1:46pm Sunday 29th August 2010
The nature of cricket as a sport, with its complex rules and seemingly endless permutations, makes it extremely popular with betting fans.
Bets can be made not just on the outcomes of matches but on a plethora of other aspects of the game.
Punters place wagers on anything from the amount of runs a team may score to how many wickets a bowler may take.
But more arcane aspects of the game, such as the number of no balls or wides bowled also attract huge interest in some parts of the world where betting goes unregulated.
The practice, christened spot betting, forms the basis of the allegations surrounding the Lords Test.
Checks and balances are in place in the UK to guard against such betting trends.
But there are huge unregulated betting markets in the Indian subcontinent where the practice is prevalent.
Graham Sharpe, spokesman for bookmakers William Hill, said the type of betting alleged in the News of the World would immediately have aroused suspicion among UK bookies.
He said: “Betting in the UK is strictly regulated and professional.
”Bets are occasionally made on specific balls but this would be in an unusual scenario, an example would be if Kevin Pietersen was due to face his first ball after a series of low scores, or if a bowler had got two wickets in his last two balls before the close of play.
”There may then be betting to see if he got a hat trick with his first ball the next day.
”But the kind of betting alleged in the News of the World piece would obviously be seen as a potential problem and would automatically cause alarm bells to ring.”
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