Indian official calls for betting rethink

Cricket:  A senior Indian cricket board official has called for the legalisation of betting in the country to help rid the national sport of match-fixing and corruption in the sport.

India, which is the financial powerhouse of the sport, has been at the centre of several match-fixing and illegal gambling scandals after several prominent players were named in an Indian federal police investigation into match-fixing in 2000.

"When you regulate betting and the government controls it, you have better control and supervision over match-fixing," Inderjit Bindrasaid today. "Have everything above the surface, that's better."

Bindra's comments come a week before the multi-million dollar Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) begins on April 18th.

The IPL will feature a majority of the game's leading players but made global news in February when an unprecedented €25.5 million auction of players by the eight franchises took place.

Bindra said there would be sufficient measures in place during the staging of the IPL to counter corruption, with the event coming under the watch of the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU).