By Kiran N. Kumar
Popular games will now face the same menace as popular brands do from duplicate brands and products.
The times of fake news is not new. But here’s another venue unfolding. The cricket community was in utter shock to see what has happened in a Gujarat village reminiscent of a unique online cyber crime that may unsettle the future of sports and the live-streaming norms.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament in India is one of the most-watched sports events fetching billions of dollars in live streaming rights.
But it has another dimension to it — betting. Every time the IPL season begins, police raids on betting venues hit the headlines as much as the match reviews.
But the villagers in Gujarat have hit upon a unique idea that eclipses the real game from the virtual, mimicking IPL matches between Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans teams wearing their jerseys, with an umpire holding walkie-talkie.
The players included 21 farm laborers and unemployed teens hired for Rs 400 ($5) to impersonate professional cricket players.The villagers even used most modern technology recreating fake sound effects and a commentator who mimicked the voice of famous IPL commentator Harsha Bhogle.
Using five HD cameras and halogen lights, they recreated sound effects similar to the noise from a real IPL crowd. And the live-streaming went on for two weeks on YouTube.
The ’fake’ IPL was stage-managed by the villagers to lure Russian gamblers located in Tver, Voronezh, and Moscow, from whom received anywhere above Rs.300,000 ($3,772) as the betting money. The stunning game ended when the police busted the gang during the ‘fake’ quarter-finals.
Impact on cricket’s future
Leaving aside its shocking impact on cricket fans, the present mushrooming virtual games and virtual metaverse should not deter those who plan to hold such virtual games, along with the real games.
So is the football world with famous globally renowned leagues and players. Just as in real football, virtual football offers several competition formats to choose from and most of them are based on popular real competitions.
Whenever the famous reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, hosted by Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, hits the TV screens, it simultaneously attracts millions of enthusiasts playing the virtual games of KBC too.
With metaverse talk ringing constantly in our ears, the difference between real and virtual games is increasingly fading. But the difference is that the villagers in Gujarat duped staging a fake ‘IPL’ to lure Russian gamblers into betting, which is prohibited in India.
With more than 2.5 billion cricket lovers throughout the world, the potential for a virtual copycat to IPL and other cricket or football events remains writ large. Just as popular brands face the menace from duplicate brands and products, so will be the popular games now.