CHANDIGARH:  With the IPL offering big money to young players, fraudulent operators are trying to cash in by duping innocent cricketers. A woman member of a club affiliated to T-20 Cricket Federation of India promised budding cricket players a place in the Indian Premier League (IPL) against money.

The cash-rich IPL has till now kept the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) out of the gambit and purview of the tournament citing exorbitant costs involved and has relied on its own security measures but such incidents could serve as a wake-up call for the big league to take prompt steps.

Rajwinder Brar (30) allegedly charged huge amounts of money from young players, promising to send them abroad as team members in the IPL. The Chandigarh Police, acting on a tip-off, arrested an associate of the woman, who is also a former cricketer and used to lure budding players by promising to take them abroad as team members of the IPL. The name of the arrested accomplice is said to be Sutxien.

The police had received a complaint from a young cricket player (Kunal) that he had paid Rajwinder Rs seven lakhs through Sutxien but the duo had not kept their promise of sending him to the UK with an IPL team.

The police also found that Rajwinder - who is now absconding - has also been booked by Punjab Police in a similar case. The police believe that Rajwinder could be part of some big racket and more such cases are likely to be unearthed following the sustained interrogation of Sutxien and Rajwinder.

A police team has been dispatched to Samrala (Punjab) to nab Rajwinder, who is said to be a resident of Ludhiana and was staying in a rented accommodation in Chandigarh. She was running a club which is affiliated to the T-20 Cricket Federation of India and allegedly facilitated the selection of players into the IPL teams.