‘City bookies had no role in Woolmer murder’

A top bookie said on Friday that there was no reason to believe that city bookies had any “role” in the killing of the cricket coach.

The bookie’s statement puts to rest — if at least temporarily — the theory that Woolmer had an argument with a city bookie at Hotel Pegasus.

Commissioner DN Jadhav too said there was no basis to suggest that city bookies were present in Jamaica during Woolmer’s death.

Speaking to DNA one of bookies said Sobhan Mehta, Hitesh Gala, Jayanti Malad, Monoj Metro and Kotari — the top five city bookies who had stakes in the World Cup — were not present during the tournament. “It is highly unlikely that Mumbai bookies had been to Jamaica and had anything to do with Woolmer’s murder,” he said.

The bookie also explained how the agents influence cricket matches and rake in huge money. When it came to mobile phones, Reliance was the first choice, he said.

Bets were placed over “sessions” instead of the entire match. There were three such sessions — from 1 to the 15th over, 16th to the 30th over and from the 31st to the 50th over, he said.    

In bookies’ parlance, the second “session” of a cricket match was the most crucial and the sizes of bets (normally placed by the punters) were large because predicting “outcomes” was easier, the bookie said.