ICC introduces minimum age policy, says player must be 15 years old to play international cricket

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board announced a minimum age policy for International cricket on November 19, 2020. As per the policy, a player must be at least 15-years-old to play cricket globally.

The ICC Board stated that the minimum age policy has been introduced for international cricket to improve the safeguarding of players. The policy will apply to all cricketing events including ICC events, bilateral cricket and U19 cricket.

Now, a player has to be at least 15 years old to be a part of the men's and women's cricket team or the under-19 International cricket team. 

Exception

The ICC minimum age policy, however, offers an exception in case of exceptional circumstances, under which the concerned cricket board can apply to the International Cricket Council to seek permission for a player under 15 years of age to play for the respective country. 

The exception will be allowed in cases where the member board is able to convince the ICC that the concerned player's playing experience, mental development and wellbeing demonstrate that he or she would be capable of coping with the demands and pressures of international cricket.

Key Details

•The ICC had no such age-bar rule earlier for a cricketer to play any form of international cricket.

•Pakistan's Hasan Raza is the youngest cricketer ever to play international cricket. The right-handed batsman had made his debut in Test cricket when he was just 14 years and 227 days old. Raza had played seven Tests and 16 ODIs between 1996 and 2005. 

•Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was also the youngest Indian to play Test cricket for the country during his debut match.

•The former batsman was 16 years and 205 days old when he had made his Test debut. His career tally includes 15,921 runs in Test Cricket and 18,426 runs in ODIs.