According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also,
+4.4pts profit for the day, very nice :)
ReplyDeleteWd, Scott. Turned out to be a cracking race as I thought it might.
ReplyDeleteSchumi didn't do himself any favours and he really needs to buck up his ideas before he ruins his image even further.
glad to see it became interesting somehow - a safety car, diving into the pits and then the penalty to Vettel, rather than any overtaking.
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