MS Gill wins battle against IPL SMS game

New Delhi: India's Union Minister for Sports MS Gill has won his battle against the IPL's controversial prediction based SMS game.

The BCCI on Tuesday decided to stop the game with immediate effect, which asked viewers to SMS in their prediction for an over in return for a cash prize.

The Sports Minister had argued that the game encouraged betting.

While the designers of the game called 6UP argued that it was a test of skill for the viewer, clearly the opposition from the minister has rattled them.

The IPL doesn't seem to be in the mood for another confrontation with the Government after the bad blood that led to the tournament being moved to South Africa.

"I see the commercial use of cricket for business gains that is going on. I am concerned, at knowledgeable comments, from serious followers of cricket about the latest venture of encouraging viewers to make ball by ball predictions of runs scored for economic gain in the shape of cash prizes," Gill had said.

"This is viewed as 'openly encouraging gambling and betting', which official bodies do not resort to, even in countries where betting is legal; all this 'to make money and enlarge their TV viewership base'," the minister added.

The game has been widely criticised by cricket experts and the BCCI has been accused of promoting betting through it. Gill said the BCCI should have thought of the damage done to the game by the 2000 match-fixing scandal before introducing such a game.