India extends match-fixing crackdown

NEW DELHI: India’s cricket board has extended a match-fixing crackdown to regional leagues after the arrest of a team owner for making illegal bets with a Dubai-based bookie, officials said Wednesday.

Ashfaq Ali Thara, owner of a team in the Karnataka Premier League — a state-level Twenty20 competition — was arrested in Bangalore on Tuesday, police said. Thara, who also owns a team in the Dubai T10 League, is under investigation for placing bets with a Dubai bookie, and is also being quizzed over a possible role in fixing matches.

“He has been arrested for betting and they are investigating other aspects,” Ajit Singh, chief of the anti-corruption unit of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, told AFP. The incident comes a week after the unit launched an inquiry into to an approach by suspected match fixers to players in this years Tamil Nadu Premier League.

Singh, a former director-general of police, said there is now a greater focus on state-level leagues. “The vigilance and awareness have increased and people are coming forward with it,” he said.