“Fixers Will Never Waste Their Time on Top Stars Like Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni,” Says ACU Chief of BCCI

The recent allegations of match-fixing in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) has once again raised the question of whether cricket is most susceptible to fixing in sports. Along with this, whether the top Indian players need to think about this. However the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) chief of BCCI Ajit Singh feels that the bookies would never contact or approach the players like Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni. While speaking to IANS, the ACU chief expressed that it is the youngsters and the unsuccessful players who get trapped into these things.

“If you ask me, today in cricket, a star has much more to lose than gain if he gets involved in this. Imagine a Virat Kohli or Dhoni getting into this. Things don’t just move by money, it is also the reputation that counts. They can’t sacrifice their reputation for such things. They are far bigger than all this,” he added.

He further added that the fixers are looking at any opportunities they can get. If they are unable to get into any tournament, they start their own leagues. They move to new countries and do their works in the name organising tournaments or pretend to be working.

“You can’t stop someone from organising a tournament because this is a free country. But what BCCI can do is say this is not recognised so registered players won’t go. Still, some young players fall for this. Sometimes, they also get players from outside to promote the league and make them ambassadors and stuff,” he said.

However, the ACU chief said that the fact that BCCI has been successful to stop corruption as the fixers are moving outside India. He further said that corruption in sports needs to be made a criminal offence.

“The changes that need to be made to (legalise betting) aren’t very many. You notify an enforcement agency – could be the police or any agency that the government wants. The need is to have a debate on it as there are issues of morality involved. Like in some of our states, prohibition is there on alcohol. So, there are issues of morality involved and needs to be a debate among the law makers and then a decision needs to be reached on this,”  Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) chief of BCCI, Ajit Singh concluded.