The "spot fixing" scam

[Bharat Rao]

The headlines are misleading -- CSK Official arrested in spot fixing scam. (Or actors investigated in spot fixing scam.)

Which seems to give the impression of widespread match-fixing or spot-fixing corruption in the IPL and Bollywood.

Actually, the CSK official has been arrested for making bets -- as gambling on cricket is illegal in India (but would not be in most other ICC Test nations), that is the offense. I would wager (that word again) that similar offenses could be found in officials from many other IPL teams and other industries (not just Bollywood).

Now, a senior team official betting heavily with the bookies, can only be a bad thing; but I would wonder what would happen if this probe was extended to all the IPL teams (rather than just Srinivasan's team)...

Bharat

[Tweedle Dee]

I'm glad that guys like Sreenivasan are feeling the heat. People have always grumbled about the blatant conflict of interest in the BCCI president also being heavily involved in an IPL franchise, but this is the first time that this completely unacceptable situation has led to a large public outcry. Sreenivasan is putting up a brave face at the moment, but I think his days as BCCI president are numbered.

-TD

[Bharat Rao]

On Sunday, May 26, 2013 4:56:35 AM UTC-4, Tweedle Dee wrote:

> I'm glad that guys like Sreenivasan are feeling the heat. People have always grumbled about the blatant conflict of interest in the BCCI president also being heavily involved in an IPL franchise, but this is the first time that this completely unacceptable situation has led to a large public outcry. Sreenivasan is putting up a brave face at the moment, but I think his days as BCCI president are numbered.

I agree that there is a conflict of interest. But we should note that this is irrelevant to this actual crime being investigated. The issue here is simply corruption in the IPL franchise and that has very little to do with his being BCCI president.

The situation is simple. CSK officials allegedly bet on the IPL -- that is the crime; not spot-fixing, but betting on the IPL. And conflict or not, somehow Srinivasan is being unfairly implicated not just in betting, but in spot-fixing.

As you say, it highlights the conflict, because there is no way Srinivasan can effectively preside over the inquiry into his own team. But the crime / scandal has nothing to do with his dual role -- and to be fair, he is not personally implicated in any way.

As an aside, It is a bit surprising that none of the other franchises are being investigated -- it is quite possible, given the amount of betting in India, that other teams have officials who bet on the IPL, and the targeting of CSK may be driven by those who are concerned about the enormous amount of power and money the Srinivasan wields in Indian cricket.
Bharat

[Tweedle Dee]

On Sunday, May 26, 2013 7:21:49 PM UTC+5:30, Bharat Rao wrote:
> On Sunday, May 26, 2013 4:56:35 AM UTC-4, Tweedle Dee wrote:
>
>
>
> > I'm glad that guys like Sreenivasan are feeling the heat. People have always grumbled about the blatant conflict of interest in the BCCI president also being heavily involved in an IPL franchise, but this is the first time that this completely unacceptable situation has led to a large public outcry. Sreenivasan is putting up a brave face at the moment, but I think his days as BCCI president are numbered.
>
>
>
> I agree that there is a conflict of interest. But we should note that this is irrelevant to this actual crime being investigated. The issue here is simply corruption in the IPL franchise and that has very little to do with his being BCCI president.
>
>
>
> The situation is simple. CSK officials allegedly bet on the IPL -- that is the crime; not spot-fixing, but betting on the IPL. And conflict or not, somehow Srinivasan is being unfairly implicated not just in betting, but in spot-fixing.
>
> As you say, it highlights the conflict, because there is no way Srinivasan can effectively preside over the inquiry into his own team. But the crime / scandal has nothing to do with his dual role -- and to be fair, he is not personally implicated in any way.
>

Sreenivasan's comments trying to distance his son-in-law from the CSK franchise are quite farcical. His chief priorities at the moment appear to be: (i) how to save his position as BCCI head and (ii) how to save the CSK franchise. The fact that Indian cricket is facing a major crisis, and that the credibility of the BCCI has seriously been undermined probably features below (i) and (ii) in the list of things to worry about for him. That's only to be expected, of course, because I doubt that the welfare of Indian cricket was ever uppermost in any BCCI official's mind, but this situation is a direct result of the major conflict of interest in Sreenivasan's roles as BCCI president and CSK co-owner.

Sure, it is unfair if people are implicating him in spot-fixing etc. but when a betting scandal follows hot on the heels of a spot-fixing scandal in the same competition, one can see how people might make that mistake. I hope you'll excuse me if I don't shed any tears for poor Mr. Sreenivasan. I'll be only too happy if the wimpy BCCI board members can find a way to kick this guy out.

-TD

[Ojas]

I thought it was also "just betting" but this article seems to imply
otherwise

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/and/nation/IPL-spot-fixing-Vindoo-Dara-Singh-lured-me-to-betting-Gurunath-Meiyappan-to-cops/articleshow/20279942.cms

"While seeking Gurunath's custody yesterday, Crime branch had told the
court that he had placed huge bets on IPL matches after fixing them.
"First, a particular match was fixed, then Gurunath used to place huge
bets on those matches," the police's remand application said."

That sounds like team owners fixing matches and then placing bets to
me...

Ojas

[jzfredricks]

On Monday, May 27, 2013 3:53:15 PM UTC+10, Ojas wrote:
> That sounds like team owners fixing matches and then placing bets to
> me...

Yikes. That's pretty serious.

Still NFI what it has to do with the father(inlaw?) though.

[vijay...@my-deja.com]

The fact that the FIL is the guy with the money
*might* just be a clue? (Not that Gurunath Meiyappan's
family doesn't have tons of it either). Srinivasan owns the
team, and his SIL is a paid executive of the team. Is it
possible that the money was being used in ways
unbeknownst to the owner? Yes. Probable? No.

Vijay
("Meiyappan's come uppance"...sounds like someone
can make a film with that title!)

[RSX]

On May 26, 6:51 pm, Bharat Rao <rao.bha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, May 26, 2013 4:56:35 AM UTC-4, Tweedle Dee wrote:
> > I'm glad that guys like Sreenivasan are feeling the heat. People have always grumbled about the blatant conflict of interest in the BCCI president also being heavily involved in an IPL franchise, but this is the first time that this completely unacceptable situation has led to a large public outcry. Sreenivasan is putting up a brave face at the moment, but I think his days as BCCI president are numbered.
>

> I agree that there is a conflict of interest.  But we should note that this is irrelevant to this actual crime being ?>investigated.  The issue here is simply corruption in the IPL franchise and that has very little to do with his being >BCCI president.

So, if there is corruption in IPL, then no one in BCCI which runs the
tournament is accountable for letting the corruption go on?

> The situation is simple.  CSK officials allegedly bet on the IPL -- that is the crime; not spot-fixing, but betting on the IPL.  And conflict or not, somehow Srinivasan is being unfairly implicated not just in betting, but in spot-fixing.
>

He has been running BCCI for the last two years. Their show piece
event does not seem to have their act together on how to prevent
betting and spot fixing among their players and officials. Now we
finding out that they don't even have a clear definition of what the
team owner/official means. If BCCi is president is not responsible for
pretty loose rules and lax enforcement of rules, then who is?

> As you say, it highlights the conflict, because there is no way Srinivasan can effectively preside over the inquiry >into his own team.  But the crime / scandal has nothing to do with his dual role -- and to be fair, he is not >personally implicated in any way.

The speed with which BCCI claimed that Meyyapan was only a ' honorary
member ' of CSK and is not part of management was hilarious if not
sad. There are reports that if a team owners brings disrepute to the
game or BCCI, then the franchise license can be cancelled. (Obviously,
BCCI/IPL rules governing the franchises are not public.) There are
probably enough violations here in Meyyappan incident to kick out CSK.
Who is going to judge this impartially? A commission hand picked by
CSK owner?
It does not matter if he personally bet on cricket games. The
conflict of interest would prevent them from setting up a guideline or
enforcing them in any meaningful way.
There is a lot of BS going on right now: for e.g. Srinivasan is not
the owner of CSK but it is India cements. He is only one of the
thousands of share holders of the company. Even SMG was mouthing this
nonsense in some channel.

>
> As an aside, It is a bit surprising that none of the other franchises are being investigated -- it is quite possible, >given the amount of betting in India, that other teams have officials who bet on the IPL, and the targeting of CSK >may be driven by those who are concerned about the enormous amount of power and money the Srinivasan wields > in Indian cricket.

The police is following only the leads they have. It is possible that
they did not run into anything linking other team owners. I find it
hard to believe some enemies of Srinivasan are influencing this probe.
I remember when Kochi team has a lot of controversy, Harsha Bogle and
some others wrote/said that how it is important to have reputable
business houses own IPL teams as indirect dig at Kochi owners (and in
the process ingratiating themselves to Modi), Now looking at the IPL
owners, we find a company accused of pilfering parts from leased
aircraft, another one accused of bribing officials to get airport
construction, one that SEBI seems to suspect irregularities in
managing investment, two that are being investigated for RBI/Forex
regulations and one that is accused of bribing to get undue favors
from late CM of Andhra as part of the owners club. And then there are
owners of Hyderabad or Mumbai. That is saying something about the
ethics and morality of BCCI.

> Bharat