Some police chiefs in India are decidedly not amused after a newspaper advertisement publicly thanked them for not enforcing anti-betting laws during the current Indian Premier League (IPL) season.

On Wednesday, the Hindustan Times reported that police in the state of Madhya Pradesh were struggling to explain themselves after an advertisement appeared in a local newspaper on Tuesday thanking police for not showing too much interest in rounding up bettors and/or bookies taking action on IPL matches.

The advertisement, which was credited to a group calling itself the Ujjain Betting Association, contained photographs of the local director general, inspector general and superintendent of police, all of whom were profusely thanked for the “unimpeded running of betting” during the IPL season, in stark contrast to the many anti-betting actions conducted outside Ujjain since the season began last month.

It turns out that the advertisement was intended as something of a cheeky op-ed by newspaper staff to express their concern over the lack of anti-betting enforcement in Ujjain. The newspaper’s chief editor has reportedly sacked the paper’s executive editor over the stunt and has promised to run a highly visible apology in a future edition of the paper.