India, March 1 -- Professionals have been part of Indian cricket for a long time. From the great Holkar teams led by C K Nayudu to Vinoo Mankad, who played for a record seven Ranji teams, this was a regular practice in the early days of the domestic tournament.

But it started to die away as teams began to concentrate on home grown talent. There was the odd success story though. For instance, Sandeep Patil captained Madhya Pradesh from 1988 to 1993, leading them to the Ranji Trophy semi-finals in 1992-93; Chandrakant Pandit later took Madhya Pradesh to the Ranji Trophy final in 1998-99. In the 2000-2001 season, Ajay Jadeja played an odd game for Jammu & Kashmir and inspired them to an outright win over his former state side, Haryana.

A s...