Spot-betting 'hard to detect'

India, the home to millions of fanatical fans and the lucrative IPL Twenty20 tournament, is thought to host much of the worldwide network of illegal gambling on cricket.

"Betting happens in every match and does not always have to do with the end result," a regular gambler based in New Delhi said on Monday on condition of anonymity.

"People bet on almost every delivery, whether it will be hit for a four or six, or whether it will be a no-ball or a wide, or if it will fetch a wicket.

"People like me just like to bet, and we ring our bookmakers constantly during a game. We have nothing to do with players, but it now seems obvious some big bookies are in touch with them."

The gambler said he makes many different spot bets during a match, often building up winnings or losses of several thousand dollars.

Betting on sports is illegal in India except at horse races, but major betting syndicates have been in operation for many years.

Cricket offers endless options for gambling on small incidents within the match, and the IPL has massively increased the amount of money in the game.

Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif are in the spotlight after a man was arrested on match-fixing charges in London and later bailed.

Britain's News of the World tabloid said it paid 150 000 pounds to a middleman in return for details about the timing of three no-balls in the fourth Test between England and Pakistan.

The report said Aamer and Asif delivered no-balls at the exact points in the match indicated by the alleged fixer in advance.

"It is not easy to catch spot-fixing," another gambler said.

"In some ways, the Pakistanis were unlucky. They were caught in a sting operation, after all."

The International Cricket Council's anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU), formed after a match-fixing scandal in 2000 that cost three Test captains their careers, reported that illegal betting was a multi-million-dollar industry.

Skippers Hansie Cronje of South Africa, Mohammad Azharuddin of India and Salim Malik of Pakistan were banned for life for alleged links with illegal Indian bookmakers.

But the purge and the ACSU's supposed strict policing of every international match has apparently not discouraged illegal bookies and punters - or even cricketers - from betting on the game.

It is not just international cricket where betting takes place.

In India, gamblers will even gather on the boundary of an amateur club game and bet on individual deliveries.

The punters insist they do it for fun, but uncertainty remains over whether deliveries are fixed in advance.

Former ICC president Eshan Mani of Pakistan, talking to the Press Trust of India news agency from Karachi, pointed the finger at the ACSU for not doing enough to curb corruption.

"This latest scandal has come as a total shock to me," Mani was quoted as saying by PTI. "It is so bad for the image of cricket which we are trying to globalise."

Mani said tabloid journalism had reveal how ineffective the ACSU had been.

An ICC spokesperson said the governing body would not comment on the incident since the matter was under police investigation.