Interior ministry may arrest, prosecute bookmakers also

PSL match-fixing scam

LAHORE: Once it digs deeper into the Pakistan Super League (PSL) match-fixing saga, the federal interior ministry is likely to arrest bookmakers and syndicates in case they are also found involved too, sources told the Jang Group and Geo Television Network Friday.

Sources said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, himself an ardent fan of cricket, is taking a keen interest in unearthing the people who are guilty of tainting the country’s image and bringing the game to disrepute.

Sources asserted: “Noose will be tightened around the necks of all involved in coming days and none will be spared – come what may!”

Unlike in England, Australia or other cricketing nations, where sports betting is largely a regulated activity in the hands of stock-market quoted corporations, this menace remains the preserve of the underworld in India and Pakistan.

Influence and prowess of bookies operating in Pakistan:

As we can see from the suspension of five Pakistani players, allegedly involved directly or indirectly in spot-fixing in the second Pakistan Super League edition, bookies in Pakistan have been good at exploiting the greed and material lust in players, who have never stopped meeting and communicating with shadowy figures around them.

And these bookies and guilty players have, of course, been encouraged by the fact that neither any Pakistani government nor any the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hierarchy has ever taken an initiative of going deep into such scams.

While the whistle-blowers have had dodgy backgrounds, shady credibility and interests, numerous successive Pakistan Cricket Board regimes have also not shown any interest practically in taking the guilty elements to task, though extremely serious incidents – directly connected to top Pakistani players – have surfaced in the recent years.

In its August 30, 2010 edition, a prestigious British newspaper, The Guardian, had stated: “When Malik Qayyum, the Pakistani high-court judge, was carrying out his inquiry into match-fixing between 1998 and 2000, he asked police in Lahore for details of a case against two bookies, known as Raja and Jojo. They had been arrested after abducting the father of Wasim Akram, Pakistan’s best bowler at the time. Akram claimed that his nieces had been threatened as well.”

It further reported: “In 2000, Akram told Daily Mirror about the ordeal. ‘My brother called to say my father had suffered a heart attack and the reason behind it, I believe, was that he had been kidnapped for a day. Those people who kidnapped him thought that, you know, a match was fixed even though someone else was captaining the side at the time. They held him captive for a day and they were hitting him all over for a day – and he is 65 years old.”

The Guardian had maintained: “The unique pressures facing Pakistan’s international cricketers are starkly illustrated by an anecdote told by Geoff Lawson, the Australian who coached the side for 15 months in 2007 and 2008. After a player was dropped on the eve of a match, the captain summoned Lawson to his room. When he got there, he found one of the selectors present. “We must pick [the player],” he said. “I have been told that if he is not in the team tomorrow my daughter will be kidnapped and I will not see her again.”

The esteemed British media house had gone on to write the the links between cricket and the underworld go back a long way. Before his involvement in the Mumbai bombings of 1993 Dawood Ibrahim, the most influential and dangerous figure in Mumbai’s underworld, was a regular at cricket matches in Sharjah. Both cricketers and Bollywood movie stars enjoyed his hospitality. Dawood moved to a Middle Eastern country when Mumbai became too hot for him to handle, and subsequently shifted his operations to unknown place. Despite being wanted by Interpol and Indian authorities, he remains at large. The betting networks, which sometimes involve only a dingy office with multiple telephone lines and a cable TV connection, continue to thrive.

Research further shows that in November 2010, Pakistan’s discarded wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider had mysteriously flown to London after leaving the team camp in Dubai without permission before the fifth ODI against South Africa started.

Haider had decided to seek asylum in the United Kingdom, a move which was not supported by the Pakistan’s government which insisted Haider should have turned to them first.

Instead of lending him a patient and sympathetic ear, the Pakistan Cricket Board had suspended Haider’s contract and on November 10, the player announced his retirement from international cricket.

He explained that he had been asked to lose the fourth ODI on November 4, 2010 and that after hitting the winning runs he had received threats against his life and family.

A November 8, 2010 report of BBC News had said: “Haider’s brother told the BBC that the cricketer had fled because he and his family had received death threats. The Pakistan Cricket Board, which is trying to clean up cricket in Pakistan, has launched an inquiry. Haider was replaced as wicketkeeper for Monday’s game by Umar Akmal, the brother of Kamran Akal, whose performance behind the stumps in the Sydney Test against Australia earlier this year is at the heart of an ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit investigation (ACSU). The PCB confirmed that it had passed details of Zulqarnain’s disappearance to the ACSU. Haider was fined 12,000 rupees ($140) on after allegedly breaking curfew hours imposed by the team management along with fellow players Shahzaib Hasan and Abdur Rehman.”

Zulqarnain Haider had returned to Pakistan on the assurances of interior minister, Rehman Malik who said he and his family would be provided all security in Pakistan.

It is the same Shahzeb Hassan who has now been suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board on spot-fixing accusations and it is the same Abdur Rehman, who had registered a dubious world record in March 2014 for giving away the most runs in any international match across formats without registering a legal delivery.

Rehman had bowled three consecutive no-balls above waist height against Bangladesh in an Asia Cup match in Dhaka and was barred from bowling.

In August 2012, Zulqarnain Haider, had once again threatened to make some revelations about the alleged involvement of a few Pakistani players in spot-fixing.

The NDTV of India had reported: “In a message posted on his Facebook account, Haider criticised the selection of wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal in the national team for the series against Australia and the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

“The fact is that Kamran has not yet been cleared by the ICC of wrongdoing and has only been cleared by the national selectors and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB),” Haider claimed. “If he has any clearance letter from the ICC he should show it publicly and if he doesn’t do that then I will be forced to come out with the truth,” he added. Haider, who scored 84 on his Test debut against England in 2010 when Kamran was injured, said he would make some startling revelations about the involvement of some players in spot-fixing if Kamran didn’t show his clearance letter.”

The widely-watched Indian television channel had added: “Meanwhile, according to sources, the PCB was looking into the latest statement by Haider and was not happy with him.

“It had told him to refrain from making statements while pardoning him last year and some disciplinary action could be taken against him,” the source said. The then PCB Chairman had claimed in a television interview that Kamran was picked in the team after the board sought advice from the ICC on his clearance.

Interestingly, New Zealand’s former player Brendon McCullum – who had led a PSL franchise this year, had also played for the Chennai Super Kings side that was banned in July 2015 by the Justice Lodha Commission, which was formed in January 2015 following allegations of corruption, match fixing and betting scandals in Indian cricket.

Widely-followed cricket website ESPN CricInfo states: “The Lodha committee has suspended India Cements and Jaipur IPL, the owners of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals teams, for a period of two years. The committee has also banned for life Gurunath Meiyappan, a former team official of Super Kings, and Raj Kundra, a former Royals co-owner, from any involvement in cricket matches.”

In March 2014, the Indian Supreme Court had ordered BCCI president Srinivasan to quit, months after his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested by Mumbai Police under the involvement in heavy betting and trading of inside information to bookies.

In June 2013, Srinivasan had stepped aside and in September, the apex Indian court had restrained him from holding the post of Indian Cricket Board President until its further orders.

In October 2013, Indian Supreme Court had allowed Srinivasan to take charge as BCCI President, but on March 25, 2014, the same court had told him to step down as BCCI President so that a fair investigation may be conducted into the illegal betting affairs of his son-in-law, Gurunath.

Moreover, while another PSL franchise’s Director Wasim Akram was given “benefit of the doubt” by the 1998 Justice Qayyum Inquiry Commission with regards to his alleged involvement in fixing the Sharjah tournament in 1997, the Commission had ruled he was “not above board”. Wasim Akram was censured and fined £3,700. Further probe into his assets was recommended.

Before the Justice Qayyum Commission, Haroon Rasheed had also accused Wasim Akram of changing the batting order during various competitions including Pakistan’s Independence Golden Jubilee.

Wasim Akram, according to Haroon Rasheed, would promote himself ahead of Moin Khan and Azhar Mahmood, break the momentum of the game which would result in loss. Haroon Rasheed felt that the main culprits were Wasim Akram, Ijaz Ahmad and Salim Malik.

Although current Pakistan chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq was not found guilty by the Justice Qayyum Commission due to lack of evidence, but was sternly warned and fined £1,200. It was recommended that his finances be probed.

While we all know that a match-fixing convict Muhammad Amir was drafted into the Pakistan side by the PCB after he had served his sentence in London, another PSL franchise player Marlon Samuels has already served a two-year ban for passing on team information to an alleged bookmaker in 2008.

The incident occurred in February 2007, when Samuels was allegedly caught on tape by the Indian police for passing on match-related information to an Indian bookie during West Indies’ one-day series in India.

Yet another PSL franchise’s coach, Dean Jones, was named by an Indian bookmaker MK Gupta in 2000, as one of the many players accused of match fixing.

(References: The October 31, 2000 Indian CBI report, the November 2, 2002 report of The Telegraph and July 3, 2010 report of ESPN CRICINFO)

Bookies arrested in India and by British authorities on request of Indian govt in recent times:

Research shows that during the 2011 World Cup (February 19-April 2), there were 44 arrests in India. Those handcuffed had included 24 businessmen and 13 property dealers. A total of 16 betting rackets were broken up and 158 mobile phones were seized during raids of law-enforcement agencies.

In May 2015, the Enforcement Directorate’s Ahmedabad unit had reportedly broken an international cricket betting racket to the tune of Rs2,000 crore, arresting two alleged bookies from Delhi.

It claimed the arrested bookies had transferred about Rs300 crore through the hawala (illegal) channel to UK-based betting company “Betfair” to obtain a master password to place bets online and that was sold to many people in India.

In October 2016, as the Indian Express had reported, the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Mohali city police had nabbed seven bookies from the stadium during the India-New Zealand cricket match.

The police said the accused were in touch with their bosses throughout the match and informing them about the fours and sixes that the players were hitting and their bosses were in turn fixing the prices of a bet. The accused were getting Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 per match for providing the information to their bosses.

The accused were booked under Section 420 (cheating) of IPC and Section 13A, 3 and 67 of the Gambling Act.

Scale and magnitude of sports betting in India:

On November 13, 2016, the Hindustan Times had reported: “Three years ago, a study by international auditing firm KPMG revealed that betting to the tune of Rs300,000 crore takes place in sports in the country annually. That should give a broad idea of the volume of business this shadowy group of bookies does. In October 2016, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) had published a report which estimated that a sum of Rs19,000 crore could be earned annually by imposing a 20 per cent tax on sports betting (after it was legalised).”

Remember, in September 2016, a globally-renowned Indian bookie — Sanjeev Chawla — was arrested in London following India’s request for extradition.

Chawla and the defamed South African Cricket captain (the late) Hansie Cronje were named in a 70-page charge-sheet by the crime branch in India for fixing matches played between India and South Africa from February 16, 2000 to March 20, 2000 in India.

According to a Zee News report of September 14, 2016, bookie Chawla had also been accused of offering money to two England players in August 1999.

The Zee News had reported: “In July 2013, Delhi police had filed a charge-sheet in the scandal, also naming former South African skipper Hansie Cronje, died in a plane crash in June 2002. The two were named in a 70-page charge-sheet by the crime branch for ‘fixing matches played between India and South Africa from February 16, 2000 to March 20, 2000 in India’. In 2000, the Delhi police accused Cronje of match-fixing after releasing transcripts of an alleged conversation between him and Chawla. Cronje initially refuted all allegations, but later admitted to it, after which he was sacked by the South African cricket board.”

Earlier in July 2016, another notorious Indian bookie Narasimha was arrested by police and his 52-line telephone exchange was confiscated.