A gang set up a fake “Indian Premier League” tournament with farm labourers acting as players to dupe Russian punters in a betting scam reminiscent of the 1973 film The Sting.

The so-called “Indian Premier Cricket League” reached the quarter-final stage before the racket was busted by police in India.

The tournament began three weeks after the actual IPL concluded in May, according to police, but that proved no hindrance to the gang, which they said leased a remote farm in the western state of Gujarat.

They installed a cricket pitch, complete with “boundary lines and halogen lamps”, Insp Bhavesh Rathod told reporters.