Punters bet on India

The historic India-Pakistan cricket series is being termed as the biggest event in the satta market after the 1996 Cricket World Cup, writes Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Mar 11, 2004, 01:19:00 IST

PTI | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The India-Pakistan cricket series is being termed as the biggest event in the satta market after the Cricket World Cup played in the sub-continent in 1996. The initial estimate is that over Rs 10,000 crore will be transacted during the series. The betting for the five one day international matches will cross over Rs 4,000 crore. Even before the Indian team left for Pakistan on Wednesday, bets of over Rs 1,500 crore were already placed, punters said.

The satta operators predict the series to be close and keenly contested.

One, though Indians have a slight edge over Pakistan. The rates declared on Monday were 90 paisa for India and 1.15 paisa for Pakistan for the first one day international in Karachi on March 13. "The rate for India has been hovering between 85-95 paisa and for Pakistan between Rs 1.05-1.15 in the past one week," a satta operator said.

Punters say the rates are changing every day.

Putting money on India will mean that one will lose 10 paisa for each rupee if India wins. If the bet is on Pakistan and the team wins one will earn 10 paisa for each rupee invested. In case you lose the best, the entire money is lost. Bets are also placed on the runs a batsman will score and the number of wickets a bowler will take.

Cricket is not the only reason for punters to believe that India will win. "The NDA government can't afford India to lose the series in Pakistan when elections are around. We believe that though Pakistan may win a few matches, India will clinch the series," a north Delhi based punter said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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