Mandeep Singh was not a part of the U-19 squad and had gone to Malayasia as a part of a group of junior cricketers under BCCI's exposure policy. But the sports department astonishingly included his name in the list of players to be awarded following the fact that his father is a senior officer with the Punjab sports department. It is worth mentioning that following the recommendation by the Punjab sports department, the Punjab chief minister had declared to honour the members of the winning Indian team in a function with a sum of Rs 1 lakh each. The names included cricketers Siddharth Kaul, Taruvar Kohli and Pary Goel who were part of the U-19 squad apart from Mandeep Singh. According to sources in the sports department, the Chief Minister was given a list of four players, despite the fact that only three players from the state were part of the actual team and Mandeep Singh had gone to Malaysia only as a visiting member as a part of the BCCI’s policy of sending junior players with the national teams to gain experience on tours abroad.

MP Pandove, joint secretary, BCCI stated that BCCI would not oppose the government decision to award Mandeep, but agreed that Mandeep was not a part of the actual team. “We had not sent any list to the government and the sports department must have handed over the list of players. However if Mandeep Singh is awarded by the Punjab CM we have no objections to it, ” he told Newsline. “On our part we are not honouring any of the junior players who were sent with the team for gaining experience, as the prize is for the winning squad,” he added.

“He is the son of a sports department official and that's why his name is there,” stated a player whose name is in the final list. When contacted to comment on the issue Pargat Singh, director sports, Punjab said the names were handed to him by his colleague and he had passed the list to the CM office in haste. “However we would award only the genuine players and not anyone who is related to any of our employees,” he added.