Cricket Magazine

It’s been a frustrating finish to 2023 for England, as they failed to live up to the hype that was brought on themselves by the high expectations from previous months heading into the Cricket World Cup. For one reason or another though, something simply didn’t click in India, and they’ll know that they simply have to improve heading towards the test series in India in the New Year.

We’ll look into three players that will be pushing for a place in the England test side ahead of their trip to India.

Sam Billings

Billings made his test debut for England back in January 2022 against Australia, but his stay with them was short, with his last outing for England’s test side coming against India in July.

Billings has caught the eye in shorter formats of the game, which includes playing T20 cricket for the Oval Invincibles, for whom he’s been with since 2021. Billings also plays in Australia for Brisbane Heat. It’s been revealed by Jacob Potter, who is a betting expert at MyBettingSites that Billings is priced at 15/2 to be the top match batter in their clash against Adelaide Strikers.

Rehan Ahmed

At the age of 19, you’d like to think that Ahmed still has his best years ahead of him, although he’s already made his senior debut for England against Pakistan back in December 2022. The Nottingham-born spinner will be keen to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Jack Leach and Graeme Swann, who both established themselves as England’s first-choice spinner in the test team over the last 20 years.

Ahmed has plenty of room to improve, but given that we’ve already seen his talent on show at a high level in limited overs formats of the game, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise to see him given a go if Leach still isn’t fit, as he continues his recovery from an injury lay-off.

Liam Livingstone

Livingstone is another player that has impressed in the shorter formats of the game, most notably at T20 level. He’s not been at his best with the bat in recent months, and was part of the England ODI squad that struggled at this year’s World Cup.

However, he could be the player to potentially replace Ben Stokes in the squad if Stokes isn’t to recover in time from surgery on an injury. Livingstone has experience at test level with England, and is probably the safest option for them if Stokes was to miss out.

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Russian scammers orchestrated a grand deception on betting players.

The gang got arrested for running a counterfeit Indian cricket league.

The Indian police claim that a gang associated with Russia invented a betting scam reminiscent of the 1973 movie ‘The Sting.’

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The group of scammers organized a fake tournament called the ‘Indian Premier League’ (IPL), where regular workers posed as players. All of this was done to deceive bettors.

The so-called Indian Premier League in cricket reached the quarter-final stage when the group was apprehended by the police in India. According to the police, the tournament commenced three weeks after the actual conclusion of the real IPL in May. Yet, this did not hinder the gang, who leased a remote farm in the western state of Gujarat.

They set up a cricket field with the necessary markings and lighting. Additionally, the accused installed high-resolution cameras on the ground and used computer graphics to display results on the live streaming screen.

Allegedly, the gang hired workers or unemployed young individuals, paying them 400 rupees (5 dollars) per game, and broadcasted matches live on a YouTube channel named IPL.

It’s humorous, but players took turns wearing jerseys of the Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, and Gujarat Titans, following the instructions of their Russian instigators!

Crowd noise sound effects were downloaded from the Internet. A speaker was installed to mimic one of the actual Indian IPL commentators, adding authenticity to the tournament. Simultaneously, the cameraman ensured that the entire field was not shown; instead, the focus was on close-up shots of the players.

Russian players were lured to place bets on a Telegram channel created by the gang, whose members then alerted the fake on-field umpire using radios. A signal was then relayed to the players on the field, indicating how the game should conclude.

According to the police, the quarter-final match was underway when they received a tip-off and exposed the fraud. The accused received bets totalling over 300,000 rupees (3,700 dollars) from players in Russia.”

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