Chennai Super Kings look strong for 2010 Champions League T20
Founded in 2008 Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is a Chennai based Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket franchise. They are the current holders of the IPL Champions trophy 2010. Being the only side in the IPL to make it to finals in all three editions, they have taken part in the Champions League twenty20 (CLT20) twice. CSK is owned by an Indian company known as India Cements Ltd. The Kings home ground is M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, which is named after former president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association M. A. Chidambaram.
The IPL Champs are led by India’s national team Captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, while the Kings are coached by veteran Black Caps Test skipper, Stephen Fleming. Besides veteran Black Cap test skipper, the Kings bowling coach is former Indian fast bowler, Venkatesh Prasad, and Gregory King as the trainer. Other staff members include Tom Simsek and Radha Krishnan.
The CSK are in Group A at the group stage of CLT20, which also includes teams such as Victoria, Warriors, Wayamba and Central Districts. CSK play their first match of the group stage against Central Districts at Kingsmead, Durban on the 11th of September 2010. They will face the mighty Wayamba at Supersport Park, Centurion on the 15th of September, Victoria’s will have a go at the CSK on the 18th of September at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth, and they play the Warriors on the 22nd of September.
The Kings have a strong bowling attack with of Sri Lankan spin Guru, Muthiah Muralitharan, South African pacer, Makhaya Ntini and Indian medium-fast bowler, Lakshmipathy Balaji. The Kings bowling attack has three World-class wicket takers, which would surely play on the minds of other teams in the group.
The batting power is led by Australian master blaster batsmen, Mathew Hayden and Michael Hussey, and to complement the Aussie batting power skipper, Dhoni, alongside fellow team-mate, young Suresh Raina.
CSK becomes a well-balanced side with all-rounders such as Englishman Andrew Flintoff, English county trained South African, Albie Morkel and fellow team-mate, Justin Kemp. To top it all the Kings also have Black Caps veteran all-rounder Jacob Oram.
CSK 2010 season of IPL was beyond impressive, as they defeated Mumbai Indians in the final, as Raina led them to a nail biting win with his 57 runs in just 35 balls, also taking a wicket for 21 runs. The Kings scored a massive of 168 runs which was to be chased at 8.40 runs per over by the Mumbai Indians, the runners up batting crumbled against the wide variety bowlers CSK has to offer. Skipper Dhoni related the victory to Pakistan’s heroic win in the 1992 World Cup as they were led by legendary Captain, Imran Khan.
CSK commemorate their star Sri Lankan player with an “800 jersey”. Muralitharan, the Lankan tiger is looking forward to another 3 years of cricket. As other fellow team-mates believe that their key to success is the level of preparation they will enter the cricketing arena with. Adding to their confident statements given in recent times, Balaji believes that CSK has the right team to win CLT20 and bring glory to their respective club.
THE CHENNAI SUPER KINGS SQUAD:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Mathew Hayden, Suresh Raina, Micheal Hussey, Anirudha Srikanth, Subramanian Badrinath, George Bailey, Arun Karthink, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, Andrew Flintoff, Doug Bollinger, Jacob Oram, Albie Morkel, Parthiv Patel, Shadab Jakati, Viraj Kabde, Suresh Kumar, Napolean Einstein, Muralitharan, Joginder Sharma, Makhaya Ntini, Thilan Thushara, Ravichandran Ashwin, Manpreet Gony, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Palani Amarnath, Sudeep Tyagi, Thissara Perera, Chandrasekar Ganapathy, Mohan Gandhi.
The upcoming CLT20 promises to be an eventful tournament of an international level. The promotional activities include the inclusion of Bollywood and Latin-American pop singers as other international players are also contributing to the promotional material. With CSK’s combination in all three departments, whether it’s batting, bowling or fielding they surely seem to be at a very safe and sound position. The entertaining CLT20 2010 starts from the 10th of September promising viewers a show to remember.