After a long run of bad luck, on March 6, Salil Ankola was handed over a giant cheque of Rs 2 crore that was supposed to help turn his life around.

Once a Test fast bowler-turned actor, Ankola had fallen into bad times due to alcohol and drug abuse, and to help him out, his former colleagues came together for a star-studded T20 benefit match between Sachin Tendulkar XI and Sourav Ganguly XI.

The line-up included MS Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh.

But more than two months later, though MS Dhoni's fiery 46-ball 96 that evening remains etched in the memory of the 10,000-odd spectators in the stadium and the hundreds of thousands who watch live on Star Cricket, Ankola has not received a penny of the amount promised to him.