A gang of conmen set up a fake Indian Premier League tournament with farm labourers acting as players to dupe Russian punters in a betting scam reminiscent of the Oscar-winning 1973 movie "The Sting".<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The grifters managed to reach the quarterfinal stage of their so-called "Indian Premier Cricket League" before the racket was busted by Indian police.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The tournament began three weeks after the actual IPL concluded in May, according to police, but that proved no hindrance to the gang, who they said leased a remote farm in the western state of Gujarat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
They installed a cricket pitch, complete with "boundary lines and halogen lamps," police inspector Bhavesh Rathod told reporters.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Besides this the accused had set up high resolution cameras on the ground and used computer generated graphics to display scores on a live streaming screen," he added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The gang hired labourers and unemployed youths for 400 rupees ($5) per game and broadcast the matches live over a YouTube channel called "IPL".<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Players took turns to wear jerseys of the Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans, police said, acting on the instructions of the Russia-based mastermind.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Crowd noise sound effects were downloaded from the internet and a speaker with a knack for mimicking one of IPL's real Indian commentators was used to make the tournament appear authentic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
At the same time the cameraman made sure that the entire ground was not shown, beaming close-ups of the players instead.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Russian punters were lured into betting their rubles on a Telegram channel set up by the gang, who would then alert the fake umpire on the pitch using walkie-talkies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The supposed official "would signal the bowler and batsman to hit a six, four or get out," Rathod added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
A "quarter-final" match was being played "when we got a tip-off and we busted the racket," said Rathod.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The accused had received a first instalment of more than 300,000 rupees (nearly $4,000) from the punters in Russia, Rathod said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The scheme has echoes of "The Sting", the 1973 movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, in which a group of con artists set up a fake betting operation in order to defraud a gangster.<\/p>\r\n\r\n