Pakistani students light candles to pay tribute to Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer in Multan on March 20. Woolmer was pronounced dead at the University Hospital of the West Indies hospital on March 18 after being found unconscious in his room at the Pagasus hotel. - ReutersGAMBLING in sport is a multibillion-dollar industry, according to an intelligence source of international experience, who spoke recently to The Sunday Gleaner.
In cricket, the dark side to gambling is often not as straight forward as the flip of a coin.
Bookmakers often seek to influence the game by speaking to and paying players and even officials.
Disgraced former South African captain Hansie Cronje confessed in 2000 that there are great incentives for influencing the result of a game. He was banned for life after his deeds came to light.
Insiders say largeamounts of betting money are circulated in cricket circles.While gambling in some parts of the world is legal and normally regulated, it is illegal in Pakistan and India.
Despite this, tens of millions of dollars change hands on match days in organised betting activities controlled by persons labelled as mafia.
In South Asia, for example, ball-by-ball odds are available on the game. With this pundits are able to place bets on things like who will win the toss, who will face the first ball, who will bat at which number, individual scores, overall scores and even extras.
Funding terrorism
The Hindustan Times estimates that the amount bet on cricket in India annually is more than the country's defence budget, some 10.6 billion.
The Sunday Gleaner understands that when India played Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, US$1 billion was gambled on a single match.
This, experts say, explains why illegal match fixing in cricket is so dangerous, especially with al-Qaeda, the Osama bin-Laden-led terrorism group turning to this underground industry for funds.
One international intelligence expert argues that al-Qaeda, in the post 9/11 era, with many of its funding sources cut off, places huge bets on cricket matches, which they have a hand in fixing.
"It is done through a big betting chain run out of Karachi in Pakistan," the expert says. "Betting on rigged Test matches and rigged One Day International matches is a big source of funds."
Mafia-controlled
Indian police have said that gambling is controlled by the underground Mafia, with the notorious Dawood Ibrahim ranking highest on the list.
They say that while the tendency to bribe people to fix an entire game has disappeared because of close monitoring by the ICC , 'bookies' are now involved in what is now called micro-fixing. People bet on even the most remote things such as who will bowl the 15th over.
Media and Communications manager for the International Cricket Council (ICC),Brian Murgatroyd tells The Sunday Gleaner that "one of the things the ICC is trying to tackle is the potential for micro-fixing".
During the West Indies tour of India, middle-order batsman Marlon Samuels was accused of being involved in such a scheme. Indian police said he had provided information to a bookmaker and they produced transcripts of the telephone conversation which they say is proof. Samuels has denied knowing he was talking to a bookie but both Indian police and the ICC has pledge to investigate the case.
Several persons have been banned from the sport because of their involvement in match-fixing. Former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, Test player Ajay Sharma, along with Cronje, are included in this list.
The recent death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer here has triggered suggestions of match-fixing. In fact, the ICC has sent Jeff Rees from their Anti-Corruption Unit to do investigations of their own, but they stayed clear of suggesting that Mr. Woolmer knew about match-fixing.
Not only have players been implicated in match-fixing scandals but a well-placed Sunday Gleaner source says at least three umpires on the ICC elite panels are being investigated by Lord Condon's ICC Anti-Corruption Unit.
The intelligence source says these investigations were done because it was found that some umpires have offshore banking accounts thought to be set up by match-fixers. (PULL OUT)
The ICC says that as a matter of policy they do not comment on whether an investigation is being or has been done.
According to the intelligence expert, in matches where umpires are crooked, at least one captain is aware of the match fixing scheme, so he normally brings his best bowler from the end where the umpire believed to be crooked is standing.
The intelligence agent suggests that a series of matches within the last three years have prompted the Lord Condon's team to investigate, and Mr. Woolmer was aware of these investigations.
Against this backdrop, the informed intelligence source suggests Mr.Woolmer's death came become of two reasons: firstly, because Pakistan dropped out of the World Cup causing persons to lose plenty of money; and secondly, because there was a feeling that he was going to talk what he knew about match-fixing.
Cronje had spoken about match-fixing before and many believe that was the reason he was killed. When he faced a commission investigating the match-fixing allegations against him, Cronje received immunity from prosecution after he agreed to "full and frank" disclosure of his involvement in corruption.He revealed that he took money and gifts from bookmakers to fix matches but added that he was terribly sorry.
"I can't tell you the shame this whole affair has caused me," he said.
"The great passion I have for my country and my team-mates and my unfortunate love of money," he said, two years before perishing in a strange aircraft crash in 2004.
