DIY workout to IPL’s find of the season
This year in sport was a tale of unprecedented disruptions. Yet, it was also a revelatory one. Thangarasu Natarajan, who spent most of his life as a tennis ball cricket player rose to deliver a sensational performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) that was held in the empty stadiums in the United Arab Emirates in October but recorded its highest ever viewership over television and digital platforms.
The year began for Natarajan like it did for many of us: with great uncertainty and forced isolation. In March, the lean 29-yearold bowler was stuck in his village Chinnappampatti, roughly 350 kilometres from Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu. Natarajan was famed in his tennis ball playing days as someone who could bowl six perfect yorkers in an over. Doing the same thing with a leather ball demanded far more physical strength. “I started playing tennis ball cricket when I was in fifth grade. I came to know what a cricket ball is like only when I turned 20. I think that was in 2011 (when) I played in Chennai Division 4,” he had said in October.
Cricket gave Natarajan everything. His family lived in a makeshift shanty, his mother ran a roadside chicken shop (which she still does) his father was a labourer at a powerloom factory (he no longer works there). With his earnings from tennis ball tournaments, which progressed to club cricket and finally to the Ranji trophy in 2015, Natarajan elevated his family’s financial condition over the course of a decade.
The year he was picked for the IPL (by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3 crore in 2017), Natarajan built an academy in his village, complete with turfs, nets, bats, and balls. But it didn’t have a gym. Now, trapped in his village, Natarajan spoke to his club coach, Bharat Reddy and devised a workout plan. He would do complex weight training routines using 20-litre water canisters stored in his house. And, he would push and pull the heavy roller used for levelling the turf at his academy. As the pandemic ground all sporting events around the world to a halt, Natarajan began to build his strength.
“You see his fitness [now], he has put on muscles, it gives you a lot of confidence when you are fit,” said Reddy.
In July, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that the IPL would be played in a bio-bubble. Natarajan — who had played seven games in his debut season and none thereafter though he was still part of the team the following two years — was ready: He played every match. He also bowled six yorkers in an over. He stopped the biggest hitters in cricket in their tracks. He was the IPL’s find of the season. He was then called up to the Indian team for the tour of Australia in December. Not only did he make his T20 debut there, he also played his first One Day International, picking up wickets in both formats. For the man from Chinappampatti, it was an astonishing year.