Feature
Dhoni bids farewell to red ball cricket
The abrupt way in which Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket came as a shock for the cricketing world.
Making it “with immediate effect” is as stunning as it is mystifying. Cricket captains who have led their country for as long as Dhoni has – 60 Tests, to be exact – don’t bid good-bye as unceremoniously and as instantly as he did at Melbourne on Tuesday. The words “immediate effect” say it all. After missing the first Test, did he have to go all the way to Melbourne to announce his decision? What if under him India had not lost the Test and, with it, the series against Australia. There is one more match to go before the four-match series ends.
Forgeting the baffling abruptness with which Dhoni decided to say farewell to Tests, there is no denying him credit for keeping his job for so long after taking it over from Anil Kumble and then leading India to the top position in the international Test rankings.
Of the 60 Tests he played as wicketkeeper-captain, he lost half of them on foreign soil – many of these in his later years at the helm – which led to some of his detractors criticizing his tactics and outlook. Forgotten was the time when they called him ‘captain cool’ and praised him for the manner in which he held his nerve in the last over of the final of the first world T/20 tournament against Pakistan. Coolly, he threw the ball to Joginder Sharma for the crucial over and the Haryanvi got the Pakistani batsman facing him – Misbah-ul-Haq (now the captain) to sky the ball for Sreesanth to take the catch that won the day for India.
In quick time, Dhoni, a hitherto little-known young man of humble biinnings from Ranchi, soon acquired celebrity status as a cricketer, excelling with the big gloves behind the wickets as well as with the bat. His long filmi-style locks also caught public attention with the young, who would ask their barbers to give them similar hair-styles after they watched the then Pakistani presdent, Gen. Parvez Musharraf advising the captain in front of TV cameras at Rawalpindi to not clip his hair short.
“You look good this way,” said the Pakistani general, but Dhoni opted for changed hair-styles later in his career – and with his new-found affluence acquiring motorbikes to different models and makes. He is said to own several of them in his Ranchi mansion.
Not everyone was happy with his role as vice president in the cement company owned by the cricket board president, N.Srinivasan. He also is the captain of the company-owned Chennai Superkings in the lucrative Indian Premier League. The conflict of interest, as they describe it, is the subject of litigation.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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