National Code Against Age Fraud In Tennis

[eastind]

This code has been framed by the Government of India and has come into force from 1st April 2010. Interested people can browse the content at http://yas.nic.in/writereaddata/mainlin ... ile824.pdf
AITA has to ask itself whether they are following the code because going by the number of Age cheaters in all categories I dont think so.

[eastind]

As per the code the participants of any age restricted event should be medically examined to determine the age, As far as I know this has never been done in any tournament. Also AITA has never published the doctors and hospitals that have been designated to do these age tests and AITA has at the time of initial registration never got anyone medically examined to determine the age.
This goes against the code set up by the ministry and AITA can get suspended for this.
It is hightime that AITA follows the code and helps the players who play their right age category and penalise the cheaters. We may have lost quite a few talented kids who could have lifted up Indian tennis and this sorry state of affairs must not continue.

[suresh]

Maybe, Sunil Yajaman can comment on how to better tackle the issue (i.e., get tournaments in India to enforce procedure). Does it help if tennis parents (like eastind) complain?

Suresh

[prasen9]

Maybe do away with the age groups. Why do we need age groups anyway? Determining age is a very hard problem. So, let's have height and weight tests instead. I am not sure why grouping children based on age is a good idea. Comments welcome.

[kujo]

right, why don't we allow adults 21+ to compete in the AITA junior nationals based on height and weight?

[prasen9]

I say let them. These will not be called junior leagues, but, height-weight restricted leagues Actually, when you are 80+ and your height shrinks, you can again participate with the 10 year olds. What fun!

[eastind]

Iam not sure that many are aware that AITA falls under the ambit of the Right To Information Act.

[eastind]

This can be a hilarious situation for some but I can tell you it is no joke when you spend about 30-40000 rupees and travel all the way from South to North India and your child gets knocked out in the 1st round by these age cheaters. Multiply this 10 times and you get about 4 Lakhs rupees that you spend per annum on tournaments and add this with the training and expenses on the raquet and shoes etc you are maybe talking about 8 Lakhs per year and multiply this for 10 years you get to spend serious money which could be a big help when you retire.
I know for a fact that really talented children who have given up tennis at 12 itself because of this. These children could have made an impact if they were given a chance. Not many parents are as understanding, I knew for sure that my child was competing in an open age category right from 14 and Iam willing to wait and give my child a chance till he is 21-22 and see if he can make it.
In India maybe 1 Lakh play the game, out of which maybe 4 make a comfortable living out of tennis and maybe 4-5 break even. All others make a loss. The percentage of people who can make a living out of tennis is so miniscule that taking such a big risk is not appealing to most parents and when the child enters the 10th standard it is goodbye tennis.