A high-level committee on Monday asked the Supreme Court to consider its suggestion of "legalising sports betting" as one of the several measures to reduce the element of black money and influence of underworld to make cricket a "cleaner game" and free from spot and match-fixing.
A three-member committee headed by former chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court Mukul Mudgal made the recommendation after taking into account the views of most investigating agencies, which said in order to detect sporting fraud they lack the tools to know the names of the bookies, amount in bet etc. "They have stated that legalising sports betting would reduce the element of black money and the influence of the underworld," the report said in its recommendation.
The committee was of the view that senior iconic players with unimpeachable integrity like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Venkatesh Prasad and Anil Kumble should be involved to advise and caution the various teams, younger players and debutants about pitfalls of such malpractices, instead of foreigners.
"Our view is that such interactions with the legends of sport would be most effective and deter the potential wrongdoers. Furthermore, the ACSU-ACU instruction should not be in routine lectures by any foreign instructor but be disseminated by Indians in a more interactive meetings in a local language understood by all players," the report said.
Justice Mudgal and senior advocate L Nageshwar Rao wrote a common report and were in agreement with the third member, Nilay Dutta, who gave a separate but concurring report.
Mudgal and Rao, who is also the Additional Solicitor General, in their report said that instructions may be given in local languages to the players, but BCCI should avoid spending enormous sums of money on ICC deputed anti-corruption instructors.
Instead, reputed retired armed forces and police officers from India should be asked to do so after due training and sensitisation in Indian languages, the report said.
It said that there was a need to instill some fear in the players and the cricket body should investigate any allegations immediately.
"The current practice of not investigating unless an outside agency (like media) brings forth a sporting fraud, seems to be a reactive rather than a proactive approach," the report said.
It further suggested that the investigation wing of BCCI should be clearly defined and no person holding office in the cricket body should have the power to curtail, restrict or define any probe.
The report said that there should be a system of registering of players' agents who are aware of the BCCI and IPL rules and regulations.
"(Also) the antecedents of the agents should be verified so that dubious elements with links to bookies or the underworld are not given registration.
"Player agents should not be allowed to travel with the team or stay in the same hotel as the team, especially (when it is close to) the date of a match being played by the player whom the agent represents," the reports stated.
The committee said, "Players should not be allowed to own any stakes or interest in player agencies or companies involved with cricket unless such interest is in the nature of sponsorship or endorsement".
"Such interests should be declared by the player or his agent to BCCI within 15 days of (the arrangement being effectuated).
"In particular, employment of the players in the franchise group should be avoided," the report said.
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