Chennai Super Kings again the team to beat

 

Chennai Super Kings might have bolstered their fast-bowling resources leading-up to IPL 2013, but R Ashwin will continue to be their lynchpin

Big Picture

Chennai Super Kings are the only team to make it to the semi-final stage – or the equal – of every IPL tournament so far. Twice, including in the previous season, they’ve finished runners-up. In 2010 and2011, they won. 

 

Like most IPL teams, they’ve had their share of controversy, not the least of it being claims of conflict of interest – BCCI president N Srinivasan also manages India Cements, the franchise’s owners. However, the on-field success has so far managed to keep the spotlight on the positives. This time, though, Super Kings face what is possibly their biggest off-field issue yet: that of the exclusion of Sri Lankan players from the games in Chennai, following political tensions. The other franchises, whose Sri Lankans play more central roles in the team, have voiced fears that this gives Super Kings an unfair advantage in their home games, while some have criticised the IPL’s softness in not moving the matches away from Chennai altogether. This means Super Kings will need a near-perfect showing to drag the headlines in the right direction, but even another triumph might leave a bad aftertaste.

Back to the real cricket then. Apart from being the IPL’s most successful franchise, Super Kings have also been the tournament’s most settled team. Few changes had been made to the squad over five seasons, with the batting and spin-bowling departments being their customary powerhouses. This year, though, the obvious focus is on bolstering the pace bowling, and the squad sports several new faces as a result. Australia’s Dirk Nannes and Ben Laughlin, West Indies’ Jason Holder and South Africa’s Chris Morris – for whom Super Kings paid US$625,000, a whopping 31 times his base price – were snapped up in February’s auction. Later, they signed Imtiaz Ahmed, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohit Sharma and Ronit More, domestic pacers who are all coming off solid Ranji Trophy performances. Given the nature of the Chepauk track though – which was on ample display during the recent India-Australia Test – how much of an impact this move will have is as yet unclear.

 

Key players

With Super Kings turning all that attention to their seam-bowling, it’s clear that they believe R Ashwin has the spin front well covered, with Ravindra Jadeja backing him up. Ashwin has the numbers, in the IPL and otherwise, to back up that notion. Currently India’s primary spinner, he has 49 IPL wickets for Super Kings – second only to Albie Morkel, who has played 21 more games. More importantly, at the end of the 2012 season, Ashwin boasted of an economy rate of just over six, the best among all Super Kings bowlers.If Super Kings look to Ashwin with the ball, they look first to MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina with the bat. In the absence of the injured Faf du Plessis, the now-retired and ever-dependable Michael Hussey will partner M Vijay (who comes in high on confidence after feasting on Australia’s bowlers) at the top, leaving Raina and Dhoni in charge of finishing duties. That was an area Super Kings struggled in during the round-robin stage in 2012, often lacking the late surge. It is an area Raina and Dhoni are more than capable of improving upon.

 

Big name in

Dirk Nannes: He now sits at No. 2 on the overall Twenty20 wickets charts, behind South African Alfonso Thomas. Despite his extensive T20 experience, he warmed the bench all through IPL 2012 for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He was bought by Super Kings at the auction for US$600,000, and is likely to compete with fellow Australian quick Ben Hilfenhaus for the fourth foreign-player’s spot in their line-up. 

 

Big name out

Doug Bollinger: The Australia seamer was one of four overseas players released by Super Kings in the lead-up to IPL 2013, alongside George Bailey, Scott Styris and Suraj Randiv. Bollinger had galvanised Super Kings’ campaign in 2010, when he arrived halfway through the tournament. Since then, he had been the team’s principal fast-bowling new-ball option, claiming 37 wickets at 18.72. That is, until Hilfenhaus arrived in similar fashion halfway through last year’s event. 

Below the radar

Baba Aparajith: The eighteen-year-old allrounder from Tamil Nadu did not have a Ranji Trophy season that stood out. Where he did make his mark, though, was the Under-19 World Cup last year. A top-order batsman who can bowl handy offspin and a lively fielder, Aparajith knocked off Man-of-the-Match awards in the World Cup quarter-final and semi-final with all-round contributions. Considering Super Kings’ affinity for allrounders, he should fit into their scheme of things quite well. 

Availability

Super Kings will be without Faf du Plessis for at least the first month of the IPL, as he recovers from a back injury. Allrounders Albie Morkel and Chris Morris are doubtful for the first two games due to South African domestic commitments. The squad includes two Sri Lankans: seamer Nuwan Kulasekara and offspinner Akila Dananjaya. Given the circumstances, whether they will travel to India at all is as yet unclear. None of Super Kings’ players have international commitments during the course of the IPL.

IPL’s new partner raises the pitch

 

	The IPL is redefining the boundaries of advertising

Last week the BCCI and Star India, a Murdoch-owned, TV-centric media conglomerate, announced the latter’s association with IPL as an “official partner”. The announcement indicated that Star India was just another sponsor of the tournament but didn’t mention the significance – it had effectively entered the territory of one of their key competitors using the same platform and possibly changed the rules of the high-stakes advertising game.

Multi Screen Media are the IPL’s official broadcasters through Max, their Hindi film channel, and their recently launched 24-hour sports channel. The broadcast rights deal, revised ahead of the 2009 IPL, is worth around Rs 900 crore ($165 milion) per year till 2017.

Star India, however, have tied up with IPL to primarily promote their flagship channel, Star Plus. “We saw a great opportunity to use this platform to communicate our brand promise of Rishta Wahi, Soch Nayi [same relationship, new idea],” Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, said in a statement after the deal.

The significance of Star’s entry into a property owned by one of its competitors goes beyond the boundary signage that was shown often and prominently on the screen during Wednesday’s opening game. While not being seen as ambush marketing, it has created ripples in the media and entertainment industry. “We view it as an act of desperation by Star to be part of the biggest sporting entertainment event,” Manjit Singh, CEO of MSM, told Mint, a business daily. “Star’s decision to be part of IPL simply validates our strategy of having bagged the telecast rights”.

Some industry experts are looking at the deal as an innovative method of branding. “It could be a trend-setting deal in Indian advertising, where a company enters into a property owned by one of its competitors,” says Kiran Khalap, a brand consultant. “It is kind of steal for Star to use a platform as big as IPL in such a way.”

The Star India deal is believed to be worth at least Rs 50 crore (about $10 million) per year. Even though both Star India and IPL have kept the form of the association under wraps, it is understood that the former plan to have characters from their 33-odd daily soaps attending most of the matches. After the first match against Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils on Wednesday night, one of the female actors from Star’s soaps handed out a Star Plus Nayi Soch Award at Eden Gardens. In fact, the unique partnership has also left franchises wondering “whether the players will be asked to make a guest appearance in Star’s reality shows, just like film stars”.

MSM’s tetchiness – as revealed by Singh’s unusually aggressive statement – is understandable, say industry experts. “It may turn out to be a profitable move, but Star India’s partnership with IPL is certainly not in a good taste,” a media buyer said on condition of anonymity. “It may start a vicious war between television media majors, similar to the ambush marketing campaigns run by the cola giants over sponsorship of cricket events in the late 90s and early 2000s.”

Khalap, however, says this isn’t ambush marketing. “I can’t call it an ambush. It’s effective deployment of resources by a media conglomerate to use a property that’s as big and reach out to the target audience in one more way.”

Ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar speaks from a financial perspective. “Cricket is the biggest money-spinning factor in India. The IPL is the second-most followed cricket event after the World Cup,” Kakkar says. “So it doesn’t matter whether it’s ambush or not. Any association with a property like IPL will surely help a brand in a much bigger way.”

BCCI chief plays down IPL disruption threat

 

N Srinivasan was hopeful the political situation, which is threatening to affect the participation of Sri Lankan players, would be resolved before the IPL

N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, has said the concerns surrounding the participation of Sri Lankan players in the IPL was an “operational issue” and would be handled so.

 

Political tensions in India, especially in Tamil Nadu, over the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka had resulted in the Sri Lanka Players’ Association raising concerns over the safety of Sri Lanka players in India during the IPL. Twelve Sri Lankan players have been contracted with different franchises, including Chennai Super Kings who have Nuwan Kulasekara and Akila Dananjaya as part of their squad.

 

“India is a safe place,” Srinivasan said in an interview to NDTV. “Every state in India is safe for playing cricket. I cannot predict anything, but these are working matters. We have an event manager, IMG, who will deal with local issues as and when they arise. I believe the government of Tamil Nadu is extremely capable of handling any situation and there is absolutely no problem of law and order or anything of that kind here. And the IPL is still some time away. These are issues which, I think, will get sorted out.”

 

Srinivasan also said that he was unaware of requests made by IPL franchises to shift games but said the board and the IPL would discuss the situation if needed.

 

Srinivasan expressed his happiness with India’s 4-0 series win against Australia but refused to comment on the future of Sachin Tendulkar, who will turn 40 next month. In the home series against England, Tendulkar scored 112 runs at an average of 18.66, and he made 192 runs at an average of 32 against Australia. Having already retired from one-day internationals in December last year, and with India’s next Test series several months away, there has been speculation about Tendulkar’s Test retirement.

 

“I don’t think anyone of us can talk about Sachin,” Srinivasan said. “He is possibly the greatest cricketer India has produced. I don’t think it is for us to sit and analyse his performance series-wise. Sachin is different from others. This is a personal view. I distinguish between choice and my view. If you ask my view, if you ask me what I feel, I think every Indian will say that Sachin is different from others.”