Indian Premier League chiefs were yesterday defending themselves against government charges that the lucrative Twenty20 event in South Africa was “encouraging gambling and betting.”
Indian Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill lashed out at an IPL mobile phone SMS contest in which participants win cash prizes for correctly guessing the sequence of runs scored in the subsequent over of the match.
“I see the commercial use of cricket for business gains that is going on,” Gill, a former federal chief election commissioner, said in a statement. “I am concerned about the latest venture of encouraging viewers to make ball-by-ball predictions of runs scored for economic gain in the shape of cash prizes. This is viewed as openly encouraging gambling and betting which official bodies do not resort to, even in countries where betting is legal — all this to make money and enlarge their TV viewership base.”
The IPL downplayed the sports minister’s charges.
“A lot of effort has gone into this concept [SMS contest] and into making this possible,” IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was quoted as saying in South Africa by the Times of India. “It’s a valid point [made by Gill]. But the margin of something like that happening is one in a million. If this game works, fine. If not, then we will leave it aside.”
Meanwhile, an unbeaten half-century from Subramanium Badrinath propelled the Chennai Super Kings to a seven-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals and put them top of the IPL on Saturday.
After Rajasthan had posted 140 for seven, Chennai strolled to 141 for three as they took a one-point lead over the Delhi Daredevils in the standings.
The right-handed Badrinath scored 59 not out and shared a third-wicket stand of 89 runs with Matthew Hayden, before the Australian was stumped off the bowling of Shane Warne.
Hayden, the tournament’s leading run-scorer, departed for 48 off 44 balls and fittingly it was Badrinath who scored the winning runs with 10 balls to spare.
Rajasthan’s innings never got off the ground with only a 53-run second-wicket partnership between Graeme Smith (30) and Swapnil Asnodkar (26) providing any impetus before Warne clubbed an unbeaten 21 late in the innings.
In the first match of the Kimberley double-header, the Kings XI Punjab sneaked a three-wicket win off the penultimate ball of their innings against the Deccan Chargers.
Australian Andrew Symonds smashed an unbeaten 60 for the Deccan Chargers, but their total of 168 for five proved insufficient.
Punjab’s run-chase was led by Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene, who pummeled his way to 43 off 28 balls before being run out.
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
LONG TIME COMING: With the addition of Marcus Smart, the Washington Wizards finally held a team to under 100 points, the last team this season to do so The Detroit Pistons on Monday won their seventh straight game in the NBA with in-form Cade Cunningham making 32 points and grabbing nine rebounds in a 106-97 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Pistons, who are in the playoff position, moved to 32-26, their best record at this stage of a season for 17 years. It was an all-round effort from Detroit with Tobias Harris adding 20 points and Jalen Duren making 19 rebounds along with his 12 points. It was a tight contest until Detroit pulled away late in the third quarter to tie their longest winning streak since the 2014-2015
Soccer fans in England and Wales might be allowed to spend more time in pubs if their teams go far at the UEFA European Women’s Championship being held in Switzerland in July. The British government is launching a four-week consultation to discuss whether pubs can extend their opening hours from 11pm to 1am should England or Wales reach the semi-finals or final of Euro 2025. The British secretary of state for the home department has the power to extend licensing hours for occasions of “exceptional international, national or local significance,” the government said on Monday. England’s women’s team — whose players are nicknamed
RSS