directorate for review and further necessary action and before the selection list could be accepted by the Sports Directorate and the registrations be done on the SGFI portal, some social media post on 4th of January 2026claimed unfair selections and regional bias.
After this, the DG YSS constituted a Committee to probe this and submit report by 5th of January, 2026.
The report claimed that the score sheets were not properly maintained, lacked uniformity and contained discrepancies. The deficiencies observed, indicate serious lapses on the part of scorers/organizers, making the score sheets unreliable for fair assessment but the Committee has not specifically pointed out any regional bias.
The Committee recommended that the selection of the Under-14 Cricket Team may be conducted afresh, best performers as reflected in the available score sheets may be shortlisted immediately and on the basis of the available score sheets and four teams consisting of twelve players each can be constituted.
It further recommended that trial league matches be conducted to ensure that every player is given a fair and equal opportunity to showcase talent. For the purpose of final team selection, trial matches need to be conducted at the earliest among the shortlisted players.
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