Murali Kartik set to join Middlesex

Murali Kartik strikes for Lancashire in the C&G Trophy final © Getty Images

Murali Kartik, the Indian left-arm spinner, is all set for his first full season of county cricket, and it will be with Middlesex, not Lancashire, who he has turned out for in bit roles over the last two years.

"I had set the foundation last season, when I'd done well in county cricket," Kartik told Cricinfo just before the Challenger Series got under way in Chennai. Kartik played only two matches for Lancashire in 2005, but picked up 16 wickets in two matches at an average of 16.25, something that was only bettered by Lancashire's main spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, who snagged 36 wickets from six matches at 15.

This time around, Kartik had a chance to head back to Lancashire as he had undergone shoulder surgery in Australia and was out of the Indian team. "This year it was a good opportunity for me to go and test my shoulder as soon as I was fit," he said. "It was a chance for me to go back to thinking cricket and playing cricket."

But though Kartik only went back to Lancashire for a handful of matches, he had clearly caught the eye of several people in England, not least John Emburey at Middlesex.

As the county season reached its climax - with Sussex and Lancashire still fighting for top honours as they entered their last game - it was a clash of spinners all the way. Mushtaq Ahmed was twirling his way to 101 wickets in a season with his googlies, Shane Warne was the central character for Hampshire (who played Lancashire) as things came to a head.

"Sussex and Lancashire were running neck-to-neck for some part of the match. But then we [Lancashire] lost the third day to rain, and Sussex's match was not affected by the weather," recalls Kartik. "At that point of time we lost the title to them. Even if we had won the game [against Hampshire] they were still eight points ahead of us.

"On the last day we were thinking of batting for a few hours and pressing on for the win, but something sour happened and at that point we realised there was no need for us to go out and stretch ourselves," he says tactfully enough. It's quite well known that Warne was less than impressed with Lancashire's methods, and resorted to lobbing deliveries 20-feet up into the air from a standing position in lieu of bowling. A restive Rose Bowl crowd got behind their man and tried to goad Lancashire into declaring, but they would not succumb. Kartik explained: "A few of our bowlers, especially the fast bowlers, had been playing for five weeks straight, some with niggles, and there really was nothing to play for, so we batted out the game. And we were quite dejected ourselves, to be denied of a shot at the title, through rain, after such a successful run."

And now it's on to Middlesex, for the full season at that, and it will be a far cry from the team Kartik plays for in India, Railways, where stories abound about uncomfortable dormitories, unusable toilets and the legendary Karnail Singh Stadium as home ground in Delhi that is no place for a first-class team to call its home. "Cricket in England is very professional. It's not just with a high-profile team like Lancashire. The way many of those teams function is just like a top-class international team. In India we should take a leaf out of their book. The quality of training, the quality of organisation, we don't have that in India," says Kartik, no doubt thinking about his sponsored top-of-the-line Toyota wheels, his home, the welcome afforded to him and his wife Shweta, who was with him while he played.

At the same time, it's refreshing to see that Kartik does not run down the team he plays domestic cricket for in India. "Railways may not be a glamorous side, but it is a big side in its own way," he said. "In the last four years we've won four titles; every time we've won the Ranji Trophy we've also won the Irani Trophy. It's just that the players are not helped in any way. It's an organisational thing. I guess the less said, the better. It's really not fair to compare the two." For Kartik, the two can co-exist quite happily.