Cricket worth US $ 600, 000 millions

Not too far away from the famous Eden Gardens in Kolkata, a few days back, Cricket experts from 4 different important cricket centres in India (Jaipur, Indore, Guwahati and Kolkata) met for a very important meeting. However, this meeting was different from almost all other cricket meetings in one important way - this one was illegal.

The 4 gentlemen, after due deliberation and after factoring in past data and trends, arrived at the whopping figure of Rs.25,000 crores - yes, that's the amount of business that they expect that the betting trade will handle during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Compare this to the total prize money that was distributed during the 2003 South Africa World Cup - US $ 5000,000 - an otherwise decent sum of money, but compared to the other figure that's almost measly - under 1% of the betting business!!

*****

Odds decided by the 4 cricket-experts for the World Cup 2007:

Australia still rules: 2.6

SA should challenge the Oz in the finals: 4.3

WI: 9.0, Sri Lanka:9.4, India:9.5

England:10.0, NZ: 10.25 and Pakistan:12.0

sources: Hindustan Times, Cric Info and a friend