LONDON, Dec 21: Illegal betting on cricket is alive and well and keeping the Indian bookmakers busy, an investigation by Telegraph Sport can reveal. There have also been attempts at match-fixing, but no evidence of any in the present series.

Massive amounts of money have been bet on the India-England series with odds changing by the minute as play fluctuates. By the time the series is over a total of £420 million may have been bet.

According to bookmakers spoken to in Mumbai, which is the centre of this illegal activity, both the first two Tests have been the subject of £140 million of bets and a similar sum is expected from the current Test in Bangalore.

In contrast, Graham Sharp, of William Hill, reckons the entire bookmaking industry in England may not take more than £100,000 for this series.

However, what makes this Indian betting very different is that with it being illegal in India the Indian police are always on the look-out for bookies. According to Shirish Immamdar, the inspector in charge of the Mumbai Police’s Social Security Cell, who tackle illegal betting, so far this year 33 illegal bookmakers have been arrested.

What makes it especially dangerous is that many of India’s most notorious underworld characters, who are wanted on a variety of charges, bet heavily on cricket matches. One bookmaker said that there had been 19 murders involved with cricket betting and as one finished talking he even warned me to be careful, saying that one was probing into very dangerous areas.

On Monday an associate of one of the underworld dons, who has been involved in illegal cricket betting, was shot dead in what the police termed an “encounter”. The incident illustrates the link between illegal betting and the underworld, which is now being investigated by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation and has caused concern to the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit headed by Lord Condon.

The only legal form of betting allowed in India is on-course race betting but even here the Indian Government’s imposition of a tax on winnings has made bookmakers and punters conceal their real bets.

All cricket betting is illegal and done on mobile phones. To place a bet you have to hire a betting line, which is supplied illegally by telephone workers. On these lines you can hear continuous commentary on the cricket betting. The more expensive the line the more information you get and for the right amount you can not only hear the constantly changing odds but also what the big punters are betting on.

The punters are constantly hedging their bets. Having decided to back India, they could in a couple of overs switch to a draw or an England victory as the odds change, reflecting the fluctuations of play.

Thursday in Bangalore, as India began their reply to England, the odds were for a draw: evens, 12-10 India or 10-1 England.

As one rang a bookmaker, V.V.S Laxman got out and the bookmaker said: “Are you not watching the cricket. A wicket has fallen, the odds will change. Ring me in 10 minutes.”

When one rang back he said India were now 1-4, a draw was also 1-4 while England were 5-1.

It is this ability to place bets on constantly changing fixed-price odds that provides the scope to “nobble” players. The aim is not so much to fix the result of the match but to do something that could alter the odds.

The bookmaker explained: “Let us say in a match Pakistan starts on half money and India are 2-1. If in the first 15 overs Pakistan lose two wickets then the odds change and the punter ‘eats’ [hedges] his position as Pakistan will become 2-1 and India will become half money.”

This means, said the bookmaker, all you need is a couple of batsmen to agree to lose their wickets, or a fielder to drop a catch, or a bowler to bowl badly for a few overs, particularly in a one-day match, and it can make all the difference.

The bookies one spoke to said they were not involved in trying to “nobble” players but this was done by the underworld dons, many of whom operate from outside India.

In the last six months attempts to “nobble” players have led to enormous problems for Mumbai bookmakers, who have incurred huge losses. In July in a one-day match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, played in Colombo, there were tremendous fluctuations with first New Zealand then Sri Lanka becoming the favourites.

One don, who lives outside India, had bet heavily but, suspecting a rival don had fixed the match, he put out an order for sauda fok (stop payments) on the entire match. No bets, he said, were to be honoured. Bookmakers were threatened if they did not obey and they held a crisis meeting to discuss what to do.

One bookmaker said the stop payment led to bets totalling £300 million being lost. He himself lost £51,000.

Whether Lord Condon’s anti-corruption unit can catch them seems doubtful. None of the bookies met had heard of Lord Condon although the day after one met one of them, quite intriguingly, he received a call from London asking whether he would meet one of Lord Condon’s officers who is shortly to visit Mumbai.

The England players were warned of the activities of Indian bookies before they went to the sub-continent although Lord Condon and his men are still to talk to the Indians.

Lord Condon has confirmed that match-fixing still goes on and the investigation suggests that given the huge amounts bet in India, unless the Indian Government can be persuaded to make it legal, it may be impossible to control.—Monitoring Desk