New Zealand based bookie to take bets during Pak tour despite fixing furore

Wellington, Sep 1 : A New Zealand based bookmaker has said that all the normal cricket betting options would be available, even those open to manipulation, during Pakistan’s tour to the country this summer, despite some Pakistani players being probed for match fixing.

TAB bookmaker Mark Stafford said there are betting options available in one-day games for “runs scored in the first over” or “team hitting the most sixes.

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While all Pakistan’s problems are linked to illegal bookmakers, there is scope for bets to be laid in New Zealand by someone with inside knowledge for a small return.

“We don’t offer spot-betting [such as on no-balls], which is open to manipulation. If anything looks remotely unusual, we will shut it down. We have a good audit department who would then get in touch with the right authority,” Stuff.co.nz quoted, Stafford as saying.

“I’m confident we won’t be affected. We don’t do the markets the fixers look at and we are so far off the radar. But we are not complacent, we monitor patterns closely,” he added.

Stafford does not believe the TAB should withdraw betting on the series.

“When Hansie Cronje was caught [match-fixing], we didn’t stop. Some members of the public think we should stop, but we don’t and we will get more complaints if we do stop than if we don''t,” he said.