Delhi: Some records associated with IPL are very strange or rather amazing. One such record is that out of the 110 players who have played T20 International for India so far, there is only one player who has not played IPL. This record is in the name of Dinesh Mongia. It is not that he was so clumsy in T20 that no franchise considered him worthy of playing in the IPL.

Dinesh Mongia has three big special achievements to T20 cricket in his name:

* First Indian player to play a recognized T20 match.
* He was the top scorer in India’s first T20 International match.
* The last contest for the place of a middle order batsman in the 2003 World Cup team was between VVS Laxman and Dinesh Mongia and the vote of coach John Wright gave Dinesh Mongia a place in the team. This is considered one of the biggest ‘selection blunders’ in the history of Indian cricket.

Then why Dinesh Mongia could not play in IPL even though he was active in cricket when IPL started? The generally accepted answer to this question is that the BCCI was punishing him for joining the 2007 Indian Cricket League (ICL), which started without its recognition.

Dinesh Mongia was not the only player to play in this ICL.

Many more players, after playing in ICL, also played in IPL. Dinesh Mongia was one of those who played in ICL and later apologized for his mistake, but he was the only one who was not ‘right’ for IPL in the eyes of BCCI. BCCI never gave the reason for this officially but it is generally believed that Dinesh Mongia was also involved in match fixing in ICL.

This allegation remained in discussion, was never proved, no punishment was officially given for this but he was never able to participate in IPL.

After the first IPL in 2008, BCCI waived many of the players who played in ICL but Dinesh Mongia’s name was not in this list. This match-fixing allegation kept burning and in 2015, it got further fueled when New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent, who played with Dinesh Mongia in the Chandigarh Lions team in the ICL, named him as an active member of a match-fixing gang.

Vincent gave this statement in the court during the hearing of a match fixing case in London.

When BCCI was not giving him an apology, he kept saying that all these allegations were baseless and there was no evidence against him but BCCI did not change its stand. He also stopped playing in Indian domestic cricket (did not play in any recognized match after May 2007), due to which he moved away from the discussion of cricket as a player. His career as a player came to a halt here. When none of the efforts worked, he officially retired in 2019.

Even then Dinesh Mongia said that at least now BCCI should say that there are no allegations against him and he can join official cricket in other duties but BCCI did not give any answer to this.

Well, age was not on his side during this time. On the other hand, he was never declared guilty in any court in India, but all this made no difference in the BCCI court.

New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent himself admitted his involvement in match-fixing. On the other hand, BCCI kept indicating in a hushed tone that there was no restriction from their side, but since nothing was said officially about it, there was no change in the situation for Dinesh Mongia. He also gave the example of Mohammad Azharuddin and Ambati Rayudu who joined official cricket despite different allegations but Dinesh Mongia did not get any benefit from it. Even BCCI froze his account and he has not received his money till date.