The decade between 1990 and 2000 has seen many a left arm spinner from India make a mark both in Domestic and International cricket. We may often talk of the Venkatapathy Rajus, Rahul Sanghvis, Murali Kartiks, the Sunil Joshis of Indian cricket. But, Indian cricket has seen one man from the same left arm spinners brigade, who doesn't get the justice he deserves and has often been the "ignored son" of Indian cricket. The man we are talking about is Nilesh Kulkarni, the tall and lanky left arm spinner from Mumbai.

Nilesh Kulkarni made his debut for Mumbai (then Bombay), who were the Ranji Champions then against the visiting West Indies team in the 1994/95 season at Calicut (Kozhikode). His debut performance was remarkable with figures of 2/24 from 19 overs against quality batsmen like Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper. This tour match gave Nilesh the ideal kickstart for a long and successful career to come in both Domestic and International cricket. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai against arch rivals Maharashtra at Solapur in the same season and did not impress much as far as the wickets were concerned as he did not pick any. But 33 wickets in his debut season for Mumbai was something Mumbai cricket gained from this talented and lanky left arm spinner. After a successful first season, things just got better for Nilya (as he's called by his colleagues). He got a chance to make his Duleep Trophy debut against the East Zone at Nagpur and jus like his Ranji debut, this one was also a game to forget. He took these flat performances in his stride and moved on with his cricket and the results were there to see. After a couple of seasons of intense hard work in domestic cricket, his performances finally got the recognition by the selectors and Nilesh was chosen to play for India. He made his debut against Sri Lanka at Colombo, in a match that will be remembered by Indian fans for other reasons. Believe it or not, his first ball in Test cricket was an arm ball and it trapped Marvan Atapattu plumb and boy ! what a start to an international cricket. But soon after that, he was at an end of a blitzkrieg knock by the Sri Lankans. He played his second test also against Sri Lanka at Nagpur, but failed to make a deep impression on the selectors and was ignored for a long time to come. Nilesh's performance with the ball again came to the limelight with the match-winning spell of 5 for 23 against the Aussies in the Tour Game.

In the meanwhile, he almost established his place in the One Day side, before Rahul Sanghvi and later Murali Kartik replaced him. His consistent wicket taking performances in the period between 1998 and 2001 earned him a Test recall against Australia and he did pick some crucial wickets in those matches. But yet again, India's defunct selection system denied him more chances he thoroughly deserved. Since then, Nilesh has been one of the important members of the Mumbai setup. He has been a crucial contributor in the Ranji wins of 2003-04 and 2002-03 for Mumbai and one of his most memorable performances came at Chennai earlier this year when Nilesh single-handedly broke the back of the Tamil Nadu batting in the finals of the Ranji Trophy. Yet, the humble man's performances get little or no mention in India.

When Nilesh is not on Mumbai or West Zone duty, he makes sure that he plays for his club National CC and his employers Reliance Energy. The main characteristic of this great man's bowling is surely the bounce he gets because of his gigantic height and the arm ball that he possesses, with an extremely economical and smooth action. He can also wield the willow effectively as he has done for Mumbai so often in the recent past. If he continues with his impressive spells of bowling, he could yet come back into the Indian team sooner than later.

We at Cricketfundas.com would like to wish Nilesh Kulkarni luck for this season and hope his wicket taking spree could take Mumbai to yet another Ranji Trophy win.