Age did not kill Watson’s passion
KEY TO SUCCESS It is fitness that matters and CSK have again shown the way T20 TITLES UNDER DHONI Fitness was an issue, but he is more professional than I thought. He has got through with one of his greatest performances.
I have been in a lot of conversations which have discussed the reasons for success of Chennai Super Kings. Well, the content of these conversations have zoomed and crashed from sublime to ridiculous depending on number of drinks my guests had consumed. Thankfully, I am a tee-totaler and have never bought into the theories around their yellowblue outfit or any such idiosyncrasies. There has been more than a word of an ‘outside’ influence controlling a few variables here and there but I won’t be able to speculate. So, here are my two cents: CSK does well because the team is allowed to do well.
Let me explain. A lot goes on into the world of franchisee cricket. It is an expensive business. Franchisee fees, salaries to players and support staff, logistics…the balance sheets could be unforgiving. There is one more head that no balance sheet shows: EGO. Most of the owners are a successful lot.
They hate losing and so do we. But while cricketers could reconcile that the other team was better on a given day, these successful businessmen could be addressing the loss on Return on Investment (ROI) gauge. Their ecosystem largely functions on investment-returninvestment-return. With this as a backdrop if the owners interfere in what happens on the field can you really blame them? Well…
I think it was in 2014 when MS Dhoni told me that promoters didn’t even know where their team was on points table! In these times of analytics and SWOT analysis it may seem unbelievable. Dhoni decides everything cricketing which is how it should be. If he went with 30-plus players in this season I have my doubts if there were any eyebrows raised internally. Age doesn’t kill passion, it just channelizes it better and that is what we saw with Year Venue Title Shane Watson. Besides, Dhoni taking retirement from Tests helped him and the team.
Apart from that CSK doesn’t chop and change too much. They were smart to retain their core – Dhoni, Raina, Jadeja, Bravo and Du Plessis. Move from Chennai (a spinner’s den) to Pune (a more seamer-friendly venue) was an easy transition. This is because they worked intelligently on auction table. Another act, albeit off the field, would have many hearts. After the CSK games were shifted to Pune their management hired a chartered train for its fans to travel to Pune to watch the game against Rajasthan Royals. Reports say that all expenses including food, local accommodation and transport, match tickets and the return journey to Chennai were taken care of.
Despite coming from a rather slow and peaceful society of New Zealand, Kane Williamson adjusted well in the razzmatazz of IPL. He finishing with an orange cap would have given a peaceful sleep to purists for he is not switching or paddling too much. Johannesburg World Twenty-20 Johannesburg Champions League Champions League Team India CSK CSK CSK CSK Asia Cup Twenty-20 India CSK S FLEMING, CSK coach on Watson
What captains want is players who move well. It doesn’t matter which year a player is born in, you have to be agile.
MS DHONI, on fitness
K WILLIAMSON, On Shane Watson
Anyone who turns out with an innings of 100 plus in the final was obviously a significant effort, a great contribution .