Reports | BCCI ACU suspecting potential Dream 11 link in UVA T20 League scandal
The BCCIâs Anti-Corruption Unit have reportedly asked the Punjab police to look at a potential Dream 11 link in the UVA T20 scandal, after players in the tournament were spotted wearing Dream 11 jerseys. Earlier, âUVA T20â was exposed as an unauthorized tournament being played in Mohali.
Last week, in an astonishing exposal, it was revealed that the âUVA T20 Leagueâ, which was believed to be an SLC approved T20 league played in Sri Lanka and was streamed on FanCode, was, in fact, an unauthorized tournament that was being played in Mohali, Punjab. It was revealed that a group of men had conned Fancode, a premium sports app to watch Livestreams, into believing that âUVA T20â was an officially organized T20 tournament featuring the likes of Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof, on the back of which eight arrests were made by the Punjab police after it was discovered that there was an involvement of alleged bookies in the scandal.Â
The matter has since been transferred to BCCIâs Anti-Corruption Unit, who have begun their own probe on the issue. And now, according to an Indian Express report, the ACU have requested the Mohali police to look at a potential Dream 11 link in the scandal, as players in the tournament, that was played in Mohali, were seen sporting jerseys in which the âDream 11â sign was taped.Â
"There is also chance that Dream11 may be linked. We think the kits used might have been from a previous Dream11 tournament. All of the kits had âDream11â on the back â there is clearly a chance that these could have been forged, but two sides had tape covering up the Dream11 sign. This is strange: if someone was forging it and didnât want two sides to have it displayed then arguably, they wouldnât print in the first place," ACU said in a communication to Mohali police, according to the newspaper, reported News18.
The ACU also reportedly said that they would âquestionâ the involvement of FanCode as, according to them, the website shouldnât have been so easily persuaded into streaming a tournament that had no authenticity.
"With the regard to FanCode, we would also question their involvement as it should not be easy to persuade them to stream a tournament like this,â the official reportedly said.
Fancode, however, have responded by saying that they are the aggrieved party and also confirmed that they have been closely working with SLCâs ACU, providing all the evidence they can, to get to the bottom of the issue.
"FanCode has filed a formal complaint with the Mumbai Police on July 6th, 2020. We are an aggrieved party in this whole incident of Uva Premier League T20, as it has transpired that the documents submitted by the organisers during our due diligence process were forged/ fabricated. The organisers had provided us with a Letter of Sanction from Uva Province Cricket Association along with an email from the official email id of SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket) that provided confirmation of the tournament.
"After Day 1 of the tournament, where FanCode streamed two matches, the legal team of SLC reached out to us and informed us that the matches are not approved by them. We immediately stopped streaming these matches on our platform. We are closely working with the Anti-Corruption Unit of SLC and have provided all the documents/ evidence and details available with us, which may be useful for the investigation. We will be more than happy to provide information/ evidence/ documents to any and all investigating agencies working on the matter,â read a Fancode statement, reported Indian Express.Â