IPL Profile: Chennai Super Kings
Dhoni - Chennai's big star.
The final instalment in our series of IPL profiles sees Tristan Holme breaking down the Chennai Super Kings, a balanced outfit with the talismanic MS Dhoni at the helm...
Owner: India Cements Ltd
Established in 1946, they now sell nine million tons of cement per year. The company paid $91 million to acquire the rights of the franchise for the next 10 years.
Coach: Kepler Wessels
South Africa's first captain post isolation who also played 24 Tests for Australia, Wessels' last coaching assignment was with Northamptonshire and ended in 2006. Since reaching mutual agreement to part ways with Northants he has been a commentator with South African broadcaster Supersport. Former Indian opener V. B. Chandrasekhar will be the chief selector for the Super Kings.
Captain: Mahendra Singh Dhoni
The subject of much praise from Rameez Raja after India's win in Kanpur, Dhoni is a natural leader whose mere presence inspires those around him. Led India to success in the inaugural World Twenty20 Championship and the Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia, and drew the highest auction bid of $1.5 million.
Squad
MS Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Mike Hussey, Jacob Oram, Makhaya Ntini, Muttiah Muralitharan, Albie Morkel, Joginder Sharma, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Abhinav Mukund, Suresh Kumar, Arun Karthik, Shadab Jakati, Napoleon Einstein, Subramaniam Badrinath, Lakshmipathy Balaji, R Ashwin, Srikkanth Anirudha, Viraj Vilas Kadbe, Palani Amarnath, Manpreet Gony.
Strengths
The balance in their batting line-up is superb, with big hitters Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel offset by accumulators Mike Hussey, Stephen Fleming, Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel. The world's trickiest spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, is on board, and the return to form of Makhaya Ntini is hugely encouraging, especially given the franchise's relative lack of international pacemen.
Weaknesses
Ntini and Murali aside, the rest of their international bowlers are not specialists - Oram and Morkel can both do a job but could be targeted by opposition batsmen. Hence they'll be relying on the Indian youngsters to come to the fore and do a big job in this department. Their fielding abilities are also fairly suspect, with no one sticking out as a world class fielder in the ring.
Key Player
Morkel's $675,000 price tag raised plenty of eyebrows at the first auction, yet he was one of the best players at last year's World Twenty20 Championship where he played crucial knocks against Bangladesh and England, before ploughing a lone furrow against India as his Proteas teammates wilted around him. When he gets his eye in, opposition bowlers often find themselves asking for a new ball to replace the one which Morkel has removed from the ground, as Chris Schofield did twice in one over at Newlands. Can also be pretty handy with the ball at times - his 4 for 44 instigated the Pakistani collapse that saw South Africa clinch the deciding ODI in Lahore last year.
Potential Dud
Stephen Fleming's retirement makes him one of the internationals who will be available for the entire tournament, but he has not played international limited overs cricket since last year's World Cup and always was more of a Test player. Question marks remain as to whether he can adapt his game to the newest format and have a major impact on the tournament.
Why You'll Watch Them
Because Dhoni's presence will fill every ground and generally inspire the side with his wry smile and rock 'n roll sort of style. And because every mention of India Under-19 player Napoleon Einstein is worth a chuckle...
Peculiar Fact
The theme song of Chennai Super Kings, penned by Vairamuthu (a Tamil poet and 'star lyricist') is being composed by Mani Sharma (a Tollywood music director) and directed by Rajiv Menon, who directed the hit Tamil film Minsaara Kanavu in 1996. The name "Super Kings" is to honor the rulers of the golden era of Tamil culture.
Tristan Holme
You can follow every ball of the Indian Premier League live on Cricket365 from April 18.