IPL betting & fixing: Legalise sports betting, report suggests

NEW DELHI: A high-level committee today asked the Supreme Court to consider its suggestion of "legalising sports betting" as one of the several measures to reduce the element of black money and influence of underworld to make cricket a "cleaner game" and free from spot and match-fixing.

A three-member committee headed by former chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court Mukul Mudgal made the recommendation after taking into account the views of most investigating agencies, which said in order to detect sporting fraud they lack the tools to know the names of the bookies, amount in bet etc.

"They have stated that legalising sports betting would reduce the element of black money and the influence of the underworld," the report said in its recommendation.

The committee was of the view that senior iconic players with unimpeachable integrity like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Venkatesh Prasad and Anil Kumble should be involved to advise and caution the various teams, younger players and debutants about pitfalls of such malpractices, instead of foreigners.

"Our view is that such interactions with the legends of sport would be most effective and deter the potential wrongdoers. Furthermore, the ACSU-ACU instruction should not be in routine lectures by any foreign instructor but be disseminated by Indians in a more interactive meetings in a local language understood by all players," the report said.