IPL launches new mobile lottery.. Its not betting says Modi

The Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday launched a controversial SMS game asking fans to predict the scores of a live match. The winners will get cash awards.

According to the rules of the game, the entrant will have to send the runs that will be scored off every ball of the next over (for example 3 2 4 2 6 6, like in a lottery ticket) and the people guessing six, five or four numbers in the sequence correctly will get a percentage of the kitty generated by the total number of people playing at that time. The minimum prize money for every over is Rs 10,000 and will increase after that, depending on the entries received, at Rs 5 per SMS.

While the early reaction from experts is that this is a form of online cricket betting, which is illegal in India, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi denied it. Its only about texting. Anyway, there is a lot of texting going back and forth, discussing the game. This is very similar to that, discussing the game amongst friends, he said.

The person in the stadium has no idea what the people are predicting. Its very difficult to fix the outcome of an over. I think, maybe one in a million. We have checked it out and looked at it very carefully. If that was to happen, we would shut it out absolutely, without doubt.

When contacted on Tuesday evening, an International Cricket Council (ICC) media officer said that the governing body had not heard about the game, but would anyway have no say in the matter because the ICC has no direct involvement in the IPL. The BCCI had, prior to the start of the tournament, refused to pay the $1.2m fees asked by the anti-corruption unit of the ICC, and the second edition of the IPL is not under the surveillance of the games governing body.

The game, 6UP, will be available only to Indian mobile subscribers starting from Wednesdays matches.

[the article was originally published at http://cricket.expressindia.com/news/IPL-launches-new-mobile-lottery--it-s-not-betting--Modi/455083]

IPL committee advises rehab for Kamran

The Indian Premier League (IPL) technical committee, on Sunday, recommended a two-week rehabilitation for Rajasthan Royals pacer Kamran Khan who has been reported for a suspect bowling action.

According to an IPL release, the technical committee, comprising Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Lalit Modi, met in Johannesburg on Sunday to review the left-arm pacer’s action (as reported in Monday’s Late City edition).

The committee was also joined by Anurag Thakur and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi from India, via a conference call, after Rudi Koertzen and Gary Baxter reported Kamran for a suspect bowling action after the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals match at the Centurion on Thursday.

After the match was over, footage was obtained and examined by all the three umpires, including TV umpire Amish Saheba, and it was decided that further action was necessary under the Laws of Cricket, section 24/3, that governs the game. The matter was then referred by the IPL to the Rajasthan Royals team management and the technical committee, as per the Laws of Cricket, that govern the game.

Kamran, who has yet to play a first-class game, has been hailed by Royals captain Shane Warne as sensational.

[the article was originally published at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090505/jsp/sports/story_10915629.jsp]

IPL boss Lalit Modi, must explain trip abroad

An Indian court has ordered Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi to explain why he has left the country without its permission.

Mr Modi, who is accused of cheating and forgery, is on bail. He is in South Africa for the IPL's second tournament.

He denies charges that he failed to give money to victims of last year's Jaipur bomb blasts as promised.

The IPL was moved to South Africa for security reasons because its timing clashed with India's general elections.

Mr Modi says a large part of the promised $1.18m has already been given to the government and that only a small amount remains to be paid.

Controversial

Justice SP Pathak of Rajasthan High Court asked Mr Modi why his bail should not be cancelled.

According to the complaint filed by a Rajasthan-based group, Nagrik Morcha, Mr Modi promised the money to then Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje for the victims of last May's Jaipur blasts. The group, which is opposed to Mr Modi, says the entire amount was never deposited.

Mr Modi's lawyer had argued in court that more than $1m had already been deposited with the government.

The court gave bail to Mr Modi on the condition that he would not leave India without prior permission.

Mr Modi is a deeply ambitious, colourful and controversial character who is known for his brashness.

He moved the star-studded, multimillion-dollar IPL's second season to South Africa after concerns over security in India, because of a clash of dates with the general elections.

[the article was originally published at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8016272.stm]

Underworld death threats for IPL boss

The IPL's South African security firm have stepped up their protection of tournament chairman Lalit Modi after reports surfaced in the Indian media of an alleged death threat from the Indian underworld.
CRICKET IPL Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi - 0

According to the media reports, an aide of wanted Indian criminal Dawood Ibrahim has targetted Modi for a variety of reasons, including Modi's refusal to pay an unspecified extortion amount, shutting the door on Pakistan players in the tournament and shifting the IPL to South Africa.

The tournament's change of location could reportedly cost the gang - commonly referred to as D-Company - millions of dollars in re-organising their betting operations.

Bob Nicholls, who jointly heads security outfit Nicholls & Steyn, said the agency has moved to tackle the threat to Modi.

"We are aware of it and we have taken the necessary precautions... I'm not going into any details," Nicholls said of the threats to Modi's life. Local police have reportedly increased the security cover for Modi's Mumbai residence.

The Times of India reported that Modi's name figured on a hitlist issued by Chhota Shakeel, Ibrahim's aide, which was revealed to police officials after they arrested a gang-member in Karnataka last month.

But Mid-Day, a Mumbai-based tabloid, reported that security agencies had intercepted a phone call from the gang, the transcript of which shows that orders have been issued to target Modi either in India or South Africa during the IPL.

A copy of the intelligence report which highlights the threat was forwarded to Mumbai police commissioner's office on March 24, according to the paper.

Modi himself refused to comment on the issue.

Nicholls & Steyn have been entrusted with managing the IPL's security in South Africa, and Nicholls had said last week that the lack of time, the crime rate in South African cities and the elections in the country on April 22 were some of their main challenges.

[credit : http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14042009/58/underworld-death-threats-ipl-boss.html]

IPL’s exit sends out wrong signals to all

Only a reckless banker or a client-less astrologer will be willing to gamble their money and reputation on the outcome of the General Election.
But one thing is certain: if Congress performs poorly in urban India and fails to reap the harvest of youth votes it is banking on, a large share of the blame will go to the ‘munshis and managers’ who forced the T-20 IPL tournament out of India.

In the course of just one successful season, IPL had become one of the biggest global brands, comparable to Wimbledon and the football World Cup. The Central government chose to deal with this Indian achievement with the same bloody-mindedness it displayed in the allocation of 2G and 3G spectrum for the telecom sector. An outpouring of meanness drove the Nano plant out of West Bengal. Last week, P Chidambaram donned the mantle of Mamata Banerjee and forced IPL out of India. Like Mamata, who felt that Ratan Tata could be browbeaten because he was a hostage to money already invested in Singur, North Block proceeded on the assumption that the IPL was a helpless captive. And just as Tata had to cut his losses and resist blackmail politics, Lalit Modi inveigled IPL out of a desperate situation with a daredevil flight to South Africa.

The implications of IPL’s exile from India are awesome. There is, of course, the colossal loss of income for all those directly or indirectly involved in the cricket extravaganza — from humble vendors at the venues to the hospitality and travel industry. This, in turn, will have a bearing on government revenues which are already feeling the pinch of the slowdown.

But there is a more horrifying dimension which goes beyond accountancy. Chidambaram was being more than a little disingenuous when he argued that the IPL organisers were being unreasonable in putting entertainment above democracy. If it had been a case of adjusting the dates of a few matches to accommodate the policing arrangements for five different phases of polling, no one in the BCCI would have contemplated taking such an extreme step. The organisers agreed to add new venues such as Ahmedabad, Dharamsala and Raipur so as not to over-burden the administration of the metros. Gujarat, for example, accepted the offer of six games without any reservations; it had a problem with the date of a seventh match.

It is more than a little curious that the IPL faced resistance only from the Congress-ruled states. It was the firm no from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi that finally clinched the issue in favour of South Africa. In Delhi, where policing is under the direct purview of the Centre, even chief minister Sheila Dikshit was in favour of hosting matches. Yet, the police chief informed her and Delhi Cricket Association president Arun Jaitley that no permission would be forthcoming before, during and after the polling. As far as the Centre was concerned, IPL could go to hell.

The Government, it would seem, was intent on teaching the IPL organisers a lesson. Whether this was because of Lalit Modi’s proximity to Vasundhara Raje or prompted by a desire to deflate BCCI president Sharad Pawar is a matter of conjecture. Also, worth considering is the Congress Party pressure on the IPL to lift the total ban on political advertising at the venue and during the official telecast. Whatever the real story, there is compelling evidence to indicate that the government hostility was not prompted by national security imperatives. It can hardly be the case that terrorists were intent on targeting only Congress-ruled states.

The global message of the IPL flight to Africa is stark. India has sent out a loud and clear signal that the country is unsafe for any major event that involves international participation and crowds. The simple message: India is as dangerous as Pakistan.
India can only hope and pray that the world of global finance is mystified by cricket and fails to gauge the significance of the IPL fiasco.

If this self-inflicted ignominy is shameful, consider the other implication. India has proclaimed that it will respond to the terrorist challenge by running away from it. If terrorists target cricket, ban cricket; if terrorists frown upon a Rakhi Sawant Nite, deny permission to item numbers; and if zealots in Azamgarh want to impose an ideological veto on a political rally, meekly acquiesce. In an age of vote banks, this is called prudent politics.

No wonder, the latest batch of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists trying to cross the border carried T-shirts proclaiming ‘Jihad is my life.’ The army took them on frontally and did India proud. The vote-banker in the Home ministry would have responded differently. He would have banned T-shirts.

[credit : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/IPLs-exit-sends-out-wrong-signals/articleshow/4329083.cms]

England loses the IPL race to South Africa?

NEW DELHI: The moment Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi switched his travel plans to go Johannesburg instead of London, it was evident where the second edition of the Twenty20 cricket tournament is headed.

Modi dropped enough hints in his now famous late night exclusive interviews to Indian television channels to suit the prime time overseas, that South Africa is his preference, the fickle late winter weather ruling England out.

He said the organisers needed to take the weather pattern into account besides other factors like the April 26 London marathon which could make getting rooms extremely difficult. And then there is the English County season and the Test and One-day series against the West Indies.

Modi had made it clear that South Africa is a more attractive proposition what with their domestic season ending before the IPL gets underway. In England, some key venues will not be available for the IPL games without disrupting their domestic programme.

Moreover, South Africa is closer to India and that would give a time advantage over England.

Importantly, in this time of recession, the cost of holding the tournament will be cheaper in South Africa than in England, though the overall expenses will go a manifold because of the switch from India.

The other vexed problem for the organisers was the TV rights issue. In South Africa, Supersport has the rights to the IPL as well as all international cricket played in the country whereas in England Setanta holds the IPL rights and Sky Sports the international rights. Sky will have to telecast the England-West Indies series when the IPL would be on.

Simply put, South Africa has good stadiums, impeccable facilities and perfect weather to boot. Of course, the presence of Indian diaspora will be as good as it is in England and they all enjoy the shortest version of the game as seen in the Twenty20 World Championship two years ago.