A senior official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday placed the onus of catching bookies and others involved in the recent spot-fixing scam on the police.
BCCI vice-president and chairman of the IPL Governing Council Rajiv Shukla, said that it was not BCCI’s job to probe who are the bookies and which Bollywood personalities are involved.
“It is the job of agencies like Delhi police and Mumbai police to investigate as to who is betting or who is involved in the betting row. BCCI has no role to play in this. But on the other hand if some player is involved and we get evidence against him, then surely we would investigate the case,” said Shukla in New Delhi.
Former test bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two other players were arrested along with 11 bookmakers on suspicion of spot fixing in the Indian Premier League ( IPL).
The cricket board immediately suspended the trio, who have been accused of taking money to concede a certain number of runs in a particular over.
Spot fixing is manipulation of individual incidents within a match, which may not affect the outcome of the contest, most famously exposed in a London trial and jailing of three Pakistan cricketers in 2011.
Nationalist Congress Party leader D. P. Tripathy said the arrested cricketers have deceived their fans.
“Sports and games are very welcome. They are necessary for any healthy society. But these kinds of scams, match fixing is coming out of those so-called heroes, which are made by the media. Match fixing is nothing but most condemnable crime, cheating and deceit. Therefore these cricketers must get harsh punishment. Their property and wealth should be confiscated,” said Tripathi in Patna.
Legal sports’ betting in India is confined to horse racing, while illegal betting syndicates thrive in the absence of a law dealing specifically with such corruption in sport.
Media estimates put the amount gambled on the Twenty20 competition at $427 million in 2009. (ANI)