Is Vaibhav Suryavanshi Illegal To Play IPL? Child Labour Laws Explained

A fresh controversy has surrounded the IPL's latest star, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who has been accused to play under child labour. Suryavanshi, the 15-year-old RR batter, is currently playing IPL 2026 but his age has been the talking point throughout the tournament.

The accusations have been put by CM Shivakumar Nayak, who made these claims while speaking on a Kannada news channel. These allegations against Suryavanshi's team, Rajasthan Royals, have put the franchise under the scanner, which leads to a question whether Suryavanshi is really illegal to play the tournament.

Is Vaibhav Suryavanshi Illegal To Play IPL?

According to the BCCI rules, there is no such age limit for a player to feature in the Indian Premier League. However, an Under-19 cricketer must have featured in at least one first-class match to play in the IPL.

Before the IPL 2026 season, Suryavanshi had also played the last edition of IPL. However, he didn't break any rules as he had already made his first-class debut when he was 12 years old. Hence, he is full eligible to play the biggest cricket league in the world.

If we go by the Indian laws, the adolescents are allowed for sports-related activities, but under some given rules and regulations. According to Section 7 of the Indian Labour Law, an adolescent cannot be allowed to work for more than 6 hours in a day and there must be a break after 3 hours.

The law also argues that such kind of sports-related work must not compromise with education of the adolescent. The Indian Labour Law also makes it clear that at least 20% of the income must be in the fixed deposit account of a nationalised bank, which shall be accessible only when the person reaches 18 years of age.

Going by all these laws, Suryavanshi seems legal to play in the IPL and he is likely to continue doing that going forward. However, the BCCI or the IPL is yet to comment anything on the Vaibhav Suryavanshi child labour controversy.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi's Exceptional IPL Season Continues

Apart from the accusations made by CM Shivakumar Nayak on Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the young opener has taken the IPL 2026 by storm with his exceptional batting performances. Despite being just 15, he is already giving a tough competition to some of the best batsmen in IPL.

The left-handed opener has amassed more than 400 runs this season in 10 matches that he has played so far. He has scored these runs at an average of 40 and an exceptional strike rate of 237.64. Looking at all these numbers, Suryavanshi has already made himself a contender for the IPL Orange Cap this season.