Chandigarh, April 4: At a time when Indian cricket is in turmoil following the World Cup exit, a group of 28 villages in Kapil Dev’s home state has banned the game altogether.

The inter-village council in Haryana that issued the diktat late last week, however, claims it would have ordered the ban even if India had fared well in the Caribbean.

The reasons behind the move, it says, are that cricket corrupts the youth and leads them away from more wholesome rural sports such as kabaddi, kushti (wrestling), volleyball and football.

“Many young boys now sport a hairstyle like Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s and have even started behaving like him. Some are aping Sachin Tendulkar or Sreesanth,” said Sanjay, a participant in the panchayat, whose writ runs over 28 villages in Jat-dominated Jind.

Cricket, however, hadn’t been on the agenda at all when the all-caste, all-religion Daadan khap panchayat, a council of elders that rules on social issues, had met in the village of Uchchana.

“We had gathered to discuss female foeticide and the adverse effects disc jockeys had on the younger generation,” panchayat spokesman Abdul Rehman said.

“Someone then mentioned cricket and how students were neglecting studies over the game and had begun betting and gambling on matches.”

Khap panchayats are called in Haryana to discuss caste issues and arbitrate in disputes involving inter-caste marriages. In 2004, a council had ordered a couple who had the same gotra to separate and live like siblings.

But the cricket ban hasn’t met with the degree of compliance that caste panchayats expect in Haryana. Village sources said young boys were continuing to gather on fields with bat and ball.