Member of Indian World Cup 2011 Winning Team Faces Probe Over Alleged Match-Fixing Links

In 2011, India was crowned as the winner if the ICC Cricket World Cup. Now, as per reports, a member of the World Cup winning squad has ties with bookies and is under the scanner for the same. As per a report in Indian Express, the member has represented India in all three formats of the game. The incident is related to the Rajputana Premier League (RPL), which was organised in Jaipur in July last year and featured club-level cricketers.

According to the report, “the Rajasthan Police has traced the mastermind of the "organised cricket racket who partly financed the RPL and had business links with a "former international player who represented India in all three formats of the game". Having arrested 14 people from 4 hotels in Jaipur, the police came across the name of the international player. With this, the police also recovered cash, mobile phones, walkie-talkies and laptops from the arrests.

Additional DGP CID (Crime) Pankaj Kumar Singh said that they are looking into the matter and are following the leads. “We are currently probing links between private entities, those who are part of the cricket fraternity and officials. We will take action if there is evidence that links them to corruption," he said. The same player was also seen on the sidelines of the tournament.

BCCI ACU's current advisor Neeraj Kumar, in February, had revealed about the new way of corruption spreading in the T20 leagues. “This is new methodology bookies and fixers have come up with. They host a private T20 tournament, select a venue and arrange to have it telecast. Because if you telecast it, then the bookie community and betting community gets involved and everyone sitting in a drawing room can bet,” Kumar had said.

Sources also told the newspaper that the case could turn “high-profile” as the police right now are tracing all the call records. However, Singh declined to discuss the involvement of the former Indian international cricketer.

The Rajputana Premier League was inaugurated in presence of several renowned personalities from the world of Bollywood and cricket. However, what raised eyebrows was a bowler bowling eight wides and giving away byes.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 06, 2018 11:43 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).