BCCI asks Police to Investigate Dream 11 ‘link’ in the fake T20 League

DREAM11, a fantasy sports platform, and sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL), has come under scrutiny after the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of the Cricket Board of India provided information to the Mohali Police, which suggests that the platform may have ‘links’ to the fake T20 League that they are investigating.

The ACU also asked investigators to look into the role of FanCode, a streaming website that broadcasts the U20 T20 League live, portrayed as being held in Sri Lanka, but which was actually played at a local club in the village of Sawara, near Mohali. Uva is a province in Sri Lanka. FanCode and Dream 11 are part of Dream Sports, a sports technology company.

In a communication to Mohali police, evaluated by The Indian Express, the ACU said: “There is also the possibility that Dream11 may be linked. We believe the kits used may have been from a previous Dream11 tournament. All kits had “Dream11″ on the back; There is a clear possibility that these may have been counterfeited, but two sides had masking tape covering the Dream11 sign. This is strange: if someone was faking it and didn’t want two sides to be displayed, then arguably they wouldn’t print. ”

“Regarding FanCode, we would also question their participation, as it should not be easy to convince them to broadcast a tournament like this,” the letter said.

When contacted, the head of Cricket Control at the head of India’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), Ajit Singh Shekhawat, confirmed that the unit provided advice to the Mohali police. “We are not saying that they (Dream11) are involved, but since FanCode is involved, we need to investigate how the game happened, who bought the proposal to cover it. There could be some document that could be false since the Sri Lankan board has denied issuing any sanctions to that tournament. FanCode can be a guide for research. So we have asked the police to ask them, too, ”Singh told The Indian Express.

A FanCode spokesperson said they were a “disadvantaged party” and were willing to cooperate with “all investigative agencies working on the matter.” “FanCode follows a strict process to pre-select and select potential league associations for live game streaming. Before broadcasting any tournament/league on our platform, we diligently check whether the tournament is approved by a recognized sports authority/association, “said the spokesperson.

In a statement, the broadcast website said: “FanCode has filed a formal complaint with the Mumbai police on July 6, 2020. We are a disadvantaged party in this whole Uva Premier League T20 incident as it has been revealed that the documents submitted by the organizers during our due diligence process were forged/fabricated. The organizers provided us with a Sanction Letter from the Uva Province Cricket Association along with an email from the official SLC email id ( Sri Lanka Cricket) who confirmed the tournament. ”

“After day 1 of the tournament, where FanCode broadcast two games, the SLC legal team contacted us and informed us that the matches were not approved by them. We immediately stop broadcasting these matches on our platform. We are working closely with the SLC Anti-Corruption Unit and have provided all available documents/evidence and details with us, which may be useful for the investigation. We will be more than happy to provide information/evidence/documents to each and every investigation agency working on the matter, ”the statement said.

The ACU letter from the Indian cricket board to the Mohali police comes a day after two of its officials, Alok Kumar and Anshuman Upadhaya, questioned the alleged matchmaker and first defendant in the Ravinder Dandiwal case. The Mohali resident previously appeared on the news when the Australian police named him on a world tennis match-fixing racket.

The other suspicious aspects that ACU asked police to investigate include banner signs bearing Sri Lankan company names and stumps with “UVA T20” printed on them. He also asked policemen to find out why the Indian flags generally seen at the venue were removed that day from the game and why white sheets were used to keep outsiders away from the venue.

The ACU report also questioned the role of the owners of the premises, the Strokers Cricket Association, the referees and the players. “We believe the Cricket Strokers Association … must have been involved to some degree, given that it happened on their terrain and the amount of effort that would have gone into preparing the terrain costume. In addition, we evaluated that the players, the referees, and the commentators were also involved in the deception, “said the letter.