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RR find themselves in the midst of another controversy as an activist has claimed that Vaibhav Suryavanshi playing in the IPL is ‘child labour’. A Karnataka-based activist said RR is exploiting the 15-year-old southpaw and threatened to take legal action.

CM Shivakumar Nayak made this bizarre claim on a Kannada channel. He accused RR of 'child labour'. Just days after being called out by the rejected bidder after Lakshmi Mittal acquired them for Rs. 15,600 crore, RR are in hot water once more.

“This 15-year-old boy Vaibhav Suryavanshi from Rajasthan Royals is being exploited. He is just a child, only 15 years old, and they have brought him into the IPL to play professional cricket. This is nothing but child labour. How can they make a minor boy play in such a big league like this? He should be focusing on his studies, going to school and completing his education instead of playing cricket at this tender age,” he was as quoted as saying by Republic World.

“I strongly condemn this and I will be filing a police complaint or legal case against the Rajasthan Royals management for violating child rights and child labour laws. Don’t let this boy play IPL cricket. It’s child labour, he should study,” he added.

© X/IPL

On March 27, Vaibhav turned 15. So as per ICC law, he’s eligible to play international cricket. As per the rule, a player “will only be eligible to represent a National Cricket Federation in an International Match (including ICC Events and U19 Events) if he or she is aged 15 or over on the relevant squad submission date (in the case of ICC Events including U19 Events) or on the date of the first match of the series/tournament to be played (in the case of all other International Matches).” Vaibhav was 14 when he played the U-19 World Cup but the ICC rules had provisions for such “exceptional” circumstances which allowed Vaibhav to play. “ICC acknowledges that in certain exceptional circumstances there may be justifications for allowing someone younger than 15 to play in an International Match. Where a National Cricket Federation considers that exceptional circumstances exist to justify allowing a player younger than 15 to play in an International Match, it may be open for the Exceptional Circumstances Committee to make such a determination,” read the ICC’s player eligibility criteria.

According to the BCCI, a U-16 or U-19 player can play the IPL if he’s played one first-class match. Vaibhav fulfilled that condition as made his debut for Bihar vs Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy when he was 12. So he was eligible to make his debut in 2025 and also play in 2026. He’s had a good IPL 2026 so far with 404 runs in 10 innings with an average of 40.40 and strike rate of 237.65.