IPL teams face bans for illegal betting

Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket teams have been found guilty in an illegal betting and match-fixing probe, report Reuters.

A panel appointed by India’s Supreme Court in January 2015 has recommended the two-year suspension of the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals after team officials were found to be illegally betting on matches.

Legal gambling in India is limited to horse racing, while casinos were outlawed in all Indian states until 1999 with the construction of Goa’s first casino.

Chennai are one of the competition’s most successful sides, reaching four finals and winning two, while the Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural tournament in 2008.

Led by former chief justice of the Indian Supreme Court, Rajendra Mal Lodha, a tribunal banned the sides from the next two editions of the six-week tournament with a view to protecting “the integrity of the game.”

Lodha said: “Disrepute has been brought to cricket, the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and the IPL to such an extent that there are doubts abound in the public whether the game is clean or not.”

The panel, established to determine the level of punishment appropriate, also recommended lifetime bans from all cricket-related activities for Gurunath Meiyappan, Chennai Super Kings official and son-in-law of International Cricket Council boss Narayanaswami Srinivasan, as well as Raj Kundra, co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals.

The pair have both been found guilty of illegal betting by India’s highest judicial body.