IPL is a platform for money-laundering, feels Bedi

Bishan Singh Bedi ()

Kolkata, Jan 27 - As money was spent without inhibition by team owners on the first day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Bengaluru, former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi slammed the cash-rich T20 cricket league, saying it is a platform for money-laundering and that he hasn't seen "anything so cheap going so expensively".

"The IPL is responsible for bringing in somebody called Justice (R.M.) Lodha (into the game). I have never known anything so cheap going so expensively," Bedi said while speaking at a session at the TATA Steel Kolkata Literary Meet on Saturday.

"How can one wicket cost one-and-half-crore (rupees). Can anybody justify that? One run for 97 lakh? I have no complaints about the money part of it. Players need to get more money playing for the country than playing for a wretched club," he added.

"Do we know where all this money is coming from and where it is going? If this is not money-laundering I don't know what is."

After the 2013 IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal, the Supreme Court appointed a committee under former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, to determine punishments for those named in the Mudgal Committee report and to recommend reforms for cricket in India.

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