Ed Hawkins

After having read this book i too doubt whether i would watch any cricket match with same enthusiasm and not think "is this scripted match?" or "is this fixed?"
Well written book and daringly well researched ;-). at times it felt bit biased or inclined towards sub-continent nations.
Cant help but notice that author was really obsessed with India Vs Pakistan 2011 ICC World Cup semi-final's match. Now even i am piqued to find what really happened :-D

Fascinating expose of cricket's underworld. I've never understood gambling - and still don't - but Ed spent time with illegal bookmakers in India and found out about match fixing, how it's done. Doesn't name names - imagine the court cases - but the suggestions are that it's very easy to influence a match - but also for a player to inadvertently give information away! Well worth a read.

Informative and not too chatty or long. In one part, Hawkins documents his interactions with two bookies Vinay and Parthiv. At the start of the 2011 World Cup semifinal, Parthiv sends a message of how the match will progress, and it happens exactly that way. Hawkins visit both of them and spends time understanding their work. In India bookies provide four types of odd, bracket for runs scored in a block of overs, lambi for innings runs, live match betting on result and lunch break or innings show more break favourite. There are no bets, among the syndicate, for smaller events, like a no-ball. Smaller bookies may offer that but the bet is usually capped at a small amount like 25,000. If a punter wants to bet for an event, he will have to bet with multiple small bookies.

There are four syndicate heads – Jayanti Malad of Delhi for pre-match betting odds, Shobhan Mehta of Mumbai (live match odds), Shibu for session betting (brackets) under whom is Labu Delhi, and Jeetu Nagpur who also provide live odds.

According to the book, the 2010 Lord's incident was a pointless event because you cannot do any major bets on no balls. After rain interrupted the first day, the third was no-ball was to be off the last ball of the third completed over on the third day. You'll be laughed off if you try to bet on that before the match started. Mazhar Majeed who acted as a go-between was in financial trouble and was desperate to show that he could control the players. The 150K was too important for him and he did not notice or ignored the warning signs from the journalist.

A few chapters of the book is the author talking with different people connected with investigations. K Madhavan, MA Ganapathy, Lalit Modi, the briefing of the Middlesex players at the start of a season etc. The book contains stuff that is not found anywhere else, and some risky journalism. show less