It is depressing to report on spot fixing — after all, it has been 13 years and punishment in the Hansie Cronje case has not seen the light of day. Not even one simple request by Indian law enforcers to the British authorities, like a voice recognition match of bookie Sanjeev Chawla, has been considered. Despite a watertight case against Cronje and those he named, the case is all but dead. Over the years, the illegal betting market in India has, according to a FICCI estimate, burgeoned to Rs400,000 crore with a zilch conviction rate. The errant players, meanwhile, continue to make hay. If banned, they thrive on negative publicity and become “infamous” celebrities. They are called for lectures all over the world, they become brand ambassadors, reality show judges, chat show experts and what not, continuing to mint money any which way. DEEBASHREE MOHANTY leads you through this big crime, no punishment saga as the IPl explodes with yet another corrupt intrusion
Mohammed Azharuddin:Was accused of match fixing and of having introduced bookie Sanjeev Chawla to South African former skipper Hansie Cronje. Was handed a life ban from cricket and was not to be allowed anywhere around the premises of any ICC cricket tournament. At present, he is the Congress MP from Moradabad and is invited to attend international cricket tournaments held around the world. Plays club and celebrity cricket matches, endorses brands worth crores of rupees and has unsuccessfully tried to get into the administration of the sport of badminton in India.
Ajay Jadeja:This hard-hitter in Indian cricket was handed a five-year ban for match fixing. In 2003, the Delhi High Court revoked the ban. The same year, Jadeja acted in the movie Khel with Sunny Deol and Sunil Shetty. He also acted in the 2009 movie, Pal Pal Dil Ke Saat. Jadeja also worked for Zee News as a cricket anchor. Currently, he is a highly-paid cricket analyst with NDTV India and NDTV 24X7. He was a contestant on the celebrity dance show on Colors, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa in its first season. He also appeared on Sony TV’s Comedy Circus. He recently did a cameo in Abhishek Kapoor’s film Kai Po Che, apparently on a fee of Rs2 crore.
Salman Butt:Banned for 10 years in 2011 for spot fixing, he is now back in Pakistan and there is no noticeable change in Butt’s life. He lives with his father who separated from his mother a few years back. After being recruited as an expert by a top Pakistani channel during the 2011 World Cup, he has joined as sports head of lahore-based news channel named Aman. Butt has also been chief guest of various tournaments in Pakistan. Butt’s sister got recently married, and among the guests were respected dignitaries of lahore and sorts of political and sporting giants.
Salim Malik:This Pakistani cricketer, in 2000, became the first player to be banned from all forms of cricket for match fixing. Shane Warne and Mark Waugh testified that Malik had tried to bribe them to lose the Karachi Test of 1994-95 (which Australia did, by one wicket). After a seven-year wait, he had his ban lifted by a lower court. Today, he wants “to make a cricket academy for youngsters and will soon start the project.” Malik stays in a Rs20-million villa in Karachi and makes appearances as TV special guest or an expert commentator on cricket.
Mohammad Asif: He has been in all sorts of scams, including drugs, is under a life ban for throwing matches but his lifestyle continues to be about lavish cars, hi-tech gadgets, five-star hotels, morning shows and what not. The two-time dope cheat, once arrested in Dubai for possessing banned drugs, talked of idealism and discipline in life in a morning show a few days back.
Mohammad Aamer:After his reduced jail term in England ended, he has moved into his new house, a forty-something million property in lahore’s post defence area which he had bought a year before he was caught and jailed for being in conjunction with Butt and Co.
No wonder then, former captain of Pakistan Rashid latif says that “betting and match fixing is like a summer internship for cricketers. They easily make between Rs40-60 lakh, depending on their seniority and experience. The onus of sorting this out lies with the ICC. If they want this nuisance to stop, then laws have to made stringent. Action is must. Otherwise, players will just get caught and then get back with normal lives. What’s thereIJ,” he asks this writer pertinently.
Rashid may be cynical about the entire saga exploding the IPl now, and may see nothing coming out if it, but he was one of the first whistle blowers on this issue. He has since seen tainted and convicted cricketers not just grow in celebrityhood, but also in money power, with sub-continental cricket Boards choosing to look the other way and also ignore the “rehab programmes” of corrupt players.
So while Salman Butt lives like a king in his posh villa in Karachi and if Salim Malik may be on his way to becoming Pakistan cricket team’s coach, tainted Indian players, too, have been making money in the absence of a strict law. Some have become celebrities, while others have taken the political route to power. As for the controversy — well, that slips into oblivion.
Is this naked truth staring us down amid the latest saga in the IPlIJ “Not really. This time the perspective is different. It is a foolproof case. We are looking at a conclusive chargesheet in the next few years at maximum,” says topcop Pradeep Srivastava who was head of the Special Branch cell of Delhi Police which nailed Cronje in the Hansiegate controversy way back in 2000. Srivastava is disappointed that the Cronje case still has not seen the light of day, and never will.
“let’s not forget, this is only the second fixing case that has come to the fore in India. During the first investigation, we had urged the Supreme Court to treat fixing under sections of cheating and not generalise it under gambling. Cheating makes it a more serious offence. luckily, the SC upheld this decision and henceforth all fixers will be chargsheeted under the cheating section of IPC,” Srivastava says. He adds that the challenges he faced in pursuing the 2000 case, do not exist in the IPl scam. While Hansiegate involved players of three different nationalities and some Indian bookies, the IPl case is more local, hence easier to nail. Or so he believes.
According to a recent report submitted by FICCI on Regulation of Betting, the betting market in India is thriving at Rs300,000 and growing while the conviction rate of players and bookmakers involved in this dirty business is next to nil. In such a case, punishment, the report says, seems a remote possibility.
“Punishment can be given only once the guilty has been convicted by a court of law. To reach that part of conviction is a Herculean task. The Cronje case has been pending since the year 2000 because we are still awaiting conclusive replies and reports by the South African and the UK Governments. We had narrowed down the coordinates of top bookie Sanjeev Chawla in the UK but their Government has not even got back with his voice samples. Since no voice verification can be done without that, the case lies dormant,” Ishwar Singh, inspector special cell of Delhi Police, who chanced upon the Chawla-Hansie phone conversation during a tap to explore extortion allegations against Chawla, tells you.
Singh adds that follow-up with the respective Governments remains a joke while the accused move on with elan. “The heat has died down. The case has become thanda. But this time, it looks different,” he says about the latest spot fixing case involving Sreesanth and others. It may be a challenge for the police to verify each and every allegation but they are hopeful that within three years, something conclusive will turn up.
But isn’t that too long a time period to waitIJ “Of course it is. By then the case might be forgotten. The players involved will be thriving on negative publicity. There are lots of TV shows that will give them huge money to encash their notoriety. Or, they will become hotshot cricket presenters. They may even get a ticket from a political party and contest elections.
“As for the game, these players will continue to play club cricket, attend celebrity leagues or become judges. Give it a few years and they will be back in the national team as coach or some other support staff,” a crestfallen Singh tells you. Since that day in 2000 when he heard Cronje discussing fixing details with Chawla, Singh has stopped watching cricket. “It is a shame that players of such calibre stoop to such lows. Mohammad Azharuddin’s alleged links with a bookie came as a great shock for me,” Singh recalls.
As for Azharuddin, he is happy that the ban has been lifted and “my name cleared.” Not that life ever became unliveable for him in the years ensuing 2000 when Cronje named him.
Yes, there has been turmoil on the personal front, but Azhar has been leading a respectful and luxurious life, the smear on his name notwithstanding.
The wristy Hyderabadi who was a pleasure to watch packing off difficult deliveries over the boundary with consummate ease, says that after his life ban was lifted recently, he feels better.
“I don’t have to prove anything to anyone but still I had to face myself. I have been cleared of all charges and that is what matters. I owe it all to my people and friends who have supported me during my tough times. I have kept myself busy with social work in my constituency (Moradabad) and also by playing club cricket. My love for the game will never die,” Azhar says over the phone from Hyderabad. Only recently, this former captain was in london as the chief guest for a friendly cricket match. Once a revered cricketer, now Azhar is fine being a guide or a coach.
“The present Indian team is disorganised and in need new blood. I will be happy to coach the Indian cricket team if the Board makes me an offer,” the 49-year-old says. Known to be a man of few words, Azhar tells you that, for now, he is happy playing politician. As for his expensive hobby of collecting cars from around the globe — well, that has only gotten an impetus, “I have a few new ones coming in later this year,” is all you get from this tight lipped gentleman. Ask him about the recent spot fixing scandal and he says: “The onus of this lies with the BCCI.”
He is not the only one who feels BCCI should come up with strict reforms and ground rules to monitor this crime. “It has to be nipped in the bud,” former cricketer and MP Kirti Azad, who has been raising his voice against this betting issue since 2004, insists.
“It is a disgrace that illegal betting has flourished for so long in this country. This is because our Board is complacent, It doesn’t want to treat this matter with urgency. There have been cases when the BCCI have learnt about betting within the team but hasn’t taken the matter to law enforcers. Rather, some members resort to all sorts of tricks to ensure that the information doesn’t go out of their Board room. They feel they can settle the matter themselves, but that is not possible. The information goes by unscathed and so do the suspected players. That is not the way a governing body functions,” Azad says.
He, however, refrains from giving out names and other details but does tell you that the latest scandal could have been avoided if the BCCI had been more alert.
This passing the buck game is not unique to India. Our neighbours are faced with a similar dilemma where cricketers have criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board for being deaf and mute to corruption. “The law is very straightforward and it is almost the same everywhere. The need of the hour is for a strict governing body. The PCB, for instance, has all the dough on every player. The people involved know the pulse of every player. They can easily protect this crime from happening but they seem to not care. The result is in front of us,” latif says.
He had recently attended the wedding of Salman Butt’s sister and was shocked to see the fanfare of this “white collar event” graced by dignitaries and high-ranked police personnel. “It is almost as if Butt was never a part of organised crime ever. It is a shame how public memory can be manipulated to suit interests,” he says.
Both Butt and Mohamad Asif are great friends and hail from small villages around lahore. They have abandoned their families there to start a new lease of life in the big city. There is no dearth of lavishness here. Asif is from a hamlet called Machikay, some 45 km from the vibrant city of lahore but in 2008, after his IPl stint, he bought a lavish bungalow in lahore.
But what is it with the lure of dirty lucre when players anyways are highly paidIJ “This kind of corruption pervades all strata of society and players are a part and parcel of it. It is not always the case that bookies target players from humble backgrounds. They actually go looking for players with loose morals. Honey baits and money are used to close the deal. It is the sad truth,” Srivastava tells you.
While the debate is still raging on how to control or regulate this evil, players earlier accused of involvement have since buried the controversy and stitched back a charmed life. Ajay Jadeja says he had to start from scratch following a ban on his cricketing career. “Those days were terrible. People had already passed judgement on me even before the court of law came out with its verdict. Now I have started my life afresh and have no regrets. I do play the game whenever I want to and I enjoy talking about the nuances of cricket. That’s why I am the analyst. As for Bollywood, the offers pour in. I did take up a few films but those were not the kind of roles I enjoy doing. But now, I feel I have settled down in my new stint,” Jadeja says.
He has views on the IPl scam which he is not scared to air. “What the governing body could do perhaps is come out with a new rulebook for players and others involved in the dressing room,” he says.
Will it help if betting is legalised in India, like it is in some Western countries, one tends to wonder. Well, betting is one thing, spot fixing is quite another and legalising betting will not at all mean that bookies will stop spot-fixing. The malaise is not around betting, it is around fixing matches for manipulating the bet, something that is quite not connected with the legal or illegal betting issue.
Experts and cops in India scoff at the mention of it. But 83 per cent of respondents in the recent FICCI survey said regulating sports betting with laws is better than banning it. “The greatest advantage of regulating sports betting is that there will be accountability for the large amounts of money transferred through illegal channels leading to reduction in cases of match fixing, money laundering and crimes. The question now is how to tax the money involved in gambling and the need to devise a system which encourages betting operators to function openly,” the final report reads. According to it, by legalising betting, match fixing can be reduced. As many as 74 per cent respondents in the survey voted that legal sports betting which they said will help curb the fixing problem.
Then there is also an opportunity for the Government to earn about Rs19 crore in taxes if regulated betting is permitted. But inspector Ishwar Singh is certain this will never be the case. “The Government will never be able to recover the taxes. legalising betting would only mean more problems. Regulation of betting may be possible in the West, in the subcontinent it is next to impossible,” he says. latif agrees. “It is a social taboo and our culture may not allow this to happen. If we seek punishment for other crime, why is this different,” he asks.
Although gambling may have been a huge source of income for people in Sikkim and Goa, there is a marked difference between gambling and betting. “Gambling doesn’t entitle you to cheat. In betting, you are playing with innocent people’s money and time. That is not done under any circumstances,” Srivastava concludes.
(With inputs from Shahid Hashmi in Karachi)
Regulated bettingIJ
FICCI perspective: Despite several attempts to ban it, betting continues underground and despite substantial resources being invested in enforcing the ban. The middle way out is to regulate it in a way which reduces this to an acceptable level. Hence, the Government should think of legalising and regulating betting. The greatest advantage of regulating sports betting is going to be the accountability for the large sums transferred through illegal channels and reduction in cases of match fixing and money laundering. If gaming and betting is regulated in India, it will benefit the exchequer too and fund sports development.
TOPCOP PRADEEP SRIVASTAVA:This is definitely not the solution to the problem. Regulation of betting in a country like India will be next to non-existent. It would be like adding salt to injury. The cheating law is in place. What is required is an active committee and co-operation of other States and countries to help curb this menace. Betting is wrong and people involved in it are frauds. They deserve punishment in some form or the other.
INSPECTOR ISHWAR SINGH:Tomorrow, the public may seek legalisation of regulated stealing. Is everything in regulation goodIJ This is India, not the West. Here, betting is an offence and that is the right approach to take. We need to think more constructively rather than come up with ridiculous solutions. What we need is a dedicated investigative team comprising law officials, techies and foreign relations managers to work as one unit so that the case against the criminals does not die due to segregation of departments.
FORMER CRICKETER AND POlITICIAN KIRTI AZAD:legalising betting is a funny thing to propagate. We must remember that it is not just the bookmakers who are involved but players too are willing to throw away matches for money. How will you regulate thatIJ The onus lies with the BCCI and cricketing bodies of other nations to make sure that such a crime doesn’t happen. We are simple people who like to watch a simple and fair game. Players have no right to sabotage that.
FORMER CRICKETER RASHID lATIF:In the subcontinent, it is next to impossible to regulate it. There is a difference between gambling and betting. The sooner we realise that, the better it is. While gambling can generate income, betting only leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
AAM AADMI:Along with betting, fixing should be made part of the sport. That way there is no issue of either crime or punishment. Also, the game will become more interesting with elements of intrigue and politics. A sort of real-world reality show!