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'Death-threat recipient' Modi says spot fixing rife in cricket
Friday 23 November 2012

Former chairperson of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi has claimed spot fixing is widespread in cricket, and added that he has survived three attempts on his life for refusing to fix IPL matches.

Modi has made these sensational claims during an interview in the controversial new book Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket's Underworld by Ed Hawkins.

"Spot-fixing is rife in the game. And I'm talking globally. It's a Pandora's box. It's staring you straight in the face, but difficult to prove. Almost impossible to prove," Sports24 quoted Modi, as saying in the book.

Modi further said that some players had to be warned about the presence of undesirable elements.

"I think it (IPL) was clean, but I could never, sitting here today, categorically tell you that we picked up everything for spot-fixing, and that goes for all games, not just IPL, Modi said.

"It's extremely difficult to spot. We had to warn players from time to time. We found undesirable elements in the stadium and removed them. We found them touring with players or managers of players who were in touch with bookmakers and we removed them," he added.

Modi recounts three occasions when he claims that his life was threatened by the underworld for refusing to fix IPL matches.

One of them was in Mumbai at the end of March 2009.

"There was a shoot-out outside my house and one guy got killed and one got picked up," Modi said.

The other attempts came in South Africa in April of the same year and in Phuket, Thailand, in January 2010, and on each occasion the police or the intelligence agencies warned him.

ANI

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