‘Law needed to deal with corruption in sports’

The Supreme Court-appointed panel, which probed charges of betting and spot-fixing in the IPL, has recommended enactment of a substantive law to deal with corruption in sports.

“The status of law in regard to betting and fixing has created operational impediment to investigating and prosecuting agencies in combating these corrupt influences in sport. It is imperative to enact a substantive law making all forms of manipulation of sports, corruption and malpractices of sports a criminal offence. The law must be applicable uniformly in the country,” the report said.

“The law must provide for stringent and deterrent punishments. This is necessary because [the] influx of

hawala money and involvement of terrorist elements in betting and fixing of sports are causing a serious threat to national security.” The report said: “The fact that the Mumbai police did not accept the role of Dawood Ibrahim in the betting racket in Mumbai shows that the Delhi Police and the Mumbai Police are working at cross purposes in so far as the link to Dawood Ibrahim is concerned. In such a grave matter of national security, the two top police organisations cannot be permitted to work at cross purposes.”

The report said: “It is incumbent upon the IPL Governing Council and the BCCI to send a clear and emphatic message that dishonesty in cricket will not be tolerated and the most effective way of conveying this message is imposition of severe and stringent punishment… It is important to inform players that an act of misconduct shall be referred to the police… It is desirable that the various forms of punishment be delineated, from the lightest to the most severe.”