What Cheek! - Sree Shame: Police see three players fixing IPL spots, board sees little but bolt from blue

May 16: A “great comeback”, the TV commentator gushed. Hit for 14 off the first three balls of the over, Rajasthan Royals tweaker Ankeet Chavan had conceded just one from his last three. But once the floodlit night of show and glitz passed, it all looked a little dubious in the glare of daylight. Delhi police alleged this afternoon that Chavan had deliberately bowled long hops and half-volleys to the Mumbai Indians’ Glenn Maxwell last night because bookies had paid him to concede at least 13 runs in his second over. Job done in the first half of the over and the promised Rs 60 lakh in the bag — Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said — Chavan was free to tighten things up again, just as in his first over that had allowed only two runs. If the commentator was fooled, not so apparently the hawk-eyed team from Delhi police’s special cell watching from the Wankhede stands. The cops didn’t miss Chavan’s alleged “signal” to the bookies before the start of the over — a discreet rotation of his wristband — Kumar said. So, a little past midnight, began a chain of events that India’s cricket chief today described as a “bolt from the blue” — Delhi police arresting three Rajasthan Royals cricketers from Mumbai for alleged spot-fixing in three IPL matches. Kerala pacer and Test player Santhakumaran Sreesanth, Haryana offie Ajit Chandila and Mumbai left-arm spinner Chavan are each accused of conceding a pre-determined number of runs (or more) in an over against bribes from bookies with underworld links. All of them have been remanded in police custody for five days. Sreesanth is charged with taking Rs 40 lakh and Chavan Rs 60 lakh. Chandila, allegedly offered Rs 40 lakh, was asked to refund his Rs 20-lakh advance after failing to flash the agreed “signal”, which prevented the bookies from placing bets, the police said. If found guilty, the trio could face jail terms of up to seven years and a life ban from cricket, police and cricket officials indicated. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has suspended the players pending an inquiry and promised the “strictest action”. “Sreesanth was arrested from a friend’s home at Carter Road in Mumbai, Chandila outside hotel Intercontinental where some of the bookies were staying, and Ankeet was arrested from Hotel Trident (the Royals’ team hotel),” Kumar said. A senior Mumbai police officer told The Telegraph that Rs 1.2 crore in cash was seized from the team hotel but Delhi police refused to confirm or deny this. Name twist Sreesanth was held with childhood buddy and alleged bookie Jiju Janardanan. Mumbai police officers who had helped Delhi police operation said the cricketer was uncharacteristically docile during the arrest. “But he tried to be clever by giving his name as S.S. Nair to ensure that the FIR did not mention the name Sreesanth,” a Mumbai police source said. “It was meant to stave off the media and did appear to work initially.” Nair is indeed Sreesanth’s surname. The police mistakenly put the name down as “S.S. Nayyar”, probably influenced by the spelling of a similar-sounding north Indian surname. All three players were taken to the Marine Lines police station and an FIR was lodged around 2.30am. The trio were brought to Delhi on an early morning flight. Their faces covered and heads lowered, the cricketers appeared one by one before Delhi chief metropolitan magistrate Lokesh Kumar to claim innocence, sources said. Sreesanth alleged he had been trapped by bookies. The players have been charged under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). They are also likely to be booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, which could land them in jail without bail. Kumar ruled out any other player’s involvement. He said 11 bookies had been held and the police were looking for three more. The arrests are one more feather in the cap for Delhi police, who had in April 2000 ripped the veil off match-fixing in international cricket, nailing South Africa captain Hansie Cronje among others. ‘Towel’ signal The police today provided purported audio-visual “proof” from the three IPL matches under the scanner to detail the accused bookies’ and cricketers’ modus operandi. Kumar said the three matches were the Royals’ games of May 5, 9 and 15 against the Pune Warriors, Kings XI Punjab and the Mumbai Indians. He alleged the bookies had given the players specific “approval codes” that were used to signify a compromised over. “In certain overs, they (the players) were supposed to give away a certain amount of runs. The bookies gave the players instructions that they have to indicate that they would give away these runs,” he said. “The instructions were ‘put the towel in your trousers or take time setting the field or take out your locket or shirt or the vests that you are wearing’.” Investigators say that besides phone records, they have evidence of messages passed through BBM and WhatsApp. Sources said the police had stumbled on the spot-fixing racket while investigating an extortion case in Delhi. They then wiretapped the phones of some of the bookies, which allegedly led them to the three players. Delhi police said they had been tracking the bookies and the three players for over two weeks. “We had the three names but we had to get them to deliver on the promises they had made to the bookies. We got Chandila (May 5) and Sreesanth (May 9) and then were waiting for Chavan. Once we got his conversations with the bookies, we knew he would do the needful in the match against Mumbai,” Kumar said. “Our officers were present during the matches at the stadium since the signals could have gone out during the commercial breaks,” Kumar said. ‘Underworld’ links Mumbai officers claimed the spots were fixed at the behest of a Dawood Ibrahim-run syndicate operating from India’s betting hub of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, and was part of a bigger network spanning Mumbai, Karachi and Dubai. Kumar, however, refused to name any particular underworld don though he confirmed an “overseas” mafia link. But some Delhi police sources indicated that at least two of the bookies arrested had worked with Dawood until recently. Chandila was arrested from the same hotel as two alleged bookies — the Ahmedabad-based Amit Ramgivind Singh and Mannal Upendrakumar Bhatt, who were sharing Room No. 336. The other alleged bookies arrested in Mumbai are Chandresh Chandbhai Patel and Jiju. Another Delhi police team arrested seven others from in and around the capital, including Patiala resident Deepak Kumar, Delhi-based Rakesh, and Mohinder Pal Oberoi. Mumbai police sources said that around Rs 400 crore had been betted on every IPL match this year. “Everything, right from the match result to the number of sixes hit, was up for betting,” a source said. Asked whether any other cricketer, Indian or foreign, was involved, Kumar said: “We have no such evidence.” The Rajasthan Royals expressed shock. “We are completely taken by surprise,” a statement from the franchise said. “We will fully cooperate with the authorities to ensure a thorough investigation.” A Union sports ministry release said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla had been asked “to take urgent steps to… ensure clean sports” and take deterrent action if the trio were found guilty. BCCI president N. Srinivasan said a few “bad eggs” would not be allowed to “sully the game” and that the punishment, if the trio are found guilty, would be a “sufficient deterrent” for others. The best-known case of spot-fixing involves former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and pacers Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer, who were paid off to bowl three no-balls in the August 2010 Lord’s Test against England. After the tabloid News of the World exposed the scandal through a sting, all three had to serve short prison terms in Britain. They are now serving bans of five to 10 years from cricket.