Recently, Mumbai Police's crime branch unit unearthed a scam in which a gang was duping young cricketers in name of getting them assured spots in big teams across country. Since the last 12 months, the Mumbai crime branch has been arresting people in this regard.

Recently, they arrested 23 year old Ravindra Wadekar, who was part of this gang and told cricketers that their strong network was capable of putting them in big teams of famous leagues. Wadekar is a former U19 cricketer himself and played for Hyderabad.

“Wadekar played an important role in approaching youngsters. He would convince them about investing money with the other three accused and collect money on behalf of Barate,” a crime branch officer said.

Wadekar was part of the racket masterminded by Vijay Barate, who heralded a club of his own by the name RN Sports Club. He had got his club affiliated to the Hyderabad IPL team as well. Wadekar had pocketed INR 68 lakhs in the last year itself, by duping young cricketers.

Apart from mastermind Barate, former U19 cricketer Wadekar, two others have been arrested as well. They are Dinesh More (23) and Jeevan Mukkadam (28).