Feature
SC asks Srinivasan to address conflict of interest
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday asked if sidelined BCCI president N. Srinivasan was not in a position of conflict while being the head of cricket’s governing body in the country and also holding a franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Srinivasan is the Managing Director of the India Cements which is the owner of the IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings.
“You are a person who is managing the show (BCCI). You are also having a team competing in IPL. Would it not be a conflict of interest,” said the apex court bench of Justice T.S.Thakur and Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla. The court said this while observing that the IPL was BCCI’s creation.
Asked to explain the situation arising from the question of conflict of interest of Srinivasan, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the BCCI President, told the court that my interest is that “My team must win”.
In further posers to Sibal, the court asked “Who constitutes the BCCI. BCCI is headed by the president (now Srinivasan). Do you mean to say that when decisions are taken by the BCCI, President Srinivasan is a mute spectator and expresses no views?”
Senior counsel C.A. Sundram, representing the BCCI, said that the apex cricketing body’s working committee had representatives of 21 state level cricketing bodies and each one of them was eminent in his own right. Sundram said that IPL was played in a match format. It is a creation of BCCI and is its byproduct.
Justifying Srinivasan’s India Cements owning an IPL franchise CSK, Sundram said that “IPL when started was a commercial success.”
He said lot of people’s lives depend on the earnings from it so it should not be blocked.
Sundaram said that cricket in India has got an international recognition and the court should keep it in mind.
“This recognition comes from where?”, the court asked Sundaram back, adding that it comes from “over a lakh people sitting in Eden Gardens and watching the match”.
“So it becomes a mutual beneficial society. This game is a religion. Millions and millions of people are very passionate about it without any stakes or betting”, Justice Thakur said pointing to an obvious inference.
“If we allow what is happening then the game will be killed. What promotes the game is that it is played in true spirit of gentleman’s game”, the court said in reply to Sundaram’s defence.
“If the confidence of the people is shattered then the game (cricket) goes”, Justice Thakur observed asking the BCCI counsel if “If you are going to sit over the liquidation of the game.”
The court said that “the benefit of the game should go to the game and not to an individual.”
The court said this in the course of the hearing on the Mudgal Committee report which has while exonerating Srinivasan of any betting or match-fixing or scuttling probe into the allegations of batting and match-fixing in IPL 2013, has indicted his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan of betting.
The court has also recorded some findings about Raj Kundra the co-owner of IPL franchise Rajasthan Royal.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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