It Really Wasn’t Cricket: The Strange Case of the Fake Indian Premier League, #Wasnt #Cricket #Strange #Case #Fake #Indian #Premier #League Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
There were floodlights, high-definition cameras and referees with walkie-talkies pinned to their shoulders. The cricketers wore colorful uniforms. The broadcast featured the voices of recognized commentators and the logo of the globally recognized television channel: the BBC.
But this was no Indian Premier League, the lucrative cricket tournament that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars every year. It was an elaborate fraud that turned a large farm in a small village in the western Indian state of Gujarat into an arena of sporting excitement.
The target? Russians bet on the odds of winning an unknown sport far from home.
Police officials in Gujarat said over the weekend they broke up the scheme, which was carried out by four local men who had defrauded thousands of dollars from Russian gamblers over 14 days. The fake league was given a name close enough to the real thing: the Indian Cricket Premier League.
“It was all a hoax,” said Achal Tyagi, a senior police officer overseeing the investigation. “We have arrested four people and are also investigating some Indians living in Russia who are involved in the scam.”
News of the daring hoax made the rounds on social media in India and around the cricket world, shocking fans of a sport known as a ‘gentleman’s game’ which has led to fierce international rivalry, huge cricket stars and lucrative profits.
About 24 “players” were involved in the hoax. The men in the field were in fact unemployed village boys and construction workers. The “broadcast” was streamed on YouTube and the winners of the contest decided in advance. The fake matches were played in the village of Molipur.
Videos of the alleged matches showed players wearing jerseys of the same colors worn by IPL teams such as the Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians. The cricket counterfeiters downloaded sound effects from crowds to enhance the experience of the online spectators.
Investigators said the players told them that the men who acted as referees were receiving instructions via walkie-talkies from the organizers sitting at the edge of the ground with their laptops. In turn, they discreetly instructed players when to throw a slow ball to a batsman or go outside to help members of the gang make more money from betting.
Although the players realized the matches were set, the researchers said, they continued the ruse for the equivalent of about $5 — a sum that was pretty good for unemployed young men in rural India. They have not been charged.
“They were given a uniform and promised 400 rupees for each match,” said Tinku Rathod, a farmhand in Molipur. “They were all happy.”
Police officers said the organizers of the scheme were accepting bets from many cities in Russia through the Telegram messaging app. An Indian man hundreds of miles away was hired to mimic the voice of a famous Indian cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle, who often provides commentary for the real premier league. The fake Mr. Bhogle was released.
Founded in 2007, the Indian Premier League is one of the world’s most valuable sports venues. In India, it has turned the once-preserved game into a commercial juggernaut, luring the world’s best players with multimillion-dollar contracts.
Last month, India’s governing body for cricket sold its television and digital broadcasting rights for a record $6.2 billion. But the league has also been embroiled in controversy with batting scandals, which led to the two-year suspension of two teams in 2013.
The fake competition started with the hoax games about three weeks after the real competition ended its games in May, authorities said. The league has not publicly addressed the hoax. Investigators were made aware of the scam by a local police officer, who had noticed suspicious matches being played with floodlights on in the mornings and evenings.
When officers from a special investigation team of the Gujarat Police Department arrived at the fake site on Thursday, they checked the phones of players and laptops belonging to the organizers and found multiple Telegram channels. The officers soon realized that an elaborate gambling scam was underway, run by four men sitting close to the ground, and that they were being handled by another Indian man working in Russia.
Mr Tyagi, the police officer, said during questioning, an organizer who had returned to his home village of Molipur, after working at a Moscow pub known for betting, revealed that in Russia, a fellow Indian had suggested that he a fake competition in his village to make money.
“He was in constant contact with his partner in Russia,” said Mr Tyagi. “These are new criminals with a technological mindset.”
The four men have been charged with criminal conspiracy and gambling, officials told reporters.
When the suspects were caught, the fake league matches were in the semi-finals, with one more to go for the final. Then, after the ruse was revealed, the YouTube channel went black.