Indian cricket’s global rise rests on a hard, almost unforgiving ecosystem. A vast, hungry talent pool, relentless competition at every rung, the muscle of the IPL, and coaches who push players through an exacting, often brutal, screening process. The system’s strength lies in the belief of fairness — that skill, sweat and selection together create a level playing field.

In Puducherry, that field has been turned upside down.

Addresses are manufactured, eligibility certificates sold for a fee, and a one-man proprietorship has morphed into a full-blown parallel selection system that operates right under the nose of the Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) whose job is it to monitor it, an investigation by The Indian Express has f

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