BCCI, ICC to co-operate with Bengaluru Police for KPL scandal
The BCCI and the ICC have reached out to Bengaluru Police and have offered them full support in finding out the culprits behind the betting scandal of the Karnataka Premier League (KPL). Many names like CM Gautam and Arbar Kazzi have been come out in the open that are related to the scandal.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCi) have promised full co-operation to the Bengaluru Police in probing the KPL fixing scandal and will be looking to unmask more people that are involved in the scandal. Seasoned pros like CM Gautam have been arrested by the police and Abhimanyu Mithun will be interrogated by the Central Crime Branch regarding the scandal.
"The ICC has contacted Bengaluru Police regarding the KPL betting scam. We are in cooperation with each other," Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kuldeep Jain, confirmed with IANS.
ICC had established the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) in 2000 and the ACU works with board members, team representatives, players, etc. and the players are properly briefed before every series about how to report a bookie approach and how to play the game in the right spirit. The ACU will provide full support to the police in the probe and BCCI has also contacted the police to offer help in probing the KPL scandal.
"BCCI has extended all cooperation... They are also collecting information from us and we are on the same lines against the KPL betting scam," said Jain.
KPL is one of the popular local franchise leagues which had begun in 2008 and has been run by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). KSCA Treasurer Vinaya Mruthyunjaya said that the association had no clue about the ICC contacting the local police.
"We have no information of ICC having contacted the police," Mruthyunjaya told IANS.
The exact amount of data in GB that the police has attained in the form of videos, scorecards, phone calls, etc. is still not known. The amount of coordination between ICC, BCCI, and KSCA in order to help the police for the probe is also unknown at this point in time.
With time, more things are likely to come out in the open as players are being arrested, interrogated and recorded for any involvement in the scandal of spot-fixing and honey-trapping.