Meiyappan and the sport betting berg

With Gurunath Meiyappan’s indictment in the IPL spot-fixing scam, more skeletons are likely to tumble out of the sport betting closet. The Mudgal Committee report clearly states that there has been involvement of many top bananas in this massive and organised stealth and that Meiyappan , Raj Kundra and others implicated in the scam might just be the smaller fishes caught in a net that spreads out far and wide in the global Indian commercial space. Moreover, the committee has also slammed the police, particularly the Chennai cops, saying that attempts of cover up have been made by the investigators. Not only have links to alleged bookies been lost deliberately in order to brush several more aspects of the IPL betting racket under the carpet, fingers have been pointed even at the Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni, whose erstwhile squeaky clean image might now be called into question. Evidently, the betting racket might just be a giant grinding wheel with Meiyappan playing the role of a small but crucial spoke that links many others to the possible kingpins.

In this light, N Srinivasan’s come back as the BCCI chief and his crowing in the near future as the International Cricket Council head bring into sharp relief the complicity of global players in this expanding syndicate. As the recent heist in South Delhi had illustrated, the IPL betting money, particularly the cold cash distributed by the bookies, are still doing the rounds in black market. To nail one would not suffice unless the bigger fries are caught red-handed and brought to book.