|| Desk Report |||

India, the biggest money-spending country in the game of the crickets, leads the way in International Cricket Council (ICC) ongoing corruption cases linked.

“We’ve 50 investigations that we’re undertaking and majority have links to corruptors in India,” Steve Richardson, coordinator of investigations, International Cricket Council (ICC) ACU said.

“Of late, no high-profile Indian cricketer may have come under the lens, but the player-bookie nexus goes unabated,” Richardson said in a webinar on Sports Law and Policy on Saturday.

“Players are the final link in the chain. Problem is with people who organise corruption, who pay the players; who sit outside the sport. I can deliver eight names to Indian governing agencies who are serial offenders and constantly approach the players,” Richardson added.

But for COVID-19 applying the brake on all state leagues, many of them would have been on by now. The Karnataka Premier League (KPL) remains suspended and police investigations are on after some players and a team owner were charged with fixing.

“The police have filed partial charge-sheets in KPL matter. We are in the process of examining that evidence,” BCCI ACU head Ajit Singh said.

“The entire malice emanates from (illegal) betting. Just to make windfall gains illegally through betting, they approach participants (players, support staff, officials, franchise owners) and the amount of money involved is unimaginable - an annual turnover of R30,000-40,000 crore; including sports and other activities. In state leagues, we got betting examined on certain matches and we discovered it comes to the tune of more than 2 million pounds per match,” said Singh.