On August 3, 2022 we gathered here to celebrate a special occasion. It was on this day, exactly a quarter of a century ago, that history was created at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
A tall, lanky left-arm spinner, answering to the name of Nilesh Kulkarni, wrote his name in the record-books when he dismissed Sri Lanka’s Marvan Atapattu in the closing stages of the second day’s play of a Test match. Nilesh became the 15th cricketer and first Indian to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket.
To celebrate this occasion, we had a special panel on dias at the International Institute of Sports Management featuring: Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, former CAO and GM, BCCI, Abey Kuruvilla, former Test cricketer and selector, and currently GM, BCCI.
and Nilesh Kulkarni, former Test cricketer and Founder-Director, IISM.
ROLL IT BACK
At the event, we had a special AV screening that comprised of bytes from the sporting fraternity.
There were special video messages from – Bharat Ratna – Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Arjuna Ranatunga, Anil Kumble
“I remember the days when we played U-17, U-19 and then from there we went on to play Ranji Trophy together as well. He ended up playing for Mumbai for 15 long years and led a couple of seasons for Mumbai Ranji Trophy. To be able to play for such a long time requires a lot of hard work, dedication, discipline, focus, and commitment – and all these things made Nilesh Kulkarni the player he was,” said Sachin Tendulkar.
“When we went to Sri Lanka – I was still the captain of the Indian Team. He was on his first tour. We batted first, he scored 540 runs, and we declared the innings. Towards the end of second day play there was hardly any time left, and the umpire looked towards me and said, ‘you need to rush because it is time up’ and then I quickly called Nilesh because Attapatu was on strike,” he added.
“So, I thought it was the best time to introduce Nilesh. I had not given Nilesh enough notice, because this was at the spur of the moment that I decided Nilesh had to come on and bowl, and then Nilesh looked and me and asked ‘kay kamaru’? (What should I do) and said ‘Umpire is going to call it a day so, throw the first ball, and then we will discuss, but Nilesh had some other plans. First ball he got a wicket from Marvan Atapattu, and we celebrated, walked back to the dressing room after that. Nilesh was one of those bowlers; when you called him up, he was up for the challenge,” he concluded
There were also bytes shared by – Nayan Mongia, Madan Lal, and Roshan Mahanama.
His two childhood friend – Sanjay Raut, mentor – Balwinder Singh Sandhu, and media personnel – Vijay Lokapally.
The post ‘That ball at Colombo,’ Nilesh Kulkarni celebrates 25 years of debut first appeared on India Sports News.
