Freedom, environment among success mantras of Chennai franchise
Chennai:
The tag Dad’s Army befell Chennai Super Kings not by default. 12 members of the Chennai team are in the 30s but in Indian Premier League the Yellows have defied age and convention for yet another year to qualify for the play-offs.
Imran Tahir (40), Dwayne Bravo (35), Harbhajan Singh (38), Shane Watson (37), Suresh Raina (32) and MS Dhoni (37) form the core group of the side that has stood the test of time. In the 10 editions that it has played in IPL over the last 12 years, it has won three titles, ended runner-up four times and finished third and fourth in the other two. It was suspended for two years, but the Super Kings is by far the most successful team in the league, having made it to the play-offs every time it has competed.
Age was certainly a handicap on paper, but for CSK it became a positive mainly because the management showed faith in experience and never got involved in the rat race of competition. So much so, its seasoned coach Stephen Fleming admitted before this edition that the team lacked woefully in certain areas. “We are never going to be great (as a fielding group). We know that, we can see that. It is one of the downsides of maybe having athletes who are a bit older. But we are okay with that,” he had said. “Usually our catching has been very good. We were a little bit placid with the movement around the field. We have to be at our best. We’ll address that. It is often a barometer to pressure,” he had told media persons during the start of the campaign.
What makes this combination a crack outfit in Indian Premier League? “It’s the freedom given by the management and the captain of the team,” says M Senthilnathan, the Tamil Nadu State Senior Selection Committee chairman and the head of the MRF Pace Foundation. “As CSK players are experienced, they know their responsibility and they can handle the pressure in crunch situations,” he adds.
This year the Yellows made it to the play-off, thanks to the exploits of its captain MS Dhoni. But over the years, it has been well served by opener Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Raina and Bravo. “All these players are experienced and have performed at the highest level. They know their exact role. And all these players are individually match winners. They also adapt to the situation easily,” adds Senthilnathan. To lend credence to Senthilnathan’s observation, an insider, who had played and coached the owner’s (India Cements) teams in the TNCA League over the last two decades, adds two more elements to the success mantras of the Super Kings: environment and family.
“Usually, we use the word family superficially for every group (office, friends and community), but in CSK, we feel it is more apt than any other element,” he says. To substantiate his point, he cites the cases of players who have left the franchise after initial years and felt the heat of competition (Parthiv Patel for instance) and contrasts it with the case of someone like Harbhajan Singh, who played for a different franchise and joined CSK of late.
“In CSK, they don’t feel the pressure, unlike in other teams. They are hired because they are good. They are expected to play their roles in the team and beyond that neither the captain (Dhoni) nor the management puts additional pressure,” he explains the environment in the team.
Another reason why CSK has reaped the benefit of keeping the core group, according to observers, is that it is difficult for an outsider to do well in IPL. They point out CSK’s success rate at its den (Chepauk) to validate the argument. “The experienced players are successful in this format because the boundary is short, it is of shorter duration, maximum of 4 overs for the bowlers, batsmen are expected to score fast in fewer number of balls,” explains Senthilnathan.