Daud Ibrahim controlling IPL?

[Spring Onion]

Sreesanth was picked up shortly before the start of the Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians match at Wankhede

Rajasthan Royals pacer S. Sreesanth and his two teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, who were arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday for alleged involvement in spot-fixing, were in touch with bookies suspected to have links with a betting racket run at the behest of Pakistan-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

It is learnt that four bookies operating from Mumbai and three in Delhi have also been detained for questioning.

The breakthrough by the Special Cell was achieved following a tip-off that was developed by electronic surveillance expert Inspector Badrish Dutt, who was found dead along with his live-in partner at her Gurgaon residence on Saturday. Over three dozen phone calls originating from Pakistan, Dubai, Mumbai and Delhi were intercepted and analysed for clues.

The police zeroed in on the suspects after they gathered at Sahara Mall in Gurgaon to finalise the rates at which they would fix spots during the matches. It is learnt that the Special Cell has gathered enough evidence to prove that the players allegedly indulged in spot-fixing after arriving at an agreement with the bookies.

While sources said the rate agreed upon between the players and the bookies was Rs. 20-25 lakh per spot-fixing, the police said.

According to police sources, Sreesanth was picked up by a Special Cell team fro his friend’s residence in Mumbai. While his disappearance from Wankhede Stadium during the IPL match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians took many by surprise on Wednesday, it was shortly before the match that the Indian pacer was detained by the police for questioning.

At his purported disclosure, the Special Cell team arrested his two other teammates from Trident Hotel at Nariman Point around 2.30 a.m. on Thursday. Some bookies were also rounded up in Mumbai and Delhi for questioning in this connection.

One of the middlemen under the police scanner is said to be a cousin of Sreesanth, whereas another had been operating under codename Jupiter. While seven bookies have so far been identified who were allegedly in contact with the Rajasthan Royals pacer and his teammates, the police suspect that Sreesanth had played a pivotal role in bringing them together and hatching a conspiracy for spot fixing during the ongoing IPL series.

Further investigations are under way to ascertain whether more IPL players have been involved in spot- fixing.
Dawood link suspected in IPL spot-fixing - The Hindu

 

[walwal]

Whatever it is. This IPL is complete pack of bull$h!t. Doesn't feel like watching a genuine and classy game. Having watched Ranji trophy, Duleep trophy N number of times during childhood days; this comes in a totally different pack. A complete money spinner, packed with entertainment and gloss. What irks me calling the bolly stars on the set as a launchpad for their upcoming movie.

 

[Spring Onion]

Whatever it is. This IPL is complete pack of bull$h!t. Doesn't feel like watching a genuine and classy game. Having watched Ranji trophy, Duleep trophy N number of times during childhood days; this comes in a totally different pack. A complete money spinner, packed with entertainment and gloss. What irks me calling the bolly stars on the set as a launchpad for their upcoming movie.

this is new form of entertainment and money making than sports. So it would have this glamour.





India’s premier sexist leagueFor all its influential reach, the IPL has done little to combat the existing stereotypes about women and done everything to reinforce them






IPL 2013 is heading towards its high-intensity, high-octane, high-pitched finale. After the season’s numbers have been crunched, the League will dissipate into general back-slapping, errors and omissions excepted.

Except that 2013 has been a revelation in itself. While the IPL occupies “soap opera” prime time on TV for two months, its avowed intention to expand its audience by engaging with women is a myth truly busted.

The dwindling number of women in the IPL’s TV audience has been explained as the League’s novelty factor wearing thin. IPL-TV though has played its own part in this phenomenon, unflinching as it has been in its display of how it situates women in its ecosystem.

At a time when India is in a roil about its treatment of women, the IPL, a powerful pan-Indian pop culture platform, has demonstrated where it stands in the debate — somewhere between ‘can’t say’ and ‘don’t care.’ On Planet IPL this season, there are two broad categories of women on our screens.

The first are the Respectables — the teamowners, the players’ wives/girlfriends, family members. Then there’s the other lot — the PlayThings. They are served up to the community of commentators in the SonyMax studio and on the field as occasional eye-candy and the source of much adolescent giggling and sniggering. The Playthings include the on-field cheerleaders, studio-dancers and the ‘colour’ girls — the two female reporters — chosen very deliberately not for their cricket nous but their youthful appearance. The young women change every few hours, the male ‘colour’ presenter/reporters endure.

The SonyMax production team for the IPL, even when featuring a female disc jockey in the studio, is said to be a testosterone-soaked cluster. (This is perhaps a reflection of cricket TV in India. In a job interview for a sports channel, a girl was asked whether she was willing to have a “boob job” and to name the cricketer she wanted to sleep with.)

In IPL 2013, cricket is watched and communicated by the expert eyes of men who are served with an ‘entertainment’ device on the sidelines, in the form of the dancing cheerleaders.

Hardly surprising then that IPL 2013 chatter on TV has produced an endless daily dose of drivel. A few samples: Kapil Dev offered this when talking about doing commentary for T20: “Kothay ke taur tarique seekhne padenge [we will have to learn the ways of a brothel]”. Navjot Singh Sidhu said at one point that while the naachnewaali (dancers/ nautch girls) had money they had no izzat (honour/respect.)


There may have been a cricketing metaphor in the ether but there were dancers on screen. Sidhu and Sunil Gavaskar were heard ribbing each other about being in the company of one of the 20-something colour reporters or, as Gavaskar said, “in the presence of one of the 25 most desirable women in India”. The ‘slo-mo’ shots of the cheerleaders almost reflexively lead the commentators to make allusions about the seaminess of what they were seeing. Commentary about cricket is often interrupted with a chuckling aside: “And I thought that’s where you were headed… and I thought, oh, this respectable XYZ...” (Cheerleaders? Not respectable at all.)

Whether the cricket is exciting or predictable, the drivel has been relentless. Egged on by the studio, IPL’s on-field shouter-in-chief Danny Morrison lifted a colour-reporter off her feet on one arm; Sidhu and Sameer Kochchar turned on their smarm when former England women’s team fast bowler Isa Guha was in the studio, asking her which IPL player she found the hottest and to name her favourite dancer amongst the cricketers; Ravi Shastri praised the colour of the reporters’ lipstick, with many jokes made about ‘heat’ and ‘current’ in the studio.

On a TV show, “advertising guru” Prahlad Kakkar argued vociferously that the IPL “is entertainment, not classical cricket” and “why can’t grown-up men have fun?” All cigar-chomping conviction, he asked: “Have you been to a men’s club?” An unintentional insight? IPL2013 on TV has certainly presented itself like a “gentlemen’s club.” As the business of cricket has gone on, its male messengers have offered sustained doses of titillation — double entendres, bump-n-grind routines from the studio dancers, salacious shots of the cheer leaders — all masked as “entertainment”.

What is particularly reprehensible is that the IPL does so without any consideration for the fact that it operates and feeds off a country currently introspecting about why it treats its women badly.

At a time when the law pertaining to crimes against women has been amended due to public pressure.

With Sidhu, a sitting Member of Parliament, spitting out 500-words-a-minute on IPL TV without a thought for what’s happening in his other job, it is as if the IPL is an institutional manifestation of the Sidhu persona. Trapped by its growing narcissism and driven by nothing but the promise of profit, the IPL chooses to remain uninterested in the reach and significance of its own influence.

In the advertising industry these days, there is a push to ensure that any big brand, corporate or individual taps into a wider cause or issue that affects consumers. This is why razor manufacturer Gillette came up with its “Soldier for Women” advertisement. Or actor-director Farhan Akhtar launched his MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination) campaign which has become Bollywood’s most visible public stand on women’s safety. Akhtar turned up for an IPL evening, but once he was gone, the event went back to its men’s club-type ‘entertainment’.

It is not as if India’s cricketers do not know what is happening outside their bubble. They know first-hand what life is like for the women in their families and for their women friends when they step out of home. Suresh Raina tweeted his anger about the 5-year-old raped and left to die. Yuvraj Singh dedicated a Man of the Match award to the December 16 gang-rape victim, praying for her recovery.

Yet, neither any franchise — four of whom have very visible female owners — nor the IPL itself has put together a message from the players to the millions of fans about women, against harassing and stalking, about standing up for women, treating them with dignity. (Because it don’t form part of a revenue stream, silly.) Instead, IPL 2013 has found its own new level for women — the lowest common denominator.

(The writer is a sports journalist and senior editor at ESPNcricinfo.)
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/indias-premier-sexist-league/article4718609.ece?homepage=true

 

[JanjaWeed]

Bad news. It's only going to tarnish the image of high profile team owners. There is no doubt that unsavory characters are involved in this sport one way or the other. It would be really sad to know that team owned by people like Mukesh Ambani & Vijay Mallya are controlled by Dawood Ibrahim.

More money gives rise to more greed. Disband this whole IPL circus for once & all...

 

[Azazel]

What ever Sreesanth is doomed.

 

[airmarshal]

Chalo jee. All the bookies are sitting in India. The biggest betting network is in India, but IPL is being corrupted from Pakistan!

Can there more comical, myopic country than India when it comes to Pakistan? In a day or two, we will hear ISI is also involved.

 

[Backbencher]

lol......it is same as Osama bin laden controlling US economy or Hafiz Saeed controlling Indian politics
If this article was published in 95 I would have believed it but now with the passage of time the reach of Ibramin has decreased . Gone are his days...........

 

[VeeraBhadra]

Bad news. It's only going to tarnish the image of high profile team owners. There is no doubt that unsavory characters are involved in this sport one way or the other. It would be really sad to know that team owned by people like Mukesh Ambani & Vijay Mallya are controlled by Dawood Ibrahim.

More money gives rise to more greed. Disband this whole IPL circus for once & all...

What can a owner of the team do ??If players themselves want to earn quick buck then, I am afraid that anyone could do anything. It's like blaming whole Pakistan ,when Salman Butt was arrested for same type fixing.

 

[Azazel]

Chalo jee. All the bookies are sitting in India. The biggest betting network is in India, but IPL is being corrupted from Pakistan!

Can there more comical, myopic country than India when it comes to Pakistan? In a day or two, we will hear ISI is also involved.

I think since there is no cricketing league for there own a few wealthy Pakistanis might be betting on IPL and Dawood and Co might handling these deals,But you know highlighting Pakistani involvement is a good way of shifting attention and I think BCCI is doing a good job in that

 

[VeeraBhadra]

Chalo jee. All the bookies are sitting in India. The biggest betting network is in India, but IPL is being corrupted from Pakistan!

Can there more comical, myopic country than India when it comes to Pakistan? In a day or two, we will hear ISI is also involved.

Phone calls were intercepted by electronic surveillance team,did you read that part ??Your country is never very far, when it comes to carry out shenanigans in INDIA.

 

[Azazel]

Bad news. It's only going to tarnish the image of high profile team owners. There is no doubt that unsavory characters are involved in this sport one way or the other. It would be really sad to know that team owned by people like Mukesh Ambani & Vijay Mallya are controlled by Dawood Ibrahim.

More money gives rise to more greed. Disband this whole IPL circus for once & all...

You sound like communistWhere is your business acumen???

 

[JanjaWeed]

What can a owner of the team do ??If players themselves want to earn quick buck then, I am afraid that anyone could do anything. It's like blaming whole Pakistan ,when Salman Butt was arrested for same type fixing.

That's why it's sad. It's for the owners to disassociate themselves from this murky game once they realize the fact the team they own is not under their control.

 

[JanjaWeed]

You sound like communistWhere is your business acumen???

Never been a big fan of this IPL circus from day one. When you mix sport with bollywood nautanki (which itself is a murkier world financed by underworld) you have a recipe for disaster.

 

[VeeraBhadra]

That's why it's sad. It's for the owners to disassociate themselves from this murky game once they realize the fact the team they own is not under their control.

Will PCB disassociate itself from Cricket due to spot fixing episode in UK ?? Any organisation or for that matter any person can control their team only till certain limit, after that let the Police worry.Enjoy the game buddy as long as it burns some heart across the borders.

 

[JanjaWeed]

Will PCB disassociate itself from Cricket due to spot fixing episode in UK ?? Any organisation or for that matter any person can control their team only till certain limit, after that let the Police worry.Enjoy the game buddy as long as it burns some heart across the borders.

Apples & oranges. PCB is a cricket board like BCCI.. IPL team owners are not the sports bodies. In any case PCB doesn't hold any great reputation either due to its mishandling of events in the past.