The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has cancelled the registrations of eight senior players of domestic debutant cricket team Puducherry for flouting eligibility criteria.

Those eight players are ST Xavier, Nikhilesh Surendran, Iqlas N, Abdul Safar VS, Yash Jadhav, Sagar Trivedi, Ashith Rajiv and Shashank Singh. BCCI has cancelled their registrations just prior to Puducherry’s second game in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy against Uttarakhand that is scheduled to be played on Friday (September 21). Soon, Puducherry has added seven new players as the replacements.

BCCI has looked at this incident after several complaints have been filed against the new domestic team after their first Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Manipur on Wednesday. There were several complaints that some Puducherry players are using fake birth certificates, address proof and employment certificate.

In the addition, there is another question have been raised after that first game as the new team fielded the guest players over the regulation numbers. While the BCCI rules limit the number into three, it seems like Puducherry fielded more numbers of guest players in the first game.

The BCCI General Manager (Cricket Operations) Saba Karim wrote a letter in the registrations cancellation cases that claimed all the eight players were found to have submitted their proof of education or employment are not even one month old.

The letter further added that the players who are studying or residing in Puducherry from August 2018 are ineligible to play for the state.

In their first game of 2018/19 Vijay Hazare Trophy, Puducherry beat another new domestic team Manipur in the Plate Group clash by 8 wickets (with 147 balls remaining). In that game at Vadodara, Manipur was bundled out for just 120 runs in 37.1 overs. In reply, Puducherry reached the target in just 25.3 overs after losing only two wickets.