The village of Chinnappampatti, 20 miles from Salem, 200 miles from Chennai, is so small that it does not even seem to show up on most maps. It has five bus stops, three temples, two schools and, as of this week, one hero. His name is Thangarasu Natarajan, though most who know him call him “Nattu”. He is 25, a left-arm fast bowler who has taken exactly four wickets in Twenty20 matches for his state side, Tamil Nadu. And on Monday morning he was bought for $445,000 by Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League player auction. Natarajan never even held a cricket ball until he was 20. When he was young his mother worked in a snack stall, and his father wherever there was work to be had: as a railway porter, or in one of the many textile factories around about. They had five children, and many more important things to spend their money on than Dukes and Readers.
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