LAHORE: Despite announcing the squads for the ongoing National U-13 and U-16 tournaments after conducting wrist tests of the participating players, the Pakistan Cricket Board went for a second round of tests across the weekend. Wrist tests of players of 12 teams — two each of six provincial cricket associations — in the U-16 event being held in Multan were conducted on Sunday, while players of six U-13 sides in Karachi were tested for their ages a day earlier.

The tests, Dawn has learnt, have impacted the players’ mental health, while also burdening the PCB exchequer. “The tests are being redone to streamline the process further and make it tighter,” a PCB spokesperson told Dawn.

“This is a part of ensuring the protocols are further stringent for the events ahead as most of these players are going to progress to junior cricket tournaments and High Performance Centres.”

Most players participating in the U-16 event have already featured in the previous U-13 events and if any of those are tested to be overage, it would question mark over the officials responsible to ensure the accuracy of wrist test results. It is also yet to be seen, how the PCB decides to penalise the people involved if players are proven overage after the recent tests.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2022