IPL 2020: BCCI is recruiting foreign agency to track betting syndicates in the UAE
The Indian Cricket Board of Control is set to employ foreign agencies to track betting syndicates during the Indian Premier League 2020 in the UAE.
Ajit Singh, Anti Corruption Unit chief told the media that, “We are hiring professional agencies, who would monitor the betting market and track trends on social media. They would alert us in case they find anything that arouses suspicion.”
It has been learned that one of the agencies has prior experience tracking corruption in sport. Singh, a former Director General of Police (Rajasthan) disclosed that, “They will operate independently and give us reports regularly. They have a strong network, which would help us gather more information.”
The eight-member ACU will keep a check on all the squads, who will be inside the bio-bubbles in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
Singh further explained that for this year, they are doing it, and will see how things work out. It is up to the agency to come up with a plan on how they want to track the space of social media space. He added that his team will be in coordination with the agencies and with all the franchises as well.
Although there would be no integrity officers, each outfit would have two security liaison officers, who would be with the squads in the hotel and accompany them for the training sessions as well. Singh pointed out that they’re going to do it in-house, since there would be just 3 venues and the venues are also on a driving distance, the management of the anti-corruption operations should not be a concern.
The ACU has handled its IPL operations independently since last year, without involving the International Cricket Council.
According to Singh, there are challenges but the advantage is that all players will stay inside a bubble and there’s no contact with outsiders, so that’s going to be a good thing.
The ACU officers will begin traveling in groups to the UAE over the next few days.
