The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has implemented an additional bone test at the junior level to ensure that no cricketer misses out on an extra season due to the current ‘+1 factor’ used during age verification, which has frequently rendered players ineligible by the smallest of margins.
According to current standards, a player’s age is determined using the TW3 technique, with a ‘+1 factor’ applied to determine eligibility for the following season in the same age group.
However, under the updated rule, boys in the Under-16 category will now be able to undergo a second bone test the following season. This allows them to re-establish their eligibility for the same age group if they were disqualified the previous year due to the +1 factor.
“It is being done to get an exact age and ensure that no player loses because of arithmetic rather than scientific calculation,” a BCCI insider told The Economic Times.
“This means that the bone age of a player has to be 16.4 or below in the following season in male cricketers and 14.9 or below in case of females for participation,” according to a source.
For example, if a male U-16 athlete has a bone test in the 2025-26 season and the results reveal a bone age of 15.4 years, he is not needed to do another bone test the following season. Instead, a +1 factor is added to his bone age to determine eligibility.
However, if a player’s bone age is confirmed to be 15.5 years or older, the addition of the +1 factor raises it to 16.5 years or older, making him ineligible for the U-16 event, as the final cutoff is 16.4.
“It’s possible that this arithmetical calculation does not accurately reflect a player’s actual age, which could cause them to lose out on a year of eligibility,” a source informed me.
In the instance of U-15 females, if a player records a bone age of 13.9 years this season, she will be entitled to play in the same category the following season, with her bone age modified to 14.9 after using the +1 factor. However, if she tests at 14.0 years or older this season, she will be eligible to play just in that season. The +1 factor would increase her bone age to 15.0 or higher next season, making her ineligible because the cutoff is 14.9 years.
India
