Kolkatta,March 17:It’s 4.30pm and the lone occupant of a sparsely furnished two-bedroom Bangur Avenue flat is running a final check on the five cellphones, laptop and voice recorder in front of him.
“Must get ready before the calls start coming,” he mutters.As if on cue, a cellphone rings: All izz well. Business is buzzing.
“Kitna lagana hai? (How much do you want to wager?)” asks the man, in his forties.
“Na, sirf pachaas hazaar se upar (No, only above 50,000),” he says seconds later, cutting the caller short.
Season 3 of the IPL has raised the betting bar in Calcutta, with more money riding on Kolkata Knight Riders matches than in the first two years of the franchise, and bookies shunning the small players.
“We are not taking small bets. We have created a network comprising a select few who can afford to bet big,” a Burrabazar bookie told Metro.
According to a conservative estimate, over Rs 100 crore each has been at stake in the three matches that the Knight Riders have played so far this season. It’s a different bookie logic altogether that back-to-back victories didn’t make them the odds-on favourite on Tuesday.
Even before the Chennai Super Kings won the toss and took first strike at Eden Gardens, the odds were stacked against Shah Rukh Khan’s boys in purple and gold. “The odds are such that a punter who puts his money on M.S. Dhoni’s men stands to earn Rs 1.83 on every rupee. For the Knight Riders, it is Rs 2.10 for every rupee,” explained a bookie’s agent.
The phones in his office haven’t stopped ringing since Friday, when IPL 3 got underway with KKR defeating the defending champions, Deccan Chargers, in Mumbai.
“There is huge excitement over the Knight Riders this year. The phone starts ringing one hour before a KKR match starts and stops only after the last ball is bowled. Everyone wants to make money while the going is good,” said a bookie who has been in the business for several years.
As in any match, the odds swing with the fortunes of a team. “Every ball bowled and every run scored is crucial,” said a trader betting big on KKR, looking shattered at the sight of the scoreboard reading Kolkata Knight Riders: 85 for 9 in over number 15.
In the lower tier of the club house, 45-year-old Abhijit Das was the odd fan out in yellow, though he wouldn’t say whether he had put his money where his loyalty was.
“Why am I wearing yellow? Because someone has to maintain the balance in the galleries,” he smiled.
Police apparently know who the bookies are but allegedly don’t look where they should. “In any case, all the big city bookies are currently outside the state. The transactions are being done by those who work for them,” said an agent of a city-based bookie biding time in Ranchi.
An officer of the detective department claimed that the police were yet to receive specific information about betting on cricket in the city. “We will start a crackdown if we get correct information,” he added.