How a don changes cricket rules overnight

This was last April, and the Cricket World Cup 8212; an opportunity to earn serious money, they argued 8212; was starting a month later in England. But Dawood barely listened. 8220;Do it or die,8221; he insisted, before abruptly ending the meeting. The violence of Dawood8217;s gang, known as D Company, is notorious. Hours later hundreds of thousands of bets were suddenly cancelled.

The incident, recounted here for the first time, illustrates the power of the men who run a racket that starts with poor punters waging small sums in backstreet gambling dens across Asia, ends with big-name cricketers throwing matches for cash and makes fortunes for those with the right information and right contacts. Dawood has plenty of both.

He is typical of the bookies whose match-fixing is scarring cricket, a sport supposedly synonymous with fair play. He controls a network of bookies and has links with some of the world8217;s best-known cricketers.

Thereare about 300 bookies in Lahore, double that number in Karachi, Calcutta and Delhi and thousands in Bombay. Between them they handle tens of millions of pounds every week. The rewards are enormous for bookies who get the odds right. The biggest operators try to steal a march on their rivals by having cricket insiders 8212; players, officials, journalists 8212; on their payroll to give them information. There are rumours that even some umpires are involved.

Pradeep Magazine, a veteran Indian cricket journalist Cricket Editor, The Indian Express, has just published a book detailing how he was approached by a Delhi bookmaker during India8217;s tour of the West Indies in 1997 and offered Aring;ldquo;60,000 to introduce him to Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin with a view to fixing matches. There is no suggestion that either player knew anything about this approach. But India8217;s cricket board dismissed his account as 8220;a figment of somebody8217;s lurid imagination8221; and an attempt to 8220;tarnish the image of the country8221;.

It isnot unusual for a bookie to spend up to Aring;ldquo;2 million trying to influence the result of a match, or series of matches, which might net him Aring;ldquo;10m. Police in Bombay admit bookies in their city alone turn over about Rs 430 m during a single match. One recently lost Aring;ldquo;2.5m on a single game. While cricket8217;s authorities routinely deny games are fixed, the truth is that corruption is rife. Cricketers talk about it freely off the record, but, when asked to give evidence, have even withdrawn sworn affidavits at the last minute.

As bribery is left unchecked, cricket8217;s reputation becomes more tarnished by the day. South Asia8217;s bookies live in large houses, drive imported Mercedes cars or four-wheel-drive Jeeps, and eat in five-star hotels where dinner for two costs more than the average monthly income. They have connections with important government figures and sports administrators.

Connections to players are highly-prized. The brother of Wasim Akram, the Pakistan captain recently cleared of match-fixing, is abookmaker; he is very successful. But he is an exception. Most bookies have to rely on hard cash for their player contacts.

One big Lahore bookie, Raja Sahib, has his office above a snooker hall in the exclusive residential area of Gulberg. In it are comfortable chairs, a deep carpet, television sets and bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label. On the bookie8217;s desk are rows of telephones. The most important of them connect him to Mumbai and Karachi and to another bookie, the father-in-law of a very powerful politician, to whom he passes bets so large that he cannot handle them on his own.

Dawood8217;s base in Dubai is an ideal place from which to influence the countless games that take place in neighbouring Sharjah, a kind of Monaco of the Middle East. It stages a large number of the insignificant noddy games8217; 8211; matches meaningless in sporting terms but highly-valuable to television 8211; which often attract the bookies8217; attention.

Questions were asked after the Champions Cup was staged in Sharjah in April thisyear. Pakistan won their opening fixtures against India and England then lost their second games against both opponents. The manner of their collapse against England 8212; losing their last five wickets for six runs 8212; immediately made ex-Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, who has repeatedly campaigned against corruption, cry foul. 8220;I suspect match-fixing,8221; he said. 8220;The way they lost the match, it8217;s obvious something fishy has again started in the team.8221;

Rashid8217;s claim is endorsed by a Pakistani government investigator, who has told The Observer: 8220;Some of our players made money in Sharjah, but the chapter is closed.8221;

Another Sharjah tournament starts on October 13, featuring West Indies, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. 8220;Players have very little interest in playing in these manufactured tournaments, which don8217;t matter and have no inherent place in the programme of international cricket,8221; explains one cricket insider. 8220;They see TV companies, promoters and cricket boards making money out of their efforts in thesegames which have basically been created as money-making enterprises, so it8217;s no surprise that some players will take the opportunity to make cash themselves.8221;

The authorities need to take drastic action if cricket8217;s image is not to be further tarnished. So far, their response has been lacklustre. Every inquiry has led to a whitewash; every crackdown has achieved little. In July, police in Lahore announced a major purge of illegal bookmakers; only four people were arrested, all small fish, and all were later released because of lack of evidence. In Australia, when star players Shane Warne and Mark Waugh took money from an Indian bookie in 1994 for providing seemingly innocuous 8220;pitch and weather information8221;, the country8217;s cricket authorities hushed up the incident.

In South Asia, the inaction is attributable to the close links between the bookies, politicians, legal figures and cricket administrators, the petty corruption of local police forces and, especially, a complete lack of political will totackle a problem whose tentacles reach far into Indian and Pakistani society. Pakistan8217;s response, especially, has been heavily criticised. The International Cricket Council, the game8217;s ruling body, began its own inquiry in January. Nine months on, it is still working on 8220;several items8221; but has revealed and decided nothing.

The ICC chairman, Jagmohan Dalmiya, is remembered in India for having swept claims of match-fixing under the carpet when he was secretary of the cricket board there. Now Scotland Yard is closing in. A newspaper last week named the Indian sports promoter Aushim Khetarpal as the 8220;Mr Big8221; who it says offered the former England player Chris Lewis Aring;ldquo;300,000 8212; and was prepared to offer a further Aring;ldquo;300,000 each to current Test players Alec Stewart and Alan Mullally 8212; with a view to fixing one of the matches against New Zealand last summer. Lewis contacted English Cricket Board officials as soon as the offer had been made to him.

Detectives will fly to India within the next few weeks tointerview Khetarpal. Scotland Yard said: 8220;All members of the England team will be spoken to during this investigation.8221; Lewis says that the offer made to him was 8220;a bribe wrapped up as a business proposition8221;. There will doubtless be much business done in Sharjah again in two weeks8217; time.

By special arrangement with the Observer News Service