Tuesday, March 14, 2006

In the Iqbal mould: Munaf Patel

Finally I caught up with a movie that I had missed when I was in London. It's Iqbal. Set Max was screening Iqbal on Sunday and I left no stones unturned to ensure that I don't miss the movie this time. Which means getting up on time on a sunday, doing all chores b4 suvi could yell about it and parying 100 times that hope the light doesn't go off! Really loved the movie. Nagesh has a flair of making things simple. The simplicity of the movie really bowls you out. Since you must have all watched the movie, I won't dwell much into it but want to draw parellel with another Iqbal in making - the young lad from Bharuch: Munaf Patel.

The speedster has caught the right attention across cricketing fraternity. The guy has raw pace, can reverse swing too and have been bowling consistently at 140kmph. But more than that it's the background from where he rose catches your attention. Munaf comes from a small village near Bharuch. His father is a farmer. A devoit muslim, Munaf used to bowl in local village tournements and caught someone's attention. He was referred to Kiran More's Cricket Academy in Baroda. When he joined there, he didn't even have a decent pair of sports shoes, forget cricket shoes. At the academy Kiran suggested him to move to MRF pace academy and later Sachin tendulkar spotted him and brought him to Mumbai where he initially joined Mumbai Ranji team and later Maharashtra team. After his recent performance, there are atleast 3 sports management firm that are wrestling to sign Munaf under their banner. Quite like Iqbal, isn't it?

No comments: