The con is on: Fake Gujarat IPL is just the tip of the icerberg

You can’t fool everyone all the time. But as long as some can, they like to push their luck. You know this story by now. For days, Russian punters in Moscow, Tver and Veronezh had no inkling they were being swindled of thousands of rapidly devaluating roubles by a former cricketer at Molipur village in Vadnagar, Gujarat—all in the name of a fake version of the Indian Premier League. It was an elaborate hoax, complete with farmers paid to play in coloured clothing under halogen lights in the background of downloaded crowd noise and a Harsha Bhogle mimic, all curated into a nice, glitzy package and broadcast live on YouTube. Shoeb Davda, who apparently had worked at a Russian pub for eight months, is the reported mastermind. But till the law hadn’t caught up with him, Davda was nothing short of an artist.

PREMIUM

“Hand of God”, Ben Johnson, Hansie Cronje or Lance Armstrong—sports history has had its fair share of controversy involving some of the greatest athletes. And then there are also tales of grifters who take us for a ride but still exude that vibe, albeit for a fleeting second, that they are truly exceptional individuals.

Like Rosie Ruiz, who had won the Boston Marathon in 1980 with the third-fastest timing ever for the women’s category at that point in time. Eight days later though, she was stripped of the title after race officials found she had joined the race around 1.6 km from the finishing line. She had committed a similar infraction during the qualification as well, completing the course by—hold your breath — taking the subway during portions of the race. New York native Fred Lorz would put to shade this effort though, for he had managed to hitch an 11-mile car ride to win the 1904 Olympic marathon.

Mistaken identities and resorting to unfair advantages were some of the most common ways to con in sports. But Germany’s Dora Ratjen went as far as lying about his gender. High jumping as a woman at the 1936 Berlin Olympics before winning gold at the European Championships two years later, Hermann Ratjen was happily living the lie till he was outed by a ticket inspector. During interrogation, Ratjen claimed that the Hitler Youth had coerced him into binding his genitals and competing as a woman.

That an entire major league team could be hoodwinked for nearly a month was embarrassingly highlighted by Ali Dia, a Senegalese national who had played 14 minutes for Premier League side Southampton against Leeds in November, 1996.

The story goes that Southampton manager Graeme Souness had given Dia a 30-day contract after getting a call from his “cousin” George Weah, World Footballer of the Year in 1995. But the phone wasn't from Weah, it was from Dia's agent. And it wasn’t till the moment Souness had sent in Dia as a substitute, did he actually realise the blunder. Matt Le Tissier, who Dia had replaced, later said in his autobiography that Dia “ran around the pitch like Bambi (the Disney character of a white-tailed fawn) on ice.”

Manchester United experienced a similar, but less awkward moment shortly after publishing their team photograph in 2001 when fans began questioning the identity of a slightly portly man standing alongside the players. He was identified as Karl Power, a 36-year-old Manchester resident nicknamed "Fat Neck" after a nationwide hunt on the BBC. Apparently, Power had snuck through security to just wander over and get into the picture frame. A serial prankster, Power had also snuck into an England cricket game hiding his face in a helmet, knocked around the ball with a friend on Centre Court at Wimbledon before a Tim Henman match and even leapt onto the Formula One winner’s podium ahead of Michael Schumacher once.

No one however conned association football like Brazilian Carlos Henrique Kaiser who boasts a 20-year plus career without ever having kicked the ball.

Throughout those two decades, Kaiser successfully exploited his connections to land trials at different clubs. What he did upon joining was sheer genius though—faking an injury, making it to the bench and then taking transfers to clubs in Brazil, Mexico, U.S, and France.

He was nearly found out once in France when he was asked to showcase his skills during an unveiling. Thinking on his feet, Kaiser kicked all the balls into the stands as ‘gifts’ for the crowd. Almost called up for a game in Brazil, Kaiser quickly started arguing with the fans and managed to get a red card.

He retired at the age of 41 with zero goals and zero assists in a 20-year career of carefully-planned deceit that even prompted a film titled “The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football.”

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