Illegal Cricket Betting Ring Busted in Perth

Wednesday 25 January, 2012 15:27

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The International Cricket Council in Australia is concerned about illegal betting following the bust of an Indian illegal bookmaking ring. The ring was taking bets on the Big Bash League cricket semi-final in Perth on Saturday night.

Police confirmed that a computer engineer was using equipment to track market movement and betting on the match between the Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Stars. During the raid police arrested four people and seized equipment including three laptops, two televisions and nineteen mobile phones. $100,000 in cash was also seized, although, according to detectives, most illegal bookmakers do not keep their money on the premises.

While it does not appear that the Big Bash League match was fixed, the ICC is concerned about the trend that is emerging. Haroon Lorgat, ICC chief executive has said that anti-corruption measures for international cricket has simply led to illegal bookmakers focusing on domestic games that are not observed by the ICC.

The Big Bash League match that is the focus of the current raid was a domestic match and therefore not under the scrutiny of the Corruption and Security Unit of the ICC. Due to the trend of illegal cricket betting, Cricket Australia established an anti-corruption body that would observe Shield, domestic one day and Big Bash matches.

"There has been no evidence of problems in domestic cricket, but we want to move proactively on the basis that vigilance and constant education is critical," said James Sutherland, Cricket Australia chief executive.

Previous Illegal Betting and Spot Fixing in Cricket

Mervyn Westfield, 23, is awaiting sentencing in England after he pleaded guilty to agreeing to bowl badly in the first over of a Pro40 Match in 2009 for the sum of $9,000.

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Westfield was arrested when Tony Palladino, a teammate, became suspicious about his behavior and reported him. Palladino said that he doubted this was a once-off incident.

"You'd be a fool to think spot fixing wasn't happening at Essex before, and at other counties. It must have been," commented Palladino. "They've chosen county cricket because it's not as high profile as International cricket."

"What worries me is there might be other cases that have been swept under the carpet. I've spoken to International players who've been approached several times in Asia. It's rife out there," continued Palladino.

For at least two decades, spot fixing and illegal gambling in cricket has been problematic. Just last year, three Pakistani players were caught spot fixing in a cricket Test match in England and were arrested.

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