India: How a fake 'IPL' cricket league ran for Russian punters
India: How a fake 'IPL' cricket league ran for Russian punters
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A rambling cricket match is being played on what looks like a barren patch of land.
The video is silent - a blue strap at the bottom of the screen shows you the team's batting scores, both batters, projected score and bowling records. He says Chennai Fighters are chasing a score of 151 set by Gandhinagar Challengers.
The outfield is brown and dusty, and the cricket pitch is a whitish carpet nailed to the ground. The Chennai team are scoring at a steady pace of almost seven points. Shots are sometimes played but we never see a ball reach the limit. Hitters mostly run fumbles or both.
The referee seems to be more enthusiastic than the players, vigorously waving his hands, signaling wides and no balls. In keeping with the game's rather amiable vibe, a bowler seems uninterested in knocking out a batsman who is stuck a few yards from the crease.
A young man comes running onto the field with what looks like a cooler, and the players have a drink. There are no close-ups of the players, most of the outfield players and no view of an audience.
This all looks like a local Twenty20 cricket match, recorded on video, played somewhere in India.
Except it was part of what police call a "fake" cricket tournament involving a group of unemployed men in the state of Gujarat and a group of bettors oddly based in Russia.
Acting on a tip-off, Mehsana district police in Gujarat last week arrested ed four men for staging the...
To play this video you need JavaScript enabled in your browser. < /figure>
A rambling cricket match is being played on what looks like a barren patch of land.
The video is silent - a blue strap at the bottom of the screen shows you the team's batting scores, both batters, projected score and bowling records. He says Chennai Fighters are chasing a score of 151 set by Gandhinagar Challengers.
The outfield is brown and dusty, and the cricket pitch is a whitish carpet nailed to the ground. The Chennai team are scoring at a steady pace of almost seven points. Shots are sometimes played but we never see a ball reach the limit. Hitters mostly run fumbles or both.
The referee seems to be more enthusiastic than the players, vigorously waving his hands, signaling wides and no balls. In keeping with the game's rather amiable vibe, a bowler seems uninterested in knocking out a batsman who is stuck a few yards from the crease.
A young man comes running onto the field with what looks like a cooler, and the players have a drink. There are no close-ups of the players, most of the outfield players and no view of an audience.
This all looks like a local Twenty20 cricket match, recorded on video, played somewhere in India.
Except it was part of what police call a "fake" cricket tournament involving a group of unemployed men in the state of Gujarat and a group of bettors oddly based in Russia.
Acting on a tip-off, Mehsana district police in Gujarat last week arrested ed four men for staging the...
