CHENNAI, India, (Reuters) – Indian Premier League  (IPL) organisers have suspended a controversial mobile  phone-based contest following concerns raised by the country’s  sports minister last week that it amounted to gambling.

The IPL, promoted by the Board of Control for Cricket in  India (BCCI) and featuring some of the top players in world  cricket, had introduced a SMS contest aimed at keeping interest  in India alive.

The league, which was a huge commercial success in its  inaugural edition in India last year, is being played in South  Africa this year as the tournament clashes with India’s general  elections.

“There was no formal complaint. Such SMS contests are being  played world over,” IPL governing council member Rajeev Shukla  told Reuters yesterday.

“But it has been closed for now,” he added. He did not say  for how long.

Former Indian cricketers had raised serious misgivings about  the contest, in which participants have to predict the sequence  of runs that will be scored in the next over, saying that it  amounted to gambling, which is illegal in India.

India’s Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill expressed concern  that it could also give rise to a fresh bout of corruption in  the game.

“We have already had…a match-fixing scandal in the game,”  he said in a strongly worded statement on Saturday, referring to  a scandal that broke in India and rocked international cricket  in 2000.