Mumbai Ranji player accuses Nepal U-19 captain Raju Rijal of age discrepancy

New Delhi: Nepal U-19 cricketer Raju Rijal, who is leading his country in the on-going ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup, came under scanner when a Mumbai cricketer accused him of being overage.

A Mumbai Ranji player, Kaustub Pawar, claimed that Rijal is at least 24 or 35 years old. In fact, the Mumbaikar wrote on social media site Facebook that Rijal had played for Mumbai U-15 side under the name Raju Sharma.

“We played together in under 15 for Mumbai and now he is captain of Nepal under 19 team and we others are 24-25 age respectively. In Mumbai Raju Sharma, in Nepal Raju Rijal. #SaveCricket #Shame, #ICCUnder19WorldCupBangladesh2016,” Pawar’s wrote on Facebook.

We played together in under 15 for Mumbai and now he is captain of Nepal under 19 team and we others are 24-25 age...

Posted by Kaustub Pawar on Sunday, January 31, 2016

However, the Nepal skipper played down the issue by commenting that: “I don’t have any idea about this. I am not in social media. So I can not comment on this.” -- Rijal was quoted as saying by Cricwizz.com.

According to Rijal’s official records, he was born on September 26, 1996 at Dhangadi in Nepal.

Kaustub has played 27 First-Class matches and has scored 1449 runs at an average of 38.93, laced with four centuries and nine fifties.

Interestingly, the controversy hit the social media just ahead of Nepal's encounter with India, which the latter eventually lost by seven wickets. Though, both the teams have qualified for the quarter-final.