‘There’s a bookie on every street corner in India and Pakistan,” said Dr Ravinder, sitting in a back room above his clinic in Delhi.

“It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry controlled by the Mumbai mafia. You don’t want to go asking too many questions about these people or their business. They’re ruthless killers.”

Ravinder, like tens of millions of south Asians, bets on international cricket matches broadcast live on satellite television. For the past few days I have spent hours with him and his friends watching one-day internationals in this illicit, men-only speakeasy.

In the stale haze of cigarette smoke, drinking bad Indian whisky, these hardened gamblers satisfy their addiction. Each has a dedicated mobile phone for keeping in contact with local bookies — men with names like Metro and Goldstar. Using code names, they place bets without money changing hands. But once the match is over, all accounts must be settled.

“Within 24 hours, either a bagman will come with our winnings or we’ll be asked to leave our dues with the local chai wallah,” said Ravinder.

Gambling on cricket is illegal in south Asia. Just as prohibition in America fuelled the rise of Al Capone, illegal betting feeds organised crime. On match days, tens of millions of pounds change hands. The Hindustan Times estimates that the amount bet on cricket in India annually is more than the country’s defence budget — some £10.6 billion.

In cricket-obsessed India and Pakistan (combined population 1.26 billion), with bookies operating in all big cities and thousands of towns, it is not hard to believe. Ravinder and his friends often place bets of up to £10,000 on a single day. The biggest spender is Gupta, a property developer who never risks less than £1,000.

“That’s nothing,” he told me with Punjabi bravado. “I know industrialists and politicians who will risk millions of rupees on one over. Since the match-fixing scandals of the 1990s, the business has become more complex and sophisticated.”

Indeed, today, with odds available on a ball-by-ball basis, gamblers are able to bet on every aspect of the game — from individual batsmen’s scores to which team will win the toss. So-called “session” betting dominates, with bookies predicting the score for 15 overs at a time. Ravinder spends hours — eyes on the television, mobile phone to his ear — listening to the odds before murmuring figures into the mouthpiece.

“The rates are set by people in London,” he said, echoing what I have heard from other insiders, as well as a senior Indian police investigator. “Odds are relayed via a live service which bookies subscribe to.”

“Who provides it?” Ravinder shrugged: “The whole thing is very secretive. Even the big bookies never meet the really big fish face to face. They say only a handful of people at the top mastermind everything.”

Still, today I am hoping for more answers. Ravinder has arranged for me to meet his bookie. After the match we drive into the city’s suburbs where India’s IT miracle has given birth to rows of glass office towers and sprawling neighbourhoods filled with mock Floridian homes.

At a prearranged location we stop. Soon a 4x4 pulls up and we switch vehicles. Ravinder’s bookie, who asks to be called “VIP”, is a nervous individual who nevertheless agrees to speak to me for 10 minutes.

“I conduct all my business from this vehicle,” said VIP, whose driver and two assistants work with him. The tools of his trade are 12 mobile phones and a couple of laptops with WiFi broadband, which he uses to service 300 customers. He added: “We are constantly moving around. Nowadays, there are certain officers who are after us.”

I take this to mean that not all police are a threat.

“No, I pay large bribes to many police officers and politicians,” he replied. “Many are also my clients.”

I asked him whether he bribes players and fixes matches, but he denied any involvement. “That doesn't go on nowadays,” he insisted. “It is very difficult to talk to players and each game is closely scrutinised.”

But in January, police in the Indian city of Nagpur recorded a telephone conversation between Mukesh Kochar, an alleged bookie, and Marlon Samuels, the West Indian all-rounder.

Detectives released a transcript in which the player divulged his team’s bowling order for an international against India to be played the next day.

“Such information is priceless to the betting syndicate,” Ravinder told me. “With that kind of insider knowledge they can manipulate the odds and make a killing.”

Amar Jadhav, a senior Mumbai police detective who has investigated cricket’s links with organised crime, said this “micro-fixing” is pervasive. Matches are no longer thrown, he said; instead, specific overs are manipulated.

“The criminal nexus that controls gambling has become very adept at influencing the results to its own advantage,” said Jadhav.

“There are certain players in certain teams who are open to bribery, blackmail and coercion.”

Jadhav has arrested a number of Indian bookies. But as he put it, “the brains are absconding”. Mumbai’s crime bosses remain at large. Dawood Ibrahim, the most notorious, is believed to live in Karachi, Pakistan, from where he controls a criminal empire.

India’s most wanted man, Ibrahim has been declared by America to be a “global terrorist” with alleged links to Al-Qaeda. The Pakistani press have reported that men working for Ibrahim travelled to the West Indies for the World Cup.

“Ibrahim is involved in drugs, weapons, counterfeiting and contract killings,” said Jadhav. “But Pakistan is protecting him.”

Little wonder, then, that Ravinder always pays his gambling debts on time, even if he has to borrow to cover his losses. But he remains a canny gambler.

“I can tell when a session has been fixed,” he said. “The odds suddenly look too enticing. You notice it a lot when Pakistan or the West Indians are playing. Many of their players are definitely for sale.”

For the World Cup’s final matches, Ravinder and his friends will be relocating to a Delhi five-star hotel suite, courtesy of VIP. If it is anything like the last time, prostitutes, cocaine and an unlimited amount of booze will be on offer.

“My wife didn’t want me going to the West Indies,” he said, “so this is the next best thing.”

Some names have been changed to protect identities

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