No Ball

IN the shaded lanes, winding through the labyrinths of the Walled City in Old Delhi, the FIFA World Cup turned out to be a harbinger of achhe din for the shady kings, rooks, knights and pawns, who move the pieces on the chess board of the underground betting networks in India. The unpredictability of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which saw many big teams heading for the exit door early in the tournament, turning the pre-match odds on its head, made these men dance merry high on lucre. Riyaz (name changed), is just one of the hundreds foot soldiers in the vast underground betting network that stretches from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Surat to Siliguri, which in turn is linked to syndicates in Dubai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

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