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claudeleboeuf23訪客MUMBAI MATTERS: Make betting legal? That would be music to Dawood’s ears
By Krishna Kumar
Published: 00:02 BST, 18 June 2013 | Updated: 00:02 BST, 18 June 2013
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commentsCricket legend Geoffrey Boycott claims making betting legal in India would get rid of illegal spot-fixing
One of cricket’s most well known faces Geoffrey Boycott has said that the Indian government should legalise betting.
Speaking to an online cricket website, Geoffrey said: “The way to stop it altogether, except for the odd one – but we’re getting too many at the minute – is this business of making betting legal in India. It’s illegal, so people do it.”
Boycott found support from unexpected quarters. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) also issued a statement saying that betting should be regularised.
Besides the bookies, Boycott and FICCI’s entreaties must have been music to the ears of gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
After all, he has a huge stake in the betting racket. Dawood puts a huge amount of money into cricket betting, and more often than not makes a fast buck out of it.
Most of the top bookies are in frequent touch with people belonging to his gang during cricket matches.
Dawood’s influence is so strong that when he loses a bet heavily he asks bookies not to honour the bets and the bookies have no option but to follow what he says.
If betting is made legal, then all Dawood has to do is have five of his proxies in the country bet money on his behalf.
Making betting legal would mean India helping Dawood make money-legally. It’s not just Dawood who stands to gain. Those who talk about making betting legal don’t know how it operates.
There is no centralised place where one accepts bets; bookies are scattered all around. According to a conservative estimate there are around 1 lakh bookies in Mumbai alone.
These bookies operate almost independently. They are in touch with bigger bookies to ascertain rates and place bets but that’s where the connection ends.
No one knows which bookie has accepted bets of how many lakhs or crores unless the latter himself volunteers to part with the information.
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In layman terms there is no centralised server where all the bookies put in their bets and which has names of all the punters.
Former top cop YC Pawar who has dealt with the underworld put it aptly when he said that spot fixing and match fixing would continue in cricket as long as betting, legal or illegal, exists.
According to him the lure of profits involved in betting is too high for the game to be unaffected proxy switchyomega by softwarecosmos.com it.
For instance a bookie who has put an awful amount of money would want to ensure that his investment is safe and would hence contact cricketers to ensure that the result goes the way he wants.
The best example of this is how a English bookie Mazhar Majeed paid three Pakistani cricketers money to indulge in spot fixing; this when betting is legal in England.
Wanting to legalise betting is like saying that prostitution should be legalised. In a country like ours where the state has found it difficult to even regulate traffic, asking it to regulate betting would be too much to hope for.
Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan postponed the opening of the Eastern Express freeway in Mumbai because he wanted a VIP to do it
Chavan falls prey to Congress culture
While the disease of sycophancy is spreading across all parties, its most severe symptoms are to be seen in the Congress.
So everyone was suprised when rural development Minister Jairam Ramesh described the killing of Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh as a ‘Holocaust’.
Closer to home, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, otherwise an able administrator, seems the latest one to be bitten by the bug.
Chavan deliberately kept postponing the inauguration of a crucial Eastern Express freeway in Mumbai because he wanted someone from the Gandhi family or some high profile Union Minister to inaugurate it.
The freeway would cut travel time to Mumbai from congested Chembur by half. Though the freeway was ready by May end, motorists were not allowed to use it with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) headed by Chavan claiming that it was not ready.
It was supposed to be inaugurated on June 6. However since there was no VVIP available, the decision was postponed and this kept happening.
Even as the monsoon arrived, the state government waited for a suitable VVIP to inaugurate it. The Freeway was finally inaugurated on June 13. Unfortunately for Chavan, no Gandhi family member was available and the CM had to make do with Milind Deora, Minister of State (communications and information technology) for the inauguration.
Significantly, the government finally decided to inaugurate the freeway only because criticism was being heaped on it from all quarters and there was even talk that a few political parties would inaugurate the freeway on their own.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s behaviour is unpredictable
Pawar punishes leader only to elevate him
One of the reasons why everyone is wary of NCP chief Sharad Pawar is that he is unpredictable. Pawar can do the unthinkable without batting an eyelid.
A couple of months back the NCP chief had expressed his strong displeasure when one of his ministers, Bhaskar Jadhav, had an ultra lavish wedding for his two children.
Pawar said that he spent a ‘sleepless’ night over the matter and told Jadhav that such display of wealth was improper when the state was going through a drought.
While Bhaskar Jadhav was dropped in the NCP reshuffle of ministers a week back, he has since been appointed to lead the NCP in the state.
The question now being asked is whether Jadhav was penalised or promoted after his crass display of wealth.
The evidence against Vindoo Dara Singh was extremely shaky and would not have stood legal scrutiny
Bail leaves cops with egg on face
On the issue of betting, the Mumbai police has had to eat crow with the release of Vindoo Dara Singh and Chennai Team Principal, sorry ‘enthusiast’ Gurunath Meiyappan.
The evidence against Vindoo and Meiyappan was extremely shaky and would not have stood legal scrutiny.
All that the police had were taped calls between Vindoo, Meiyappan and other bookies.
Legal eagles say that the Mumbai Police should have waited for money to change hands between the bookies and Vindoo and Meiyappan as that would have made their case stronger.
However, the police jumped the gun after the Delhi Police embarrassed it by arresting cricketers from Mumbai.
There is even talk of the Delhi Police botching up, not waiting for money to change hands before swooping down.
At the end of the day it’s the tainted cricketers and the bookies who are having the last laugh…. at the expense of cricket fans.
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