Breaking the Rules: The Great Cricket Con

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Breaking the Rules

Drama

A collection of nine dramas about upsetting the status quo.

A collection of nine dramas about upsetting the status quo. What happens when the mark is overstepped, assumptions are upended and the 'norm' is challenged, whether in small but unsettling ways or taking actions that are dangerously transgressive?

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The Great Cricket Con

BBC Radio 4 - Breaking the Rules, The Great Cricket Con

The story of the Indian villagers who staged a fake cricket cup to scam Russian gamblers.

Drama-documentary that tells the story of the Indian villagers who staged and broadcast a fake cricket tournament to scam gamblers in Russia.

In July 2022, reporters in the Indian state of Gujarat broke a story that seemed unbelievable. In a tiny village in north-western India, police had arrested a gang of villagers for running a fake cricket tournament that they had made to look like the Indian Premier League. According to reports, the villagers broadcast their spectacle on betting websites and targeted gamblers from Russia. 

The story caught fire, drawing comparisons with the 1973 movie The Sting, in which Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s plucky conmen run a fake gambling parlour to rip off a mob boss.

This drama-documentary explores the police allegations and media coverage of a story that could be ripped straight from the pages of a Bollywood script.

Narrator . . . . . Ayesha Dharker
Shoeb . . . . . Hiran Abeysekera
Asif . . . . . Sid Sagar
Jain . . . . . Tony Jayawardena
Farooq . . . . . Sagar Arya
Shuks . . . . . Danny Ashok 
Misha . . . . . Greg Kolpakchi

Drama written by Ayeesha Menon

Production Co-ordinator: Luke MacGregor
Additional reporting: Harita Kandpal in Delhi and Laxmi Patel in Gujarat
Sound design: Peter Ringrose
Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko

A BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4

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