new delhi with corruption increasing in different sports the central bureau of investigation has decided to set up a specialized sports fraud investigation unit in the agency to handle cases related to sports fraud fixing and illegal betting making the announcement at the fifainterpol national workshop here on wednesday cbi director ranjit sinha highlighted lack of a legal framework as the main hurdle in probing cases related to sports fraud we in cbi have taken due notice of growing menace of corruption in sports in general and challenges in football and other sports in particularvery soon we shall set up a sports fraud investigation unit in the cbi under special crime branches sinha said in his keynote address he said this unit will act as repository of intelligence and data related to corruption in sports it shall coordinate with other law enforcement agencies of the world and act as a nodal agency to coordinate with states police forces it shall be our endeavour to liase and coordinate with sports federations to build capabilities to tackle match fixing and corrupt practices he said when questioned how the unit plans to work when there is no legal framework for probing corruption in sports cbi officials said a law to tackle corruption in sports is in the final stages of drafting by the sports ministry we will send a proposal to the central government on setting this unit even though there is no law we can still carry on enquiries like we did in 2002 in cricket match fixing till law proposed by sports ministry comes into being the purpose is to be prepared when law is there said a senior cbi officer sinha said match fixing and other forms of sports frauds are so far concentrated in the field of cricket it is now known to all the enforcement agencies that betting networks operate very smoothly and efficiently in the country their tentacles spread even to small towns the cbi chief said he said advancement in communication technology is facilitating the growth of betting syndicates from the law enforcement perspective it will be a mistake to conclude that corruption in sports in india is limited to cricket alone the organised betting racket has targetted football too