IPL match between Chennai Super Kings-Rajasthan Royals on May 12, 2013 could be fixed, says Supreme Court inquiry report

While suggesting former Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan may have a direct involvement in the Indian Premier League betting scandal that rocked Indian cricket last year, the Supreme Court inquiry report says a match between CSK and Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur on May 12, 2013 needs to be investigated further. "The Committee feels that there is enough information available on record to indicate that a further investigation is required in respect of the match held at Jaipur, between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings on May 5, 2013," the report mentioned. A panel headed by retired judge Justice Mukul Mudgal submitted its reports to the apex court on Monday.

The tip-off was first made in an FIR lodged with Rajasthan Police that also points towards Chennai Police having information of how the IPL match, which was won by the Rajasthan Royals, could have been fixed, according to reports in the media. The Mudgal panel said in its report that Meiyappan had told his aide Vindu Dara Singh before the match about how his team (CSK) would score between 130-140 runs batting first. (IPL probe finds Meiyappan guilty of betting)

Some other factors also came under light in the report, which pointed towards how CSK did not hit any sixes in this particular innings, despite having established six-hitting batsmen in their team. (No mention of any player's name in my report: Justice Mudgal)

The report also talked about how Meiyappan could have profited from betting against his team in between the CSK innings, when odds were not favouring Rajasthan Royals. (BCCI chief N Srinivasan refuses to talk about son-in-law Meiyappan)

"A dispassionate analysis would reveal that at the start of the 12th over CSK was at a healthy score of around 85 for 1 wicket at a run rate of around 7.7 runs per over," Justice Mudgal's report said. "However, both Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni fell within a span of one over in the 12th. This slowed scoring. At the start of the 17th over, Murali Vijay lost his wicket and between the 13th and 17th over, the scoring rate slumped to about seven runs an over. Dhoni and Raina's wickets "were the prime reasons" for this," the report added.

A man by the name of Utham Jain (Kitty) is said to have revealed during interrogation by the Q Branch CID of Chennai Police that a senior CSK member might have agreed to fix the match after a deal was struck.

Kitty said on May 23, 2013, that "pursuant to a plan to fix the match between CSK and RR, he was informed by one Vikram Agarwal on April 27, 2013...that a deal had been worked out. He was informed the same day by Meiyappan that one senior CSK member had agreed to play as per plan and the team will score 140 runs." (BCCI chief N Srinivasan defies calls to quit)

The committee also took the advice of former Indian players Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble in this matter, who explained that by the rule of thumb, the score of a batting team at the end of 20 overs in T20 cricket always doubled to what it was after the end of the 12th over.

The report further talked about how banned former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi's layer Mehmood Abdi gave a detailed analysis of the game on May 12 in support of his stance that the match was indeed fixed. (This is only the tip of the iceberg, let the IPL probe continue: Modi)

Also, according to tapes examined by the committee, Meiyappan had lost money in that day's betting after putting money on CSK initially before the match.

Lalit Modi had on Monday demanded a life ban on BCCI chief and CSK owner N. Srinivasan since his son-in-law and former CSK team principal Meiyappan was directly involved in this IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal. (Time to bury N Srinivasan's India Cements: Modi)