IPL scandal: India’s top court seeks BCCI report in two weeks

New Delhi: India’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition on Tuesday seeking to scrap the remaining matches of the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) competition amid growing concerns about corruption in sport.

Former Test team player Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two other cricketers were arrested along with 11 bookmakers last Thursday on suspicion of spot-fixing in the IPL. The case has prompted the Indian government to look at the possibility of introducing a law to combat matchfixing and spot-fixing.

Cricket fan and social activist Sudarsh Awasti lodged the petition demanding the scrapping of the remaining four IPL matches, including Sunday’s final, but the apex court said the competition would go on as scheduled.

The court also asked the Indian cricket board to submit a report within two weeks with details of the players’ involvement in the scandal and the action that had been taken against them. Cricket is a gentlemen’s game and it should remain so, the court observed.

In his lawsuit, Awasti also sought a special investigation to get to the bottom of the spot-fixing scandal and called for the IPL to be banned from next year, but the court found no merit in his demands.

Legal sports betting in India is confined to horse racing while illegal betting syndicates thrive in the absence of a law dealing specifically with such corruption in sport. Media estimates put the amount gambled on India’s top cricket Twenty20 competition at $427 million (Dh1.56 billion) in 2009.