Srini's son-in-law passed on betting information about other teams and players

THE IPL betting conspiracy involving Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of BCCI chief N Srinivasan, has spread to the whole tournament with a Mumbai Crime Branch Report stating that the Chennai Super Kings manager was passing on information to bookmakers about other teams and some of the world’s superstar players.

In an escalation of the crisis, there is evidence that Meiyappan discussed match results, innings totals for games not involving the Super Kings and the form of superstar players such as Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle, Dale Steyn and Siddharth Trivedi, who was carpeted for fixing.

The report also reveals that Meiyappan bet 1.4 crores on the Super Kings to lose against Rajasthan Royals on May 12 2013, a match which was called into question by the Mudgal Report into IPL corruption.

Meiyappan was found by the court-appointed committee to have indulged in betting and passing on information, as alleged, and has been proved to be the team official of Chennai Super Kings. The committee, led by Justice Mukul Mudgal, submitted its final report to the Supreme Court with the proviso that it was for the court to decide on any action to be taken.

But the Mumbai’s police report to Justice Mukul Mudgal shows that Meiyappan’s gambling activity extends beyond Chennai.

After lawfully recording conversations between Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh, who was part of an India-wide network of bookies which also extended to the UAE and Pakistan, Mumbai police concluded that Meiyappan was in breach of the IPL Code of Conduct and Section 130 of the Mahrashtra Police Act ‘Cheating at Games’.

But it is the amount of inside information that Meiyappan was privy to that will cause concern for cricket fans. Between April 30 and May 16 there were 240 calls between him and Vindoo. Between May 12-15 according to the report “almost all intercepted calls...related to betting on matches.”

On May 12 Meiyappan told Vindoo Bangalore would score 190 against Kolkata and “then there bowling will come...Kolkata come to 150.” Bangalore actually made  115-9 and lost by five wickets.

Three days later, Vindoo spoke with another bookmaker, Pawan Jaipur, and told him that Meiyappan had said that Kolkata would beat Pune Warriors on that day. Meiyappan was wrong as KKR lost by seven runs.

Another conversation on May 14 showed Meiyappan telling Vindoo that there “were no other changes in the team”. 

Meiyappan also gave information to Vindoo during matches from May 12-14. Gayle would “get runs” for Bangalore against KKR on the 12^th and during the same match he described Trivedi as a “chucker” and “tough to play”. The next day he said that Steyn was “crucial” if Sunrisers Hyderabad were to beat Mumbai Indians.

Damningly, Meiyappan revealed the strategy of his own Super Kings players to the bookie. During play in the match against Rajasthan, Meiyappan said that Ravindra Jadeja would not lose his wicket. He remained not out.

And two days later for the contest against Delhi Daredevils, Meiyappan complained that Sehwag would “bat like an animal” and said that if his team’s bowler, Mohit Sharma, “has one bad day...DD will get runs.” Earlier, he had spoken to Vindoo and had passed on team news. “No other change...I am giving you weak link in bowling.”

He was also exposed for the huge sums that he bet on Super Kings to lose in the tainted Rajasthan game and discussing with Vindoo during play the best strategy for making the most money.

Before the match, the report confirms that Meiyappan told Vindoo the Super Kings would score 130-140 (they made 141) and that he had placed 20 lakh on Rajasthan to win.

He then places another bet, of 30 lakh, on Rajasthan at 21.09hrs. There are two further 30 lakh bets on Rajasthan recorded at 21.16hrs and 21.20.

In a further breach of the anti-corruption code, Meiyappan tells Vindoo of the state of the wicket in Ranchi and weather reports for Chennai. There are also calls in which Vindoo asks for more information about Super Kings strategy.

In another worrying link, the report states that Vindoo and Asad Rauf, the Pakistan international umpire spoke 80 times on a cell phone. Rauf was described as “most wanted” after he was recorded placing bets on IPL matches and passing on inside information.

Rauf, who was shown to also be in contact with Pawan Jaipur and had received gifts from him, invoiced the BCCI $58,208 for officiating in 16 matches during IPL, three of which involved Super Kings.

A version of this article was published in the Economic Times on March 7

Inside the BCCI: Cronyism and intimidation Srinivasan's plan for world domination

Good governance is not themost inspiring of terms whenit comes to sport. It doesn't getbacksides off bucket seats or rouse a roar from the craw. Bad governance is quite the opposite. It can infect the faithful with apathy, leaving once clicking turnstiles to rust in rigidity. The average fan accepts that administrators will enjoy the poshest and plushest seats for pivotal games. In return, the least he expects is that his beloved sport will be run with an ethos that has placed at its heart dignity, transparency and sound business practice.

In BCCI, these seem to have been replaced by totalitarianism, cronyism and intimidation. Internal BCCI emails seen by this writer provide a fascinating insight into its working and paint a bleak future not only for Indian cricket but the world game now stalked by N. Srinivasan. 

The BCCI president, despite being mired in controversy, was named as the next ICC chief on February 8. He will take over as chairman in July.

If BCCI sneezes, world cricket catches a cold. The sniffles may have just begun. IPL is losing money and Justice Mukul Mudgal's report has exposed a link between the supposed guardian of the game and illegal gambling, the menace that encourages the scourge of match-fixing. 

Srinivasan is supposed to be whiter than white; his privileged position demands it. Yet his son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyyapan, has been accused of betting on matches involving the that team he managed, the Chennai Super Kings. The IPL team, of course, is owned by Srinivasan. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Super Kings and Team India captain and a vice-president of India Cements, a Srinivasan firm, was also embroiled in the scandal when he was named in a police report for having agreed that Chennai would score 130-140 runs in an IPL match against Rajasthan Royals. They scored 141 and lost the match. 

Ordinarily, the world would sigh and reckon this was another example of India's feeble betting laws and 'favour culture' sullying cricket's good name. But they are sitting up, wary because Srinivasan effectively runs the game after having carved up ICC for consumption in a power grab with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA). The poor will get poorer and the rich are supposed to get richer in the revamped ICC. 

What of its governance? All decisions will be taken by BCCI, ECB and CA and the rest will fall in line. That BCCI has been shown to be corrupt means cricket, from Colombo to the Caribbean, Lord's to Lahore, teeters on the edge of abyss. From these emails and missives, it is possible to go inside BCCI and see how dark that void could be. They suggest an all-powerful Srinivasan; they betray a lack of rigid structure that successful organisations are founded on.

In a letter dated May 8, 2013 to Alan Isaac, president of ICC, Srinivasan delivers a thinly-veiled threat for lack of support in the row over the election of L. Sivaramakrishnan, said to be an India Cements employee, as players' representative to ICC Cricket Committee at the expense of Federation of International Cricketers Association head Tim May. 

"I do not really mind if ICC management wishes to remain silent if they are sympathetic to the FICA media campaign," Srinivasan writes. "However, we'll truly treat this as a defining moment in the relationship we have with ICC management. We're not going to let this blatantly unfair attack of FICA with ICC a silent spectator go without a response in into the vote and claimed that captains from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe had been told to choose Sivaramakrishnan in a re-vote after May had been returned."

 It was alleged BCCI had used its financial power to coerce the boards into voting its way. This puts into context an email exchange between Dhoni and Geoff Allardice of ICC with the former irked that he has to vote again. "It's L. Shivaramakrishnan (sic) but how is it that from the previous mail Sanga's (Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara, another contender for the job) name gets picked but Shiva's doesn't."

Since Dhoni is close to Srinivasan, it is possible he was following orders. If this exemplifies Srinivasan flexing his muscles, then two emails from April 2013 show an apparent disrespect for the protocol of his own organisation. On April 15, Peter Griffiths of IMG, which helps run IPL, wrote to BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale to appoint a commission to hear a complaint under IPL 2013 operational rules. 

The rules mandate BCCI secretary to pick the members. But five days later, he got this email from Tamil Nadu Cricket Association secretary Kasi Viswanathan: "I am reproducing the message written by the President to you: 'Sanjay, Rajiv Shukla, Ajay Shirke and Ravi Shastri may hear the complaint. N Srinivasan'." 

Jagdale and Shirke quit on May 31 to protest the board's handling of the scandal. Now Jagdale says he had "no problem" with the way BCCI was run.

In another sidestepping of hierarchy, Prasanna Kannan, IPL chief financial officer who is reported to be an employee of India Cements, informs Jagdale of the appointments for home series against England, Pakistan only on April 4, 2013, long after these had been held in late 2012 and early 2013.

It is irregular that the secretary would not have made the appointments himself and it raises the question as to what exactly did this have to do with an IPL official. Kannan, it begs mention, assisted Srinivasan in his 'co-operation' with the Mudgal panel.

The spot-fixing scandal and mounting evidence of BCCI's disregard for what is proper has turned fans away from IPL. Since the first edition in 2008, its TV rating has dropped from 4.8 per cent to 2.9 per cent. "About $1 billion worth of IPL's brand value has been destroyed by such controversies and lack of governance," says Unni Krishnan, a global strategy director at London-based brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance.

This is worrying for world cricket now that its purse strings are held by BCCI and Srinivasan, as detailed in the revamp proposal, Final Position Paper, drafted by Srinivasan's secretary, which will ensure every member bar England, Australia and India is worse off. 

"Srini knew he could control everything. He says Haroon Lorgat should not be running South Africa's board and Lorgat is suspended. He says DRS is not acceptable, so it isn't. He runs ICC," says I.S. Bindra, the veteran administrator who has served both BCCI and ICC. "In my time, Jagmohan Dalmiya was the godfather. Srini wanted to follow him in spirit. But Srini is more dangerous because he has more resources. He told me he wanted to be the next Dalmiya." 

That doesn't bode well for cricket.

This article was first published in India Today Magazine, March 7

Exclusive: Asad Rauf 'bet with Meiyappan's bookie on games he officiated in'

A Mumbai police report which details how Asad Rauf, the Pakistan international umpire, bet on matches in which he was officiating with the same betting syndicate as Gurunath Meiyappan, has deepened the corruption crisis in the Indian Premier League.

Rauf was named as “wanted accused” by police in September last year following allegations of betting corruption in the 2013 tournament but only now has it come to light the extent of his involvement.

According to a report by the Mumbai Crime Branch which was presented to the IPL Probe Committee, Rauf, 57, was shown to have passed on match information in four matches and received gifts from bookmakers.

The allegations are likely to further embarrass N Srinivasan. As the head of the BCCI and the de facto supremo of the world game after a power grab at the ICC, Srinivasan’s reputation was damaged when Meiyappan, his son-in-law and manager of the franchise he owns, Chennai Super Kings, was found to be passing on information to a betting ring.

Damagingly, Rauf has been linked to the same bookies’ go-between who Meiyappan was working with. Between April 12 and May 17 last year, police intercepted 80 telephone conversations between Rauf and Vindoo Dara Singh during their investigation into Meiyappan. Vindoo is an actor who, according to the report, has links to bookmakers in India, Dubai and Pakistan.

The depth of Rauf’s apparent involvement is likely to stun cricket fans. The report’s pages claim that the ICC elite panel umpire, who has not officiated in an international match since last March, placed bets with Vindoo and boasted of providing information to two bookies Pawan and Sanjay Jaipur, who were implicated in the spot-fixing scandal involving Rajasthan Royals.

Police state that the telephone Rauf was using was revealed to be subscribed in the name of Sunil Kumar Naryanan, of Bangalore, who is “an acquaintance of bookie Sanjay Jaipur and provided to umpire Rauf by Sanjay Jaipur”. It is alleged that Rauf “spoke to bookies Prem Taneja, Pawan and Sanjay Jaipur”.

One of the recorded calls reveals that he asked Vindoo about the betting odds for Rajasthan versus Chennai on May 12, the game which the IPL Probe Committee said warranted investigation for corruption. Rauf asked for a Rs 50,000 (almost £500) wager and he is also taped giving pitch information, saying it is “difficult”.

The next day, May 13, Rauf tells Vindoo to bet on both sides in the Mumbai v Hyderabad match, informing him that he is the TV umpire. Later he boasts about getting the match result right and discusses a gold chain that he was promised as a reward for providing information.

On May 15, Rauf tells Vindoo “Aaj Zindagi Ki Har jeet Kar Lena”, which in the context can be translated as a once in a lifetime opportunity to place bets. Vindoo then calls bookmaker Pawan Jaipur to pass on that advice, telling him that the costs of all his gifts to Rauf “would recover in the match on that day”, a reference to the evening match between Mumbai and Rajasthan in which Rauf is umpiring. Rauf says that that Kolkata’s run chase target of 171 against Pune that day is “too stiff”.

The report also reveals details of another call on the same day, stating that Sanjay Jaipur “asserted that he would place bets for the match that was scheduled in the evening only as instructed by him [Rauf]”.

Police list the “gifts” that Rauf received from Sanjay and Pawan Jaipur, as a leather purse, hair trimmer, ladies dress material, pairs of jeans/trousers/shorts/pants, shirts/t-shirts, a pen and leather belts.

Other accusations include that Rauf talked to Vindoo about the betting odds for Chennai v Delhi and how he boasted about providing information to Sanjay Jaipur. He also says that he saved Tanjea, a bookie, from bankruptcy and told how Vindoo should “extract Rs 2 lacs for his [Rauf’s] shopping from Pawan Jaipur.

The interception appears to come to end on May 16 when Vindoo tells Rauf to destroy his SIM card.

Under the code of conduct for umpires it is an offence for them to engage directly, or indirectly in betting.

Rauf, who has stood in 170 internationals, vehemently denied the allegations. He described them as “bullshit” but he admitted that Vindoo was his friend and said that he knew “one of the Jaipur brothers who had sent me gifts for my birthday”. He claims to have co-operated fully with the ICC’s anti-corruption unit on the matter.

“None of this is true,” he said. “If the police record the conversations of angels then they will also hear some bad words. I have lots of friends and I can’t be held accountable for what they do in their private life. Every second person gambles in this part of the world.

“I have never compromised my job as an umpire by doing any cheating. Everyone will tell you I’m honest in my career. I did nothing wrong during that tournament and Vindoo will tell you the same. I didn’t place any bets and I didn’t tell him anything of interest about matches. ”