Fake cricket match duped Russian gamblers

VILLAGERS from Gujarat, India played out a fake cricket tournament on a remote farm in Molipur village in Mehsana district, with organisers drawing in the first instalment of bets worth Rs 3 lakh (approximately RM16,700) before getting busted by the police.

According to a report by Outlook, the villagers even managed to set up a Telegram channel dedicated to the games. That’s where they took bets from Russian gamblers located in Tver, Voronezh, and Moscow.

Interestingly, this version of the ‘IPL’ tournament was being played after the actual IPL’s 2022 season closed out in late May.

As per a news report in Dainik Bhaskar, each ‘player’ was paid as low as Rs 400 to pose as star players from Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, and Gujarat Titans.

While most of the archived footage is soundless, The Times of India reported that livestreams of these matches had crowd-noise sound effects to lend “ambience” to the games.

According to The Times of India, the idea for the fake IPL came about when its “chief organiser” Shoeb Davda spent eight months working at a Russian pub.

Meanwhile, police official Bhavesh Rathod told the BBC that he had “never seen a scam like this”.