The village hero

The story of Munaf Patel's rise from rustic surroundings in a remote village is remarkably similar to that of the protagonist of the film Iqbal, which released last year. Atreyo Mukhopadhyay of The Hindustan Times caught up with Munaf, who spoke of his early battle with poverty. Also read Sriram Veera's Lowdown on Munaf.

"I knew I could play at a higher level but had no idea of how to go about it. I didn’t know what Ranji Trophy or Duleep Trophy were. I started thinking of playing for India after moving to Mumbai"