SL Premier League team got Rs 50crore match-fixing offer

The Mumbai crime branch officials were shocked after receiving a letter from a Khar-based man, co-owner of a franchise team of Sri Lanka Premier League last year.

The man claimed that his brother had offered bookies to fix his team by paying Rs50crore.

Although an investigation could have opened a can of worms on betting, the police didn’t probe the case as the team was not based in the country. Moreover, it was not under their jurisdiction.

According to sources in the crime branch, they got a letter last year. The letter was sent by a Khar-based man, who claimed that he and his brother had bought a franchise team of Sri Lanka Premier League.

A total of seven teams participated in the Sri Lanka Premier League last year in its first edition.

“Franchise owners of most of the team participating in that tournament were Indians. The team, whose owner had written a letter to the police, wasn’t doing well in the tournament and was suffering losses,” said a crime branch source.

He added that one of the owners of the team had then written to the Mumbai crime branch, claiming that his brother had offered bookies to fix matches. He said he would give Rs50crore for match-fixing in their team.

The letter urged the police to investigate into the matter. “However, since the jurisdiction in this case was Sri Lanka, we didn’t pursue the matter,” said the officer.

Sources said that the Mumbai police could have alerted their Sri Lanka counterparts but probably the cops did not think that the complaint was genuine and let go of it.

The city crime branch had recently said that fugitive bookies Pawan and Sanjay Jaipur had also invested money in one of the teams of the Sri Lanka Premier League. “They weren’t the direct investors, but had made someone a front owner of their team in the tournament,” the officer said.

Hunt on for bookies
The city police are on the lookout for more than 30 bookies in the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting case.  “Bookies use aliases while communicating with their associates. We have identified names of some bookies who have gone underground after the police crackdown and we are trying to nab them. Once all the bookies involved are caught, we will be able to know more about their syndicate,” said additional commissioner of police, crime, Niket Kaushik.