The Delhi police on Friday confirmed that arrested Rajasthan Royals players Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan confessed to their involvement in spot-fixing in IPL 6 matches.

Chavan reportedly said that he got lured and made a huge mistake. Sources say the transcript shows that Chavan was initially reluctant but later succumbed to the bait as the bookies kept on increasing the inducement.

Chavan broke down during the second round of interrogation on Friday morning. When he was told that his cricket career was over, he faced a life ban and a possible jail term, he broke down and claimed that he was initially reluctant but was forced by others to spot-fix. He added that the inducement kept on increasing and he finally got lured.

The third player Ajit Chandila, who was also arrested, had coerced Chavan to indulge in spot-fixing. Chandila reportedly acted as middleman and also took money from the bookies to pay Chavan.

Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan were arrested by Delhi Police on Wednesday night and suspended from the IPL for alleged spot-fixing. Police sources also say they have taped conversations between bookies and players, other than Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan, who were remanded for five days.

Video evidence presented in a public forum by the Delhi Police has revealed that illegal activities are still rife in the IPL and threatens to throw the future of the lucrative Twenty20 league into crisis. In a startling and first-of-its-kind press conference, Delhi Police Commissioners Neeraj Kumar and Sanjeev Yadav revealed how the authorities had tracked and uncovered a ring of illegal activity between bookies and three members of the Rajasthan Royals IPL franchise, chiefly India fast bowler Sreesanth who was arrested in Mumbai along with the lesser-known Chandila and Chavan on Thursday. Eleven bookies and their assistants were also arrested, said the police.

Based on a tip-off from one of their sources that major illegal activity was taking place in the IPL and generated out of the Mumbai underworld, the Delhi police tracked the movements of certain bookies for over a month and on Thursday said it had “hundreds of hours” of damning evidence.

“The investigation started after we got information that [the] Mumbai underworld was indulging in match and spot fixing,” said Commissioner Kumar. “Special cell teams were present in all the matches but we cannot say with certainty that more players or teams are not involved in match or spot-fixing. One of the bookies, Jiju Janardhanan, is a very close friend of Sreesanth. More arrests will take place.”

As revealed by the police with telephonic and video evidence from live matches, the modus was that in particular the concerned cricketer was to guarantee that he would concede a minimum number of runs in a specific over. Through a series of non-verbal cues in the form of on-field movements, such as stretching, moving of jewellery and a wrist watch or the tucking of a towel into the trousers, the cricketers would signal to the bookies that this was the over in which they would follow the agreed plan.

The spot-fixing allegedly took place in three Rajasthan Royals matches against Kings XI Punjab, Pune Warriors and Mumbai Indians.

In the match between Rajasthan and Pune Warriors at Jaipur on May 5, spinner Chandila had agreed to give away 14 runs off his bowling in one over but forgot to give the signal to the bookies. In the specific over, Chandila began with a wide down the leg side and then, with fine leg up in the circle, drifted the second ball way down to Robin Uthappa’s pads and was swept away. The third ball was on the stumps but short in length and Uthappa cut it away to the point boundary. A dot and a single followed and the last ball was full on Aaron Finch’s pads. Again, with fine leg up, that was easy fodder for the batsman to sweep a boundary.

Recorded evidence reveals a conversation between Chandila and a bookie by the name of Amit. “He [Chandila] was told to bowl the first over with lot of confidence and with the same confidence bowl for us in the next over. The player agreed to it. The bookie asked: ‘What indication would you give? and Chandila said ‘I will lift my T-shirt before the over starts. After that I will look up and then start bowling.’ Ajit forgot to give this indication,” said Yadav.

As arranged, Chandila had conceded 14 runs. But according to the police, the fact that Chandila had not signaled that this was the over to bet on left the bookies incensed and a heated argument ensued between both parties after the match – this argument was apparently the clincher as both parties were a tad careless with their words.

In the match against Kings XI, Sreesanth had taken Rs 40 lakh to give at least 13 runs in one over. In video footage of the match shown on a big screen to the media, the Delhi Police highlighted both of Sreesanth’s overs in that May 9 match in which they identified an alleged pattern of spot-fixing.

“It was decided that Sreesanth would put a towel in his trouser before bowling the second over of his spell and also give enough time to bookies to indulge in heavy betting. As agreed, Sreesanth bowled the first over without wearing the towel. In the second over he put the towel in his trousers and in order to give enough time to his bookies he did some warming-up, some stretching exercises and then went on to give 13 runs,” said Commissioner Kumar to the media.

In Chavan’s case, the Delhi Police singled out Rajasthan’s match in Mumbai on May 15 and said the left-arm spinner had allegedly taken Rs 60 lakh to concede at least 13 runs in his second over. After a tidy first over in which he gave just two singles, Chavan gave 15 in the next. A breakdown of that over reads: six, two, six, dot, one and dot. Apparently, the advance money for this spot-fix was taken by Chandila who did not play that match; this leads the police to believe that Chandila also acted as a middle man.

The Police also confirmed that no international players are involved in IPL spot-fixing and that the only franchise whose players were engaged in illegal activities was Rajasthan Royals.

N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, has said that “no punishment is too little” for the cricketers involved in the spot-fixing scandal. If Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan are proven guilty, the board will press legal charges if allowed, Srinivasan told media. Asked if deterrent steps like sending culprits to jail were necessary, Srinivasan said he had “no hesitation in saying yes”.

Srinivasan said it was not the IPL that had let its fans down. Instead, he said, it was “these dirty cricketers”. He stressed that the IPL was not corrupt as a whole.

“See, IPL has not let down the people,” Srinivasan said. “It is these dirty cricketers that have done it. These people who have indulged in these kinds of activities. They are the ones. We feel bad.

“I don’t have to personally apologise. So long as people know I condemn it. That I don’t want it. That I resent the fact that I have to sit here and answer this. We are honest people.”

Srinivasan staunchly defended the IPL. “For the last two days everybody has asked me the same question,” he said. “‘IPL is damaged. IPL’s credibility is gone. IPL is untenable.’ It is the biggest tournament in the world. We should be proud of it.”

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By Milinda Gunawardena

St Joesphs College knocked down table leaders Trinity yesterday in a nail biting end to a thrilling encounter in their inter-school rugby match at Londgen Place.

The Josephians took away the game from Trinity by the narrowest of margins 18-17 upsetting the favorites. The performance by the home team was extra ordinary and well in contrast to their last week’s performance as they competed with sheer determination.

It was the visitors who drew first blood in the 5th minute through their prop forward Basu Karunathilake who dragged a few defenders to the try line with him to give Trinity an early lead. Tarinda converted easily. Trinity lead 7-0. Sadly Karunathilake had to leave the field with a sore ankle after his efforts.

Five minutes later Joes missed a great opportunity to open their scoring when Dulith Fernando’s attempt at a penalty was unsuccessful. However, a few minutes later Joes in their first visit to the opposition 22m broke through to score through their prop forward Stephan Gregory. The easy conversion was missed. Trinity replied immediately after when Ratwatte put over a penalty to extend the visitors lead 10-5.

in the 25th minute Joes Fly half Fernando takes a 30 penalty and sends the ball through the posts to narrow the lead 10-8. The flanker for Joes is yellow carded for a late tackle yet Trinity fail to capitalize on the numbers advantage. At the stroke of half time Gregory is in action again for Joes as he seemed impossible to stop close to the try line and is over for his second try giving his team the lead 13-10 going into half time.

Trinity who lacked flare in the first half started off the second half well by putting a few phases together this didn’t last long when center Aluwihare was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes for foul play. Both teams had their chances to score points in the second half yet failed to convert opportunities into points with some scrappy rugby.

The next try for Joes came though a good passage of play and a neat grubber by the Josephian center to his full back Kurubalapitiya that was kicked into the in goal area to touch down with 15 minutes to go. Dulith could not convert and this left the Joes ahead 18-10 and 15 minutes to go and you could sense the Trinity camp panicking with the changes from the bench coming in fast.

One such fruitful change for Trinity was their usual starting scrum half Naresh perera who was kept on the bench for some reason as he scored for Trinity with 10 minutes to go giving the visitors hope. Ratwatte converted to narrow the lead to just a single point 18-17 and Trinity did make many forays into the Josephian defense in the dying stages of the game but was unsuccessful in scoring any further points as they suffered a disappointing loss to St. Josephs.

The win was only the second by a Josephian side over Trinity and it spoilt Trinity’s unbeaten record in the league this season.

The schools rugby season plunged new depths on Saturday evening when the inter school rugby match between Royal and Isipathana was called off mid way in the second half after the Royal team walked off in protest at the manner in which the game was controlled.

The two schools have been at the forefront of rugby in the country but both sides have been having a poor season and Isipathana –the defending champions – were languishing at the bottom of the table. Both teams were however expected to raise their game and produce high quality rugby in their clash at the Royal Sports Complex.

Unfortunately right from the start it appeared that Isipathana had chosen a different approach to the game and there were many physical assaults on the Royal players as the former appeared to be chasing the players and not the ball.

Isipathana took an early 14-0 nil in the first 20 minutes and led 17-10 at half time. Royal bounced back in the second half and the scores were deadlocked at 20-20 when things got totally out of hand and an Isipathana player was seen kicking and punching an opponent in full view of the spectators. The incident was however totally missed by the officials – the referee and the two touch judges.

As the injury toll mounted, the Royalists whose next game is their crucial Bradby Shield game against Trinity appeared to not want to risk any more of their players to physical assaults and decided enough was enough and walked off.

Referee Pradeep Fernando had just awarded a penalty to Isipathana when the Royal team decided to walk off and the Isipathana team gleefully took a short tap and ran the ball and touched down under the posts unopposed. The try was converted and Isipathana led 27-20 when the game was called off with 20 minutes still remaining.

Isipathana were unofficially awarded the game, and the Major Milroy Fernando trophy

Kingswood trounce St Peters 41-15
Kingswood College Kandy sprang one of the biggest upsets in the school rugby season when they trounced St Peter’s 41-15 in their inter school rugby encounter at St Peter’s College grounds Bambalapitiya on Saturday. Kingswood led 24-15 at half time.

Sight for the purists – a test match match at Lords

By Richard Browne

Cricket is a game of contrasts and this week, another sad one for the game has highlighted the rapidly defined perimeters amongst the cricket watching public.

In one corner we have India, as the IPL tries to come to terms with the latest match fixing scandal, that has all the ingredients of being the tip of a particularly unpleasant iceberg, the fans pack the stands to scream on their teams amongst the cheer leaders, time outs and garish costumes festooned with more advertising logo’s than a formula 1 car.

In the other corner the first Test of the English summer is under way at Lords. A first day scoring rate of two runs per over, the MCC members in their distinctive ties and the odd pop of the Champagne bottle, breaking the distinctive first morning gentle hum of a Test day at the Home of cricket.

It is hard to think of any major sport that offers such contrasting conditions for both spectators and players alike. Maybe tennis with its four distinctive surfaces for the players has the versatility, but from the spectator point of view, watching the game on any surface is pretty similar.
Watching an IPL game in Chennai is a completely different kettle of fish to sitting in the Lords pavilion.

The first day at Lords on a slow pitch, was one for the connoisseurs and a throwback to a different era. A game of cat and mouse, with the kiwi bowlers keeping generally immaculate lines and the innovative captain McCullum tinkering with his field safe in the knowledge that his bowlers had the skills and disciplines to execute his plans. It was in one word subtle.

There is nothing subtle about the IPL. There is no time to formulate plans over a period of time, everything is in the now, like modern day life. Rank commercialism is everywhere, but with this culture of endless matches, big money and every man for itself, the match fixing crisis of this week was inevitable.

The battle lines between the subcontinent and the rest of the cricketing world stared to be set when India under the charismatic KapilDev unexpectedly defeated the mighty West Indians at the 1983 world cup final. Indian cricket had not taken to the shorter format of the game previous to this.

The pace of India and Indian cricket was slow, KapilDev’s victory opened the eyes to a new cricketing world, where batsmen did not bat all day for 80 not out and games didn’t finish in draws, a common trait through the history of cricket on the subcontinent.
England, Australia and all the rest embraced limited overs cricket a lot more quickly. It had been going for over twenty years in the UK by the time KapilDev lifted the cup. Australia had had the World Series revolution.

T20 cricket was another English invention. Slowly dying in the UK due to a misguided fixture list and instinctive liking for the longer form of the game amongst the Brits, India has gone crazy for it, while empty stands welcome cricketers in whites. Ditto Sri Lanka. Basically the same game but seen in different parts of the world in very different shades of light.

As long as corruption can be initially contained then eventually stamped out, that India thinks on a global and not nation al basis and that TV money continues to poor in, then the different shades can all merge to form a beautiful painting, a painting that at the moment is still at the mercy of the moods and whims of its artists, a canvass with potential but no definite ending.

Tour fixtures:
July 20, 1st ODI, Colombo
July 23, 2nd ODI, Colombo
July 26, 3rd ODI, Kandy
July 28, 4th ODI, Kandy
July 31, 5th ODI, Colombo
August 2, 1st T20, Colombo
August 4, 2nd T20, Hambantota
August 6, 3rd T20, Hambantota

A Sanga-less Sunrisers Hyderabad side continued its good form with an emphatic win over Rajasthan Royals on Friday that took them one step closer to qualifying for the play-offs in the Indian Premier League.

James Faulkner’s effort of 5 for 16 went in vain as the Royals failed to chase a moderate total of 137 against Sunrisers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal on Friday.

Three players from the Royals are being questioned for alleged spot-fixing, but the team played on and made their scheduled visit to the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

Their bowlers played their part, especially James Faulkner who became the first man to have two five-wicket hauls in the same IPL season as the Sunrisers were restricted to 136-9.

Rajasthan could not respond with the bat though, with captain Rahul Dravid’s 25 and Kevon Cooper’s top score of 26 being the only notable efforts in their 113-9.

It was a bad way for the troubled Royals to end their IPL league campaign, although they had already qualified for the play-offs and remain in third place in the table.

The Sunrisers secured a ninth win of the season and move up into fourth place and still have one game remaining against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.

Biplab Samantray top scored for the Sunrisers as they batted first, with his 55 only being ended by Faulker, who went on to record figures of 5-16 off his four overs.

Darren Sammy made 23 but skipper Cameron White had a shocker as he went for a first-ball duck when fellow Australian Shane Watson had him caught and at that stage the hosts were struggling back at 5-3.

Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera struck an uncharacteristic 17 not out off 13 balls without any boundaries but his innings helped Sunrisers to recover.

They recovered enough though to set a decent total and one that turned out to be too much for Rajasthan to handle.

The Royals fell 23 runs short in the face of some accurate bowling from one of the best balanced attacks in the tournament. Dale Steyn led the way with two wickets for 17 and Perera, Kiran Sharma and Mishra all had two wickets each in an all-round bowling effort.

James Anderson joined Test cricket’s elite 300 club, on a tough day otherwise for England against New Zealand at Lord’s.
Kiwi opener Peter Fulton was Anderson’s 300th wicket – making him only the fourth Englishman to reach the landmark alongside Fred Trueman, Bob Willis and Ian Botham.
When Anderson’s great friend Graeme Swann held on to the catch low at second slip to complete Fulton’s dismissal, New Zealand were seven for two on day two of the first Investec Test.
But after hugs all round from team-mates, and raising the ball to the crowd, the celebrations proved fleeting as Ross Taylor took over with a fluent 66 out of 153 for four in reply to England’s ponderous 232 all out.
The rationale last night, after England had closed on 160 for four, was that on this untypically slow pitch and outfield their patience would eventually pay off with a dominant total.
wwBut after they lost their last six wickets for 40 today to the swing of Tim Southee (four for 58) and Neil Wagner (three for 70), the onus was on them to try to take control with the ball instead. Anderson began this afternoon with 298 career wickets.
His first success came with the final ball of his opening over, finding a little extra bounce to have dangerous opener Hamish Rutherford neatly caught at first slip by Alastair Cook.
England’s lynchpin fast bowler then struck again, for the 300th time, when he found Fulton’s outside-edge and Swann was appropriately safe with a low catch.
In perfect conditions for England’s seam attack, though, Taylor launched a successful counter-attack either side of tea. He hit 13 fours from 72 balls, mainly off the back foot through the off-side, recording the first half-century of the match and sharing the first 50 stand too with sheet-anchor Kane Williamson.
It was not until Anderson (three for 32) returned for his fourth spell that he made it 301 with just his second delivery when he beat Taylor’s forward push to pin him lbw.
With spin already for Swann at the other end, Anderson would have got rid of Williamson’s limpet presence for 23 too had Matt Prior held a one-handed chance.
But the stoic number three survived – as he did again four runs later, when Steven Finn found the thinnest of edges down the leg-side only for Steve Davis to give the batsman not out. Even after Dean Brownlie went lbw to Finn via DRS to overturn Davis’ not-out verdict before the close, the advantage was still with the tourists. It was Southee’s two wickets in successive balls this morning which had first seized the initiative, and England’s collapse took hold as they lost four for nine runs.
Top-scorer Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root had come through the initial threat of the second new ball, and there were no serious alarms up to morning drinks.
But within another half-hour, after yesterday’s two-an-over crawl, slow scoring was decidedly no longer England’s principal problem.
First, Root’s prolific form – almost 700 first-class runs this summer in only five attempts – was interrupted by a mode of dismissal every batsman dreads, caught-behind down the leg-side.
If Southee had a little fortune on his side then, it was skill not luck that did for next man Prior. The England wicketkeeper -New Zealand’s stumbling block with his unbeaten century in the famous draw at Auckland less than two months ago – was gone in the blink of an eye today. Southee discarded his stock away swing to angle one in and strike Prior on the pad first ball. Umpire Davis’ judgment that the ball would have hit leg-stump, despite the Lord’s camber, was then duly vindicated by DRS.
Stuart Broad denied Southee a hat-trick, but he then did not even trouble DRS after being hit in front as Wagner swung another up the slope and England recorded two ducks in successive overs. Swann provided the briefest of respites with a square-driven four off Wagner, before falling in the left-armer’s next over when he wafted an edge for wicketkeeper BJ Watling’s fourth catch.
After lunch, Bairstow lost Finn lbw pushing forward to Southee, and the young Yorkshireman himself drilled a return catch back to be last out to Southee as England’s innings fell well short of expectations.