Rohani Mahyera, Saving Cricket: a Proposal for the Legalization of Gambling in India to Regulate Corrupt Betting Practices in Cricket

• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 1
• Publication year: 2010

SAVING CRICKET: A PROPOSAL FOR THE LEGALIZATION OF GAMBLING IN INDIA TO REGULATE CORRUPT BETTING PRACTICES IN CRICKET

INTRODUCTION

In 2010, the International Cricket Council (“ICC”), cricket’s 1 world- governing body,2 prosecuted three Pakistani players for spot-fixing3 under its anti-corruption code over a betting scandal that occurred during a cricket match.4 The Pakistani team’s test captain,5 Salman Butt, and opening bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, were paid money by an Indian bookmaker to throw no balls6 and wide balls7 in a cricket test match, leading to match-fixing8 allegations.9

1. For a description of cricket, see infra Part I.

2. The International Cricket Council (“ICC”) is the international cricket governing body that makes and enforces cricket’s rules and regulations. See ICC Members Countries, INT’L CRICKET COUNCIL, http://icc-

   Cricket.yahoo.net/the-icc/icc_members/overview.php (last visited Feb. 16, 2012). The ICC is responsible for administering cricket, “including management of playing conditions and officials for Test Match and One-Day International (ODI) cricket.” Id. Full members of the ICC govern cricket in their countries and their representative teams qualify to play test matches. Id. The full members of the ICC are Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Zimbabwe. Id.

3. Spot-fixing occurs when a player fixes details of a game, rather than the entire game itself. See John F.

   Burns, Cricket Scandal Rocks Pakistan, Another Blow to Its Spirits, N.Y. TIMES, Aug, 29, 2010, at A4.

4. ICC Bans Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif & Mohammad Amir, BBC SPORT (Feb. 5, 2011, 3:12 PM), http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/other_international/pakistan/9388422.stm.

5. A “test” captain is the captain of a cricket team that plays a test match, where the match is played for five days and the team that scores the most runs wins. Abhishek Choudhari, Cricket: A Gentlemen’s Game!, TOP END SPORTS, http://www.topendsports.com/sport/cricket/basics.htm (last visited Feb. 16, 2012).

6. A no ball occurs when the bowling player violates one of the rules for bowling the ball. Law 24 (No Ball), LORD’S HOME CRICKET, http://www.lords.org/laws-and-spirit/laws-of-cricket/laws/law-24-no-ball,50,ar. html (last visited Feb. 16, 2012).

7. A wide ball occurs when the ball passes wide of the batsman, beyond fixed borderlines, such that the batsman cannot hit it with a normal stroke. Law 25 (Wide Ball), LORD’S HOME CRICKET, http://www.lords.org/ laws-and-spirit/laws-of-cricket/laws/law-25-wide-ball,51,ar.html (last visited Feb. 16, 2012).

8. Match-fixing occurs when a cricket player plays the match in a way to deliberately alter the outcome, usually for profit. Ravi Krishnan, Expert Cheat Sheet: All You Need To Know About Cricket Match-Fixing, LIVEMINT.COM (Aug. 31, 2010, 5:23 PM), http://www.livemint.com/2010/08/31172333/Expert-cheat-sheet- All-you-ne.html.

9. Pakistan-England Match-Fixing Scandal: Butt Is Ringleader, Alleges Bookie, TIMES INDIA (Aug. 29, 2010, 10:01 AM), http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-08-29/top-stories/28282129_1_pakistan-

   dressing-room-scotland-yard-mohammad-amir. Some news reports refer to the Pakistani players’ activities as spot-fixing while others refer to them as match-fixing. Compare Burns, supra note 3 (using “spot fixing”), with Toby Davis, ICC Vows To Root Out Cheats, Preserve Integrity, REUTERS, Sept. 3, 2010, available at

   The scandal was discovered when an undercover reporter posed as a businessman and paid the equivalent of $230,000 to a fixer,10 who told the undercover reporter details of no balls the Pakistani players would bowl in the test match. 11 In the match, the bowlers bowled no balls at the exact time specified by the fixer.12 The Pakistani team lost the game by a heavy margin,

   and the ICC initially suspended the players.13 The case went on trial in front of an ICC tribunal that found the players guilty of corruption.14 Salman Butt received a ten-year ban from playing cricket, out of which five years were suspended on the conditions that he does not breach the ICC code of conduct again and participates in anti-corruption education.15 Mohammad Asif received

   a seven-year ban from cricket out of which two years were suspended on the same conditions as the sentence given to Salman Butt, and Mohammad Amir received a five-year ban.16 As a result, they were unable to participate in the 2011 Cricket World Cup, 17 and their careers are potentially “completely destroyed.”18 The United Kingdom also sentenced the players to jail time.19

   
   

   Unfortunately, the Pakistan cricket scandal is only one example of the match-fixing scandals that continue to be a problem in cricket in many countries around the world.20 One of cricket’s biggest match-fixing scandals took place in 2000, in which South Africa’s 21 then-team captain, Wessell Johannes Cronje (“Hansie Cronje” or “Cronje”) confessed to providing

   
   

   http://uk.reuters.com/article/2010/09/03/uk-cricket-pakistan-corruption-idUKTRE68169M20100903 (using “match-fixing”). The terms spot-fixing and match-fixing are used interchangeably in this Comment.

10. The fixer in this story acted as a bookmaker who took money from the undercover reporter. Burns,

    supra note 3. He claimed to have control over certain players of the game and could predetermine details of the game, helping betters win a lot of money. Id.

11. Id.

12. Id.

13. Id.; Davis, supra note 9.

14. ICC Bans Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif & Mohammad Amir, supra note 4.

15. Id.

16. Id.

17. See Legalise Cricket Gambling in ‘Hub’ India: ICC Chief, DAWN.COM (Feb. 8, 2011), http://www. dawn.com/2011/02/07/legalise-cricket-gambling-in-%E2%80%98hub%E2%80%99-india-icc-chief.html.

18. Id.

19. Salman Butt and Pakistan Bowlers Jailed for No-Ball Plot, BBC NEWS (Nov. 3, 2011 2:24 PM), http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15573463.

20. See, e.g., Match-Fixing in Cricket: A Timeline, NADEEM MALIK (Sept. 14, 2010), http://nadeemmalik. wordpress.com/2010/09/14/match-fixing-in-Cricket-a-timeline.

21. South Africa is a full member of the ICC. See supra note 2.

    information to an Indian bookmaker to rig a match in exchange for money.22 The Indian police exposed the scandal by releasing transcripts of phone conversations between Cronje and an Indian businessperson in London.23 The transcripts indicated that a series of matches played between South Africa and India were fixed through illegal betting.24 Cronje eventually confessed that he had been involved in illegal betting since 199525 and admitted to receiving around $140,000 from bookmakers, but maintained that he had not thrown any matches.26 South Africa’s cricket board banned him from playing cricket for the rest of his life.27

    
    

    Although the scandals mentioned above involve Pakistani and South African players, India is at the “center of cricket’s illegal gambling industry.”28 For instance, a major part of the betting deals conducted by Hansie Cronje in South Africa 29 and the Pakistani players in 2010 involved Indian businessmen.30 A report by India’s Central Bureau of Investigations found that illegal betting in India has boomed since India won the Cricket World Cup in

    1983.31 India is now the main market for the betting that occurs in cricket, with the “market” estimated at $30 billion.32 One-day international matches played between India and Pakistan draw bets up to $20 million, where India is again at the center of the illegal betting syndicate.33

    
    

22. Maseeh Rahman, It’s Just Not Cricket: Charges That South Africa’s Hansie Cronje Took Money To Throw Matches Soil the Image of the Gentleman’s Game, TIME ASIA (Apr. 24, 2000), http://cgi.cnn.com/ ASIANOW/time/magazine/2000/0424/sport.cricket.html.

23. Id.

24. Id.

25. Peter Robinson, Cronje Finally Comes Clean, ESPN CRICINFO (June 15, 2000), http://www.cricinfo. com/ci/content/story/89716.html.

26. ‘Cronjegate’: A Timeline, BBC SPORT (June 1, 2002, 1:48 PM), http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/

    cricket/2020686.stm [hereinafter Cronjegate]. A match is considered “thrown” when played to lose the match deliberately or fix details of the game. See Pakistan Cricket Team Accused of Throwing Matches, CTV NEWS (Sept. 5, 2010, 12:31 PM), http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20100905/cricket-pakistan-100905.

27. Cronjegate, supra note 26.

28. Illegal Cricket Betting Makes Millions for Indian Gangs, BBC NEWS (Sept. 6, 2010, 8:31 AM), http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11200235; Tom Wright, India Profits from Pakistan Cricket Scam,

    INDIA REALTIME WALL ST. J. BLOG (Aug. 30, 2010, 12:13 PM), http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/08/ 30/india-profits-from-pakistan-cricket-scam.

29. See Robinson, supra note 25.

30. See Wright, supra note 28.

31. Id.

32. Heena Zuni Pandit, India’s Betting Racket: The Inside Story, HINDUSTAN TIMES (Sept. 11, 2010, 8:31 AM), http://www.hindustantimes.com/Cricket/CricketNews/India-s-betting-racket-The-inside-story/Article1-

    599054.aspx.

33. Legalise Cricket Gambling in ‘Hub’ India: ICC Chief, supra note 17.

    Additionally, gambling in cricket matches has become an easy market to enter in India.34 A reporter for the Hindustan Times, a major Indian newspaper, went undercover to discover the world of illegal betting in cricket, and described it as taking a few easy steps: “several meetings, a tampered cellphone, a code word, and we’re in.”35

    
    

    Gambling is currently banned in India.36 However, given the Indian match- fixing scandals that have taken place, the ban on betting has not been an effective deterrent to corrupt gambling. Although the nature of cricket is such that it typically requires the involvement of more than one person to sway the match, it is nonetheless highly susceptible to corruption. Bookmakers take bets

    on every ball and every over or inning in the game.37 While cricket governing

    bodies (both at the national and international level) have attempted to minimize corruption issues in the sport, there remains a need for an effective, statutory regulation of the industry within India.38

    
    

    The ICC attempts to regulate the gambling industry by imposing a complete ban on betting for cricket players and...