4. T Natarajan
The emerging T20 specialist, T Natarajan, until the age of 20 played only tennis-ball cricket. Living in a village 36-km off Salem, he had barely known how a cricket ground looked like. The eldest among the five siblings, Natarajan, had tried his hands in all sorts of jobs like selling newspapers, delivering milk to support his family financially.
After playing lots of tennis-ball tournaments, Natarajan impressed some officials who later allowed him to play in divisional TNCA matches in 2010-11. The tennis-ball games excelled his ability to place perfect yorkers. This skill became his ladder to success.
He was out of cricket action for two years as he was suspected for his bowling action. However, with the help of the BCCI officials, the matter was clarified and was picked up by Kings XI Punjab for IPL 10 for an amount of Rs 3 crore. In a nutshell, from having no clarity about professional cricket to representing India in international cricket, his story inspires all the small-town people.
