Cricket tit-bits

‘Gambling is here to stay’
The dark world of gambling in cricket will remain if illegal bookmakers are allowed to flourish in India, avers a prominent Australian sports bookmaker.
Gerard Daffy from betting agency ‘Sports Alive’ also maintained that the phenomenal surge of Twenty20 cricket was majorly responsible for the rise in illegal betting activity in India.
“There’s rumour of thousands and thousands of illegal bookmakers in India alone. Nobody knows the transactions they do, who they deal with. This is where the problem started and it quite clearly still exists in this day and age,” Daffy was quoted as saying by the ABC Online.
Daffy feels T20 format offers easy way for batsmen to get involved in the menace because of the slam-bang style of batting.
“I guess if you are a cynic on the outside looking in, it’s easier to hide a poor display in Twenty20 cricket. A player goes out to a rash shot and nobody asks any questions because that’s the way the game is played. But who knows what’s going on in the background?” he said.

Another feather in Muttiah Muralitharan’s cap

Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan on Thursday surpassed Australia’s Shane Warne in creating a new world record by bowling the highest number of maiden overs in Test cricket.
Muralitharan, playing in his 128th Test currently underway against New Zealand, overtook Warne’s record by bowling his 1752nd maiden over at the Galle Stadium. Warne has bowled 1751 maidens in his 145-Test career.