Fake IPL in Gujarat? How Villagers Almost Duped Russian Gamblers

Mehsana: Can you imagine orchestrating the entire IPL without the support of BCCI or the other professionals who are involved in making the T20 league a massive spectacle in India? As per TOI, a bunch of labourers from a remote village in of Molipur in the Mehsana district tried that and nearly succeeded in duping Russian gamblers who were interested in betting. A total of 21 labourers recreated IPL taking turns and posing as players with different jerseys.

They also had an in-house Harsha Bhogle doing the commentary. It was one of the labourers who was hired from Meerut posed as the ace broadcaster for the event.

There was deployment of five HD cameras, walkie-talkies, and crowd noise downloaded from the internet, improved the quality of the matches. The matches were also broadcast on YouTube to make it look as real as possible and the money was being channelled through the Telegram platform. The tournament had also reached its knockout stage and that is when the cops tracked it and arrested the culprits for running the fake IPL.

Police have nabbed four culprits and named Shoeb Davda as the architect of the plan.

According to police official Bhavesh Rathod: “Shoeb hired the farm of Ghulam Masih and installed halogen lights there. He readied 21 farm labourers, promising them Rs 400 per match. Next, he hired cameramen and bought t-shirts of IPL teams.”

“Shoeb would take live bets over the Telegram channel. He would instruct Kolu, the umpire, over a walkie-talkie to signal fours and sixes. Kolu communicated the same to the batsman and the bowler. Acting on the instructions, the bowler would deliver a slow ball, enabling the batsman to hit it for a four or a six,” Rathod added.