Robert Craddock chronicles seedy side beneath glitz and glamour of Indian Premier League

by: Robert Craddock

May 18, 2013

Beneath the glitz, glamour and hype so plastic you could wrap your sandwiches in it, the Indian Premier League is a smouldering cesspit. The sunniest of places for the shadiest people. They come out after dark at the notorious IPL parties where all involved can pluck a girl, a drink or maybe something a little stronger if that is your wish. The lights are dim, the music loud, the drinks strong, cold and plentiful. Famous faces flash past in the shadows. It was here that the first tentacles of illegal bookmakers reportedly offered their poisoned fruit to young fast bowler Sreesanth who, with two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates, faces a life of ruin after being caught spot-fixing.

What mindless fools they have been. Sreesanth’s annual IPL salary of $681,000 could have bought him three or four large houses in his home region of Kerala but he wanted more. In these days of rampant indulgence, enough is never enough. Australian coaches never enjoy it when their players go to the IPL because they often return fat. Weeks of sloppy training sessions, reckless eating habits and lying around five star hotel rooms secluded from the madhouse world is no way to get a player in peak condition. Very few Australian cricketers have gone to the Indian Premier League have come back better cricketers.

Old heads like Adam Gilchrist – who has earnt more than $7 million in the IPL and is still playing – can get in an out without being swayed but there is mounting concern that one young Australian player in India is behaving with increased recklessness as his moral radar scrambles with a large pay cheque which far outstrips his ability. If you or I stay at a hotel and our rooms are paid for we generally still have to pick up incidentals like room service when we check out. In some IPL franchises stars just refuse to pay these bills. When the bus arrives they jump on and never look back. The bills eventually find their way to the franchise accountant who mops up the mess.

It is all part of rock star culture of the IPL, the same culture that saw batsman Luke Pomersbach manoeuvred out of jail and home scott free after a settlement despite belting a man so hard he broke his hand. The apprehension of three players for spot-fixing may have shocked the rest of the world but those least surprised were those who have played in the competition. The whispers have been around for years that there has been dodgy dealings galore in the IPL with stories about betting exotics as extreme as how many players would wear sun glasses.

Things were even worse in the IPL’s predecessor, the Indian Cricket League, so corrupt that Australian players who played it jokingly refer to it as the Indian Corruption League. There are many cricket competitions in India that Australians have never ever heard of which are the subject of betting and of course, corruption. IPL officials have been infamously slow to take proper anti-corruption measures and their reticence has always been seen as a sign that they were scared of what they would find. In the competition’s first year in 2008 the IPL gave the ICC’s anti-corruption unit just one week to get organised for the competition.

In 2009 when the tournament was in South Africa they didn’t even bother having a corruption unit and there were reportedly more corrupt dealings than one of those Kenya  investment schemes you get invited to join over the phone at home, normally just when you are putting the kids down. Since then the ICC’s anti-corruption unit has been involved but last year the IPL decided to appoint their own corruption unit to govern things. The IPL saw it as a boost for their integrity. Many others saw it a bit like putting the fattest father at your local school fete in charge of the donut stall.

Cricket corruption is hard to detect in India because all deals are done in cash. There is no transaction trail and no footage of a man coming out of a TAB. Players take risks with the confidence of knowing the ICC’s corruption unit have had about as much success finding criminals as Mr Magoo would have spotting a flea in a featherbed. They have barely a decent scalp to show in their 12 years existence and when the Indian police were closing in on the three Royals players cricket’s anti-corruption task force was fumbling along in the dark … again.

The IPL spot-fixing investigation could finally uncover the murky underbelly of the T20 tournament

by: By Malcolm Conn

The Daily Telegraph

May 17, 2013

All five Australians who play for Rajasthan Royals will be questioned as part of a major police investigation after three of their Indian IPL teammates were arrested on spot-fixing charges on Thursday. More arrests are expected in an operation which could finally expose the murky underbelly of the billion-dollar IPL and flow into another overseas Twenty20 competition. No suspicion surrounds the Australians at the Royals, Shane Watson, James Faulkner, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg and Shaun Tait. However, those under investigation from other IPL teams include foreign players, with 10 matches under scrutiny from a special Delhi police unit.

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, speaking at a media conference, denied any Australians were involved. “No, your countrymen can rest in peace,” he said. The arrest of contracted Indian Test fast bowler Sreesanth and local domestic players Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila became a Twitter circus last night, prompting Indian media to falsely report that Tait was involved. “I’m bewildered, I’m angry and I’m upset at the false suggestions I’ve been involved in any wrongdoing,” Tait said in a statement, in which has also threatened possible legal action.

“While I welcome the recent statements from police clearing me of any involvement, for a few hours today I was deeply distressed by the rumours that were rapidly circulating about me, most of which were aired in the social media. “Not only were they without foundation, they highlight the danger of a medium that deals with innuendo rather than fact, the result of which has brought my name into question. “At no stage in my career have I engaged in spot or match fixing and I’m in discussions with my manager and legal representatives to examine how this episode unfolded and any further action I may take.”

The arrested Indian players have been suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India pending the outcome of the police investigation that has targeted illegal bookmakers. Ten bookmakers have been arrested and are providing information to the police after phone taps recorded 50 suspicious conversations. The police action came following last Wednesday’s match between the Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph from Hyderabad, Faulkner said: “I don’t know anything about it. I’ve been told by the franchise not to say anything.”

Managers for Watson and Hogg, who are currently in India with their players, also claimed they had no knowledge of what had taken place. A case has been registered against the Indian players in Mumbai that alleges cheating and criminal conspiracy. The Royals released a statement saying that they had been “taken by surprise”. “We have been informed that three of our players have been called in for investigation on spot fixing in matches,” the Royals said. “We are completely taken by surprise. We do not have the full facts at this point and are unable to confirm anything. We are in touch with the BCCI (Indian board) on this matter. We will fully cooperate with the authorities to ensure a thorough investigation.”

There has been widespread suspicion surrounding the Indian Premier League since its inception in 2008. It was particularly the case in the highly lucrative competition’s early days when the BCCI refused to employ the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit because of its $1 million cost. 

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