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,
What was going on with the gamble on Azerbaijan just before the results started to come out?! Mad amount of money going on them!
ReplyDeleteHi Stephen,
ReplyDeleteIt was a big gamble, down to 3.7 or so in the proper winner market that I saw. I honestly didn't think that Norway's song was that great, and my wife thought Azerbaijan was probably the best of the rest - others might have just had similar opinions. Norway got out to 2.86 that I saw, bigger than they were before the semis. And plus, we only see our local versions - you never know how much certain acts are being talked up on telecasts in other countries.