The frustration of not making it into the Indian Premiere league (IPl) drove 32-year-old former Ranji player Manish M Guddewar into the business of match-fixing.
His colleagues and some other junior players were picked up by franchisee owners at high prices but his continuing failure led him to try and earn a quick buck, and he met several Mumbai and Nagpur bookies.
Guddewar, bookie Sunil Bhatia (44), an Aurangabad property dealer and his associate Kiran Dole alias Munna (42) were arrested from Aurangabad early on Sunday. "Guddewar told investigators that he was neighbour of Ajit Chandila — one of the arrested Rajasthan Royals players - till 2000 and used to practise cricket with him. later, he started playing for a Faridabad cricket club before shifting in Nagpur and during his club matches, they became very close friends," said a police source.
In 2001, Guddewar came to Nagpur and after a struggle, he made it to the Ranji team of Vidarbha as a right-hand batsman and part-time spinner. He had played only seven matches for Vidarbha in 2003-05. later, he started playing for some private clubs but when IPl began, he dreamed of showing the world his game.
However, his name was not on the IPl bidding list. "Enraged, he started taking part in betting session in IPl matches but went into losses. He then met his old friend Chandila, who was willing to fix match," added a source.
Apparently, Guddewar informed his associate bookies that he had lured one player to follow their instructions. "With the help of Guddewar, Chandila took part in several private meetings in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarh," the source said. later, they met Ashwani Aggarwal, alias Tinku bhai, who is already in police custody.
Police sources said Chandila started spot-fixing with Guddewar and his two arrested associates, who are 'fixers', who used to mediate between bookies and players. They were running their racket from Nagpur.