Half a billion dollars of illegal bets on India-Pakistan Asia Cup match in Dhaka, says Mani

(Exclusive interview)

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali in Dhaka

DHAKA: A day after an exhilarating Asia Cup encounter, in which India thrashed Pakistan when a win looked quite improbable at one stage, former International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani said on Monday (March 19) here that he has gathered that illegal bets worth about half a billion dollars were placed on the day-night game.

“The amount of illegal betting that takes place is huge. The India-Pakistan match that took place yesterday, I believe, would have attracted bets of about half a billion dollars. It’s a huge amount of money. So, when you look at the amount of money involved and the temptation for people to affect the outcome of a match, or affect the performance of individual players, it’s huge,” Mani, here as a guest of the Asian Cricket Council,” told Mail Today in an exclusive interview.

Mani, who was ICC president from 2003 to 2006, said that India is the hub of the unauthorised betting world and suggested that the Indian and other national governments should make betting legal to check corruption in cricket.

“Unless the betting industry is brought under control in India, you can’t stop match-fixing. There’s no doubt that India, certainly Delhi and Mumbai, is the epicentre of cricket betting. Since betting there doesn’t exist officially – it’s done in grey market areas – I’m a strong advocate of legalising betting in India, and bringing it under control of regulatory authorities so that the booking odds, the conduct of bookies, can be monitored properly,” he said. “And from that you’ll find that the risk of corrupting players around the world will reduce significantly.”

The London-based Mani said that the ICC, headed by Indian Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, and the BCCI should impress upon the government to make betting legal.

“For his to happen, both the ICC and the BCCI have a responsibility to collectively talk to the government of India. This is nothing to be confrontational about; this is reality, that betting takes place in India,” he said. “It’s a matter of how you control it because there’s no way, I believe, that it can be stamped out in India. So, if can’t be stamped out, how do they control it in a way that it can stop corrupting the game, destroy it.”

Mani said that legal betting firms inform the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) if they suspect anything fishy. “Countries like England already do it. Cricketing odds are monitored by the ACSU because they all are on record. And every bet is monitored and anything unusual is immediately picked up,” he pointed out. “If bookmakers like, say Bookfair, come across any unusual bets they’ll notify the ACSU. And I’d say it’s not only India that betting is not regulated; it happens in Pakistan and in the Middle East. It’s important that these countries have a mechanism by which they can regulate this industry and monitor the bets.”

A chartered accountant by profession, Mani charged that lucrative twenty20 tournaments like the IPL and Big Bash in Australia have emboldened illegal bookies who have easy access to players during these events.

 “Obviously, high profile matches like the IPL and Big Bash leaves a lot of scope for players to be corrupted; whether they are being corrupted or not, I can’t say. But I can tell you that the ACSU had concerns about the first two editions of the IPL,” he said referring to the first edition in 2008 held in India and next one in South Africa.

“After that the ICC insisted on monitoring and getting involved in the control of matches and bringing in the best conduct. For example, access to the players was controlled and sensitive areas and so on. I think IPL must have added hugely to the cricket betting industry in India.”

The Rawalpindi-born Mani felt that the ICC should convince the Indian government to make betting legal to cleanse the game. “ICC should certainly take a very firm view on it. It has always stated that it has a zero tolerance o betting, and so have all the cricket boards. So, if that’s the case then they should put the money where the mouth is, and engage with the Indian and the other governments,” he said.

“They should’ve a serious discussion with them on either stopping the illegal betting industry, which I think is not possible, or the alternative is, with full responsibility of the emerging countries where betting takes place, to take the leadership role and say ‘okay, how we are going to now regulate betting’. That has to be driven by the ICC; it has to take the lead. I’m not seeing that lead being taken at the moment.”

Mani is also concerned with increasing number of players preferring to play in lucrative twenty20 tournaments like the IPL and Big Bash ignoring their countries.

“What has gone wrong I think is that when the IPL, which has been the most significant development and probably on the whole a good thing for cricket, was being put together -- and even now it should be done – that a pool of money should have been be set aside -- I would say four or five per cent of the gross turnover,” he said. “It should be mandatory for every cricketer who is selected by his board to represent his country must play. If he’s earning less from his country than what the IPL would pay him then the differential should be made from this pool.”

(This story first appeared in Mail Today newspaper in New Delhi on March 20, 2012)

https://twitter.com/#!/cricket_first

Explosive India-Pakistan Asia Cup match today

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali in Dhaka

Dhaka (At the ringside): A potentially explosive India-Pakistan match is in the offing at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here in Dhaka. The action begins in the afternoon at 1400 local time (0800 GMT). So, watch out this and follow the match on https://twitter.com/#!/cricket_first

For the passionate local Bangladeshi cricket fans, it can’t get better than this. A day after watching Sachin Tendulkar score his historic and much-toasted 100^th international century and a remarkably astounding Bangladeshi win over India, they would get another opportunity to watch the high-octane action when India and Pakistan clash on Sunday.

The equation for defending champions India is crystal clear: beat Pakistan to hope to qualify for the final, and a win with a bonus point will make their path further easy. The scenario is pregnant with so many possibilities that even a win would not give Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team a ticket to the final. They will anyway have to wait for the result of the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka game on Tuesday to see if they stay back for the March 22 title clash or return home before that.

Currently, Pakistan are in the best position with nine points from two matches, but they are still not guaranteed of a place in the final. It is because if India beat them with a bonus point and Bangladesh too mete out exactly the same treatment to Sri Lanka (win five points) on Tuesday, three teams will end up with nine points each. In that case, the net run rate will come into play and the two teams with the better numbers will qualify for the final.

And if India win but fail to earn the bonus point, they would have eight points and if Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka, both India and Bangladesh will finish on the same number of points – eight. In that case, Bangladesh would enter the final as they have beaten India in their one-to-one game.

But if the Mahela Jayawardene-led Sri Lanka, who have lost both matches, beat Bangladesh – and assuming India beat Pakistan -- then India would be through to the final. And if India go down to Pakistan, Mishbah-ul-Haq’s team will enter the final, and if Sri Lanka get the better of Bangladesh, all three teams will have four points each and the net run rate will come into play. It’s complicated.

Indian bowlers failed to deliver against the determined Bangladeshi batsmen, and Dhoni will have to take a hard look at his bowling resources before the big game against Pakistan. He has only 24 hours to put the department in order. But since the team chose not to practice on Saturday, he will have only the drawing board to plan the team strategy.

The Indian batsmen put up a good total of 289 for five wickets, which the bowlers could have been defended despite the batting-friendly conditions. Barring part-timer Suresh Raina, the other six bowlers completely lost their bearings, and the plot. Their line and length left a lot to be desired as the under-rated Bangladeshi batsmen launched an all-out attack to win the battle with four balls to spare.

India cannot afford to take the field with negative thoughts against Pakistan, who got a huge scare against Bangladesh before scraping through and then regrouped quickly to beat Sri Lanka with a bonus point.

Dhoni and his boys would do well to recall their previous clash with Pakistan, in the 2011 World Cup semi-final in Mohali, where they got the better of them on way to winning the title.

Pakistan, on the other hand, would be keen to avenge their defeat in Mohali, but played down the ‘revenge’ factor. They know that their focus should be on winning and sealing their place in the final rather than settling narrow scores.

The last three matches of the tournament have suddenly become hot properties. No wonder that people who may have otherwise ignored the last two league games are now seeking match tickets. It’s a welcome scenario for the game in the region and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), which organises the biennial Asia Cup but is struggling to sell the tournament to the cricket boards in the region due to the international schedule getting tighter. For the moment, though, the ACC would be happy that the matches, which were likely to have no takers, would now be meaningful and relevant.

(This article first appeared in Mail Today, New Delhi, on March 18, 2012)

It’ll be trial by spin for India & Pakistan

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali in Dhaka

Dhaka, March 18, 2012: The big India-Pakistan game in the Asia Cup in Dhaka on Sunday would be a “trial by spin” for batsmen and the team that will collectively tackle spin better will win, says former Pakistan captain Rameez Raja.

Referring to the batsmen and spinners-friendly pitch at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricker Stadium, Rameez also said there was no clear favourite team for him as both teams would start on equal footing.

“Pakistan’s recent one-day form has not been great, even though they had a great year. So, you can never count Pakistan out because they’ve got individual brilliance; some of the players are match winners. And the same goes for India. So it’s going to be a very close contest,” Rameez, here as a television commentator, told Mail Today in an interview.

“I think at the end of the day whoever plays spin better will win – considering the pitch and considering the strength of the bowlers. Pakistan clearly will be pinning their hopes on their spinners. And it’ll be a trial by spin. If India can master that trial, I think they can win quite easily in the end. But I expect it to be a 50-50 contest; no clear favourites for me.”

While India need to beat Pakistan, preferably with a bonus point, to stay alive in the tournament, Pakistan only need a simple victory to confirm their berth in the final.

Asked if toss would be important in the day-night game, Rameez said: “I don’t think so. Batting under lights can have its own problems; batting upfront can be a little bit easier. It’s a fast outfield, so I think the totals would be around 300.”

India batsmen, chiefly Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, and Gautam Gambhir, have performed well in both matches, and so have the Pakistani bowers, especially off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and speedster Umar Gul.

Rameez said that cricket is lucky to have the India-Pakistan rivalry going. “It’s great for the game. The world got a glimpse of an India-Pakistan contest when the semi-final of the World Cup was played in Mohali last year. The entire world came to a standstill. It had enough strength for a bilateral talks to restart at the government level,” he said referring to the prime ministers of both countries who were present at the stadium.

“It’s always fun – there’s a lot of passion also, a bit of needle also because of the political tension, I guess. And there’s a bit of class too; it’s a classy contest. You’ve got legends on both sides. You’ve got great natural cricketers. And it’s good they will be playing here in Dhaka in front of a very passionate Bangladesh crowd which always admires good cricket.”

Rameez acknowledged that the Pakistani team is likely to get more support from the local fans in Dhaka. “Historically, they have been Pakistan-supportive. But because there are legends playing in the Indian side, the crowd will also have their Indian favourite players. I expect the crowds to, maybe, favour Pakistan more than India,” he felt.

(This story first appeared in Mail Today, New Delhi, on March 18, 2012)