Just not cricket: Indian police uncover elaborate betting hoax

The sale of an imaginary T20 cricket league team to a South Africa-based business tycoon was central to the plot of a 2014 Bollywood thriller Raja Natwarlal.

But cops in India unearthed something even more bizarre recently - fake cricket matches that were broadcast live on YouTube for a betting operation in Russia.

These matches were held in the states of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh and police suspect such games were possibly also organised in Haryana. In Gujarat, where cops arrested four accused in Molipur village on July 7, the hoax was ingenious and daring.

Con men pulled off a sham Indian Premier League (IPL)-style cricket tournament three weeks after the official version of the tournament had ended in May.

A stretch of farmland was reportedly cleared for a cricket pitch, complete with halogen lamps for night-time matches. Locals were hired for as little as 400 rupees (S$7) as players. They were given professional gear, along with team names such as Chennai Fighters and Maharashtra Rangers. A commentator who sounds like a famous presenter was roped in to give the games a professional feel.

High-definition cameras beamed the matches online and bets were placed through a Telegram channel managed in Russia.

And while these matches had no ground audience, sounds of cheering crowds from actual IPL games were played from speakers placed near the venue.

Gujarat police said one of those arrested had worked in Russia and had links with people there who are now suspected to be behind the fake games in Uttar Pradesh.

On July 12, police in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur district arrested two people accused of running the scam for more than six months.

The matches, held on local cricket grounds, were streamed live on YouTube and bets were accepted through CricHeroes, an app that allows one to live-stream cricket matches.

"This has really been a different scam," said Mr Deepak Bhuker, the top police official in Hapur district. "We have seen betting on original matches but this is the first time we have come across people creating fake matches and then betting on them," he told The Straits Times.

Local cricket players were hired and passed off as professionals with names of state-level players and those competing in Ranji Trophy, a domestic first-class cricket championship.

The police seized cameras and Wi-Fi routers used to broadcast these matches from the suspects.

"Because the games were being broadcast live, they (the Russian punters) would have thought that they had some standard," added Mr Bhuker.

India hosts the IPL, the world's richest cricket competition. Last month, broadcast rights of the tournament for the next five editions were sold for US$6.2 billion (S$8.7 billion). Betting on cricket is illegal in India.

The Times of India newspaper reported last Friday that Shoeb Davda, a key accused in the Molipur scam, played for cricket clubs in Russia and trained local villagers so that their postures would appear convincing.

The accused, according to the police in Gujarat, had received a first instalment of more than 300,000 rupees from punters in Russia.

Davda reportedly also underwent training at a cricket academy in Meerut run by Russia-based Ashok Chaudhary, whom Hapur police has named as the mastermind of the fake cricket league.

Locals in Molipur had no idea that such a hoax was going on.

"We thought the matches were like any other game with youngsters who had time to spare," said Mr Ismailbhai Jamalbhai Dhaniya, a former headman.

Investigations are on to ascertain further linkages between the scam in the two states.