and Te Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has wavered between calling for the legalisation of betting to tackle corruption or doubling down on the ban. Te organisation’s new head of the Anti-Corruption Unit Shabir Hussein Shekhadam Khandwawala said recently: “Whether the government legalises betting or not is a different matter but deep inside, I feel as a police officer that betting can lead to match-fixing. Te government, so far, has rightly not legalised betting.”


Either way, the problem seems to be getting steadily worse and the prohibition of betting in India is widely seen to have been ineffective. Perversely, match- fixing is not a criminal offence while gambling is.


Just a quick look at some of the latest headlines provide a snapshot of just how bad things are getting and this could well be just the tip of the iceberg. In August, police were reportedly on high alert ahead of the Sunday Twenty20 match between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup for fears of match fixing.


More sensationally, Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor admitted on social media in that he was forced to agree to a match fixing scheme while in India in 2019. In a lurid tale posted on twitter in January, Taylor said he was filmed using cocaine during a party with


P30 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS


With a population of almost 1.4 billion India offers massive potential and


regulation would bring gambling out of the shadows making it harder for criminal groups to turn a


profit. For years the courts and


committees in parliament have been looking at ways to eliminate match fixing and have come to the same conclusion:


regulation would reduce money laundering and organised crime while the legalisation is the best bet as long as it put in place strong measures to regulate the industry.


Indian businessman and his associates. Te men then forced him into agreeing to take part in a match-fixing scam, warning that they would release a video of him taking drugs if he refused. Taylor said that he agreed but never actually got involved in match- fixing. All the same it took him four months to report the incident to the ICC anti-corruption unit.


With a population of almost 1.4 billion India offers massive potential and regulation would bring gambling out of the shadows making it harder for criminal groups to turn a profit. For years the courts and committees in parliament have been looking at ways to eliminate match fixing and have come up with the same conclusion: regulation would reduce money laundering and organised crime while the legalisation of betting was the best bet as long as it put in place strong measures to regulate the industry.


For now though no major change seems likely as gambling is considered a taboo and there is a lack of political will to address the issue head on. Instead, India will probably deal with corruption in the sport by introducing criminal sanctions on match fixers following in the footsteps of Sri Lanka which in 2019 became the first major cricket-playing country in South Asia to make match fixing a crime.


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