ABU DHABI // If the Indian Premier League (IPL) still sometimes feels like a transient entity, where formats and rules change, franchises come and go, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have provided it with some sense of continuity.
No matter what the IPL has done, no matter what it has looked like, Chennai have been prominent. They were runners-up the first year, semi-finalists the next, winners both years after that and runners-up for the past two years again. They have never failed to qualify for the last four.
Their first game, against Kings XI Punjab on Friday in Abu Dhabi, will be their 100th IPL game. They have won nearly 61 per cent, which, for a format as pernicious as Twenty20, is not too shabby.
Admittedly, it helps to be owned by the world’s most powerful administrator, the recently deposed head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, N Srinivasan.
It also helps to have India's most successful leader and the country's most sellable brand, MS Dhoni, as captain. To further throw Stephen Fleming, one of the game's most astute thinkers, into that mix as coach, it would seem a travesty if CSK were not successful.
They are as much an institution as you can have in a league that is only seven seasons old.
It is incongruous then that the franchise finds itself under such a cloud off the field. Only a few weeks ago there seemed a realistic chance the Supreme Court of India may ban them from this season’s edition, as investigations into 2013’s spot-fixing scandal continue.
That uncertainty, Fleming candidly conceded, has been difficult to ignore. But being back together as a group, with a new season and new challenges on the horizon, has been the best tonic.
Even Dhoni, whose role has come under the scrutiny of the courts, looked like a man shed of a burden; fresh, as Fleming described his captain, even joking around during a news conference yesterday in Abu Dhabi (asked how he would ensure a clean IPL this year, Dhoni suggested the team would try out the hotel laundry).
“There is a lot going on, I won’t lie, a lot of distractions,” Fleming said. “But it’s nice to get back into a team environment where you’re somewhat cocooned and can concentrate on what’s at hand. All we can do is try and be consistent again but, yes, it’s there, we acknowledge it and just hope it works out from a playing point of view and team point of view, that we’re healthy and strong.”
There was a moment, he said, where he worried about the future of the franchise. “Again, I won’t lie. We were all uncertain about how it was going to play out and were desperate to get back into the fold of the team and have another chance to carry on the history of CSK.”
They have strengthened the side, but the overriding reason for their continuing on-field success lies in the stability of their squad. They have retained a strong core from their earliest days. Even this season, when rule changes for player retention and acquisition forced most franchises to change their squads significantly, Chennai have kept their spine.
“We give a lot of emphasis to reaching the semi-finals,” Dhoni said. “Then after that it becomes a lottery where one good individual has a good day and he can take that game away.
“We try to make it clear what players’ roles and responsibilities are and we try and fulfil them. As humans, we make mistakes but we want to keep that low and the duration between the mistakes is low. That is what makes us a good side.
“The good thing has been we have been a side that hasn’t changed so much. After the first auction we tried to retain players, and it has happened after that as well. It can be difficult, but we are trying to retain as many as possible.”
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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