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Caught in the slips!

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

Ramesh Jadhav, 27, is the archetypical Bombay-ite.

A peon in a lawyer's firm in south Bombay, his big dream is to make the ultimate killing. And ever since the police cracked down hard on matka king Ratan Khatri and his gambling dens, it is the cricketing rainbow Jadhav follows in the hope of finding that pot of gold.

Jadhav, in common with an increasing number of cricket punters, got turned on to gambling on cricket results during the Wills World Cup, hosted in the sub-continent in February 1996.

However, betting on a game isn't as simple as looking up the number of the friendly neighbourhood bookie in the yellow pages and making the call. The entire operation, Jadhav confirms, is super secret, and pyramidal in nature. There are small bookmakers each with their own list of clients, each client admitted to the circle only after he has been carefully vetted. Each small bookmaker is in turn linked to a larger operator. Who in turn reports to a circle of underbosses and so on, right up to the top of the pyramid where sit the kingpins of the racket.

To gain entry to this circle, the wannabe punter has first to be introduced by a punter whose credentials are impeccable. Even then, the bookie handling the new entrant checks out his financial position and antecedents, in order to ensure his probity -- a must, as bets are made on the phone and there are never any written records.

Bombay is where the racket is headquartered -- and like any well run corporation, the betting mafia is superbly organised in India's commercial capital. The metrop is divided into three zones, and each has its leader -- Vinodbhai who operates in north east Bombay, Dineshbhai in south Bombay, while north west Bombay is controlled by Mutreja and Damani, operating in tandem.

The entire operation, confirms an inspector attached to the Chembur police station in north Bombay, is controlled out of the Gulf, and the international telephone is the lifeline of perhaps the fastest growing parallel industry in the country.

Interestingly, while even the average cop rattles off names of the masterminds of the racket and even their locations, there has been little, if any, action taken to stem what is clearly an illegal racket. Why?

Says Inspector S B Pandit (Chembur police station), who led the raiding party that during the Independence Cup game in Bombay between India and Sri Lanka, apprehended three people running a bookmaking operation within his jurisdiction, "For one thing, it is not enough to know who the bookies are, they keep changing their location after almost every match. And if we disconnect their telephones, they operate through mobiles. It is impossible, in fact, to keep tabs on the bookies."

Another major problem, police officials confirm, is the fact that the law, while frowning on betting, does not have the teeth to enforce its edicts.

"There lies the real problem," says a senior police officer. "If we manage to pull off a successful raid, what happens? A day later, they are out on bail and operating again. Then again, no one pursues the cases against those bookies who we do manage to apprehend. In some cases, inspectors who have tried to crack down on bookmaking operations have been transferred. And after all this, if the case is finally brought to court and the charge is proved, what punishment do they get? Six months simple imprisonment. Which, considering the enormous amounts of money they make, is not a deterrent at all!"

Police sources indicate that bookmaking is rapidly replacing drugs as the biggest moneyspinner for the Bombay underworld -- the turnover for the Titan Cup triangular between India, South Africa and Australia last year alone is estimated in the vicinity of Rs 430 million.

Interestingly, the very same police officers who admit that bookmaking and gambling on cricket is rapidly becoming the Bombay underworld's latest preoccupation, are quick to discount the involvement of cricketers. Says inspector B Sohail of the Tilak Nagar police station in north Bombay, "Bookies do tell us that family members of Indian cricket players are involved in betting. However, I must add that thus far, we have not found one single piece of evidence to prove the allegations. I for one believe that stories of cricketers being involved in betting and match-fixing is mostly unfounded rumour."

Jadhav, and smalltime punters like him, however, remain convinced that match-fixing is a fact of cricketing life. And judging by instances quoted, almost any game which ends in an unexpected result, or any instance when the Indian team inexplicably collapses, is traced to the machinations of the bookmaking mafia.

Item: First Aamir Sohail, and now Manoj Prabhakar, have stated that matches during the 1994 Singer Cup in Sri Lanka were "fixed".

Item: During the four nation Centenary Tournament in New Zealand in February 1995, punters say, there was heavy betting on India winning the inaugural tie against hosts New Zealand. Just two hours before the game, however, insiders began acting on hot tips and put heavy money on New Zealand to win. In the event, India was bundled out for a paltry 160 and giving the hosts a four wicket win with 17 overs to spare. At the end of the tour, team manager A Venkat Rao accused four players of being involved with the betting mafia -- only to retract his allegations soon enough.

Item: The betting mafia burnt its fingers badly when, in the SBI ODI triangular series in South Africa, India batted brilliantly at Benoni to beat Zimbabwe and make it to the final of the series. There was heavy money being placed that India would lose -- and team manager Sunil Dev, in his end-of-tour report, is reported to have hinted that the performance of "some players" were influenced by outside forces".

Item: At St Vincent, India at one stage was batting 201 for 3 at the end of 41 overs, needing a further 49 runs in the last 8 overs at a run a ball. However, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Saba Karim and Mohammad Azharuddin all perished to outrageous heaves -- and India slumped to an 18-run defeat. Interestingly, again, bookies indicate that at the start of the 41st over, the odds -- which till then favoured India -- suddenly swung heavily in favour of a West Indies win.

Item: At Barbados, India started the last day of the Test as firm favourites, chasing just 120 to win the game. Within half an hour of the start of the match, however, the odds changed dramatically, and inexplicably, in favour of the home team.

Item: During the Sahara Cup in Toronto last year, bookmakers predicted well ahead of time that Wasim Akram would not play in the third match, and that India would win. Aamir Sohail, in his recent allegations, has mentioned this incident as one underlining his argument that cricketers are hand in glove with the betting mafia.

Item: Bookies in Bombay and the other metros made a huge killing when Pakistan lost to India in the World Cup quarterfinal in Bangalore last year -- and the result fuelled allegations, in Pakistan, that several players had taken bribes to tank the game.

If such incidents of results going dramatically against the run of play -- which appear to have proliferated in recent times -- underlines the thinking that the gambling mafia has gone beyond merely making books on games and is now actively engaged in manipulating the results, then officialdom appears unconcerned.

Says Raj Singh Dungarpur, president of the Board for Control for Cricket in India: "I do not agree with people who think that Indian players are bribed. I have gone with the players to so many countries -- but not once have I come across anything that led me to believe that players are involved in betting and match fixing. It should be remembered that a player who, for any reason, does not perform well is endangering his career -- and how many players are prepared to take that risk?"

Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar, asked by The Pioneer recently about whether he had been approached by the betting mafia, shot back: 'It is beneath my dignity to even talk of these things.' Former India skipper Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi concurs. "I completely agree with Sachin when he said it is beyond the dignity of any cricketer to talk about betting. I have been playing the game, or following it, for over 25 years now and never, ever, have I heard that any player was involved in betting. I suspect that these are false allegations, started mostly by bookies themselves. I think that when bookies lose money, they tend to blame the cricketers for it!"