Abhijit Kale has been a prolific scorer in the Indian domestic scene over the past few years but has never made it past the periphery of the national team. He began his career as an opener and first hit the headlines with a hundred for the India Under-19 team against the New Zealanders in 1992. Though he hailed from Mumbai, he could not break into their star-studded team, which led him to defect to Maharashtra. He went on to become one of the pillars of Maharashtra's middle order in the nineties, averaging close to 60 in first-class cricket. He top-scored for India A against the touring England side in November 2001 and came into the reckoning for the national squad. He also had a good A tour to West Indies in early 2003 and he was rewarded with a place in the national side a few months after that, for the tri-series which also involved South Africa and Bangladesh. However, he got only one game. In November that year, Kale was the central character in a bribery scandal, when two national selectors accused him of offering money to be picked to the Indian squad. Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
