Telegraph Sport has learnt that nine spectators have been ejected from
at least five grounds this season at county and international matches under
suspicion of working for bookies in India. Last year it was 12 but with the
county Twenty20 season only just in full swing the number is already close
to matching that.
ECB anti-corruption officers are policing matches live on Sky which are beamed
into India.
“The reason we are concerned is because of the threat these people pose to
the game as a whole,” said an ECB spokesman. “They are agents for illegal
bookies in the subcontinent and if they could get access to a player or
official they would approach them with only one thing in mind. Anyone
talking to them and mentioning the state of the pitch or selection for
example would be breaching the anti-corruption code so we are protecting the
clubs and players. It is one part of making sure matches are as safe as
possible.”
The agents for the bookies are often communicating with India via hidden
microphones or smart-phone messaging systems. They are passing on data such
as fours and wickets using a coded message system. Matches shown in India
are often on a 15-second time lag, which means live information from inside
the ground can help a bookie fix the odds.
The ECB is not concerned about punters using laptops to bet on legal gambling
sites in this country, a system known as court-siding.
This season suspected agents for bookies have been thrown out of matches in
Durham, Cardiff, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston and Northampton. Officers threw one
fan out of the Champions Trophy match between South Africa and India at
Cardiff and another was intercepted at Durham’s Riverside Ground at a match
between Durham and Hampshire on June 22 after posing as a Sky Sports
employee. He has subsequently been banned from all county grounds in England.
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