The Melbourne born son of Dutch parents, Dirk Nannes may be an 'accidental cricketer' as he likes to put it but he's a rather good one. The left arm pacer is a limited overs specialist, who balances cricket with his other passion, skiing.

Nannes competed in many World Cup skiing events through the 1990s and almost made it to the Australian squad for the Winter Olympics later in the decade. This was between turning out for club sides at the beginning and end of their season and making batsmen dance to sweet chin music.

The first two years of playing first class cricket were uneventful for Nannes, after he made his debut for Victoria in 2005-06, but 2007-08 proved to be a golden season. Nannes's stock rose in T20 cricket as he helped Victoria and Middlesex win the Twenty20 Cups of their respective domestic set-ups.

Signed up by the Delhi Daredevils before the start of IPL 2009, Nannes formed a great combination with Ashish Nehra and Pradeep Sangwan as Delhi topped the tables in South Africa. Tired of waiting for a call up from Australia, he played for Netherlands in the subsequent T20 World Cup. Australia soon called up Nannes thereafter and he represented them in the 2010 T20 World Cup in which he finished as the highest wicket taker of the tournament.

The rigorous physical demands of the four day game and injury worries forced Nannes to focus on limited overs cricket and his business, a ski-travel company called 'Global Snow Tours'.

Dirk Nannes was picked up by RCB ahead of the 2011 IPL but a side strain forced him to sit out of the tournament and Chris Gayle was signed as his replacement.

RCB Highlights

RCB Highlights, RCB vs MI, Bangalore
In the second match of the tournament, Nannes took a wicket in his first over, cleaning up the dangerous Davy Jacobs. He turned it into a maiden over and strained his side. Bangalore never recovered from his loss. Mumbai went on to easily chase down the required runs without the threat of Nannes's pace to unsettle them.