Reports: Rs 225 crore bets placed in a TNPL match; BCCI’s ACU to investigate

The dark patches of betting over domestic T20 cricket leagues across the nation have gone from bad to worse, so much so that it has indeed sabotaged the gentleman’s game at the worse scene. With a plethora of domestic games being involved in match-fixing in India, the game is not played in true spirit. Now, there is a huge question mark over the spirit of state-run Twenty20 Leagues in India.

It is to be noted that there were several shocking cases of corruption in the past few months. Earlier, MS Dhoni had stated that match-fixing can happen without players’ awareness. Meanwhile, the Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India has had its own story to tell. It had expressed serious concern and even requested India’s cricket body to prevent these infamous activities from happening in these leagues.

225 Crores placed during TNPL game between Tuti Patriots and Madurai Panthers

In the last few weeks, BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit has been on alert with several reports of betting or corruption coming to light from different quarters involving these T20 leagues in the country. Following the reports of players involved with the bookies, the ACU came to know that a sum of Rs. 225 crores were in play during a Tamil Nadu Premier League game.

In a recent report which was submitted by ACU to the board, it had mentioned that one TNPL 2019 match between Tuti Patriots and Madurai Panthers saw a massive betting amount of Rs 225 crore (24 million pounds) on the international gambling site Betfair, according to a report by The Indian Express.

ACU received the detailed report with the help of 2 research companies that monitor odds being placed for any cricket team in T20 leagues globally. It is also learned that Betfair had then stopped accepting bets for any games involving TNPL franchise Tuti Patriots as they were involved in huge betting amounts linked to the TNPL.

It was only last week that BCCI chief Ganguly had added that two TNPL franchises were suspended for their connection with bookies. But a (TNCA) official denied any such action. Needless to say, the two co-owners of Tuti Patriots were taken off owing to corruption links.

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly stressed on the importance of making Anti Corruption United a bit stronger than before so that they can be well prepared to deal with such extreme cases.  “We are dealing with it, we are getting the anti-corruption system right. We have to get the best anti-corruption people and make it stronger. We will assess it, next year if it (corruption) doesn’t stop, if it doesn’t work then we will think of something else,” Ganguly said while expressing concern around the functioning of these T20 leagues in the country.

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