The real success of the Chennai Super Kings

So the CSK have won another trophy making them by far, the most successful IPL or 1st class club team of the recent past.

They won the IPL last year & then followed that up with the Champions league. This year they simply annihilated the RCB in the IPL finals.

So what is this success attributed to? Public opinion towards this question shows one logical answer: Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

But that’s not right, right.. I mean, that can’t be all. IPL franchisees invest millions of $ to buy expensive players, trying to make (expensive) best teams all complete with the best support staff & back end resources. So why then should one player be so successful & draw a disproportionate amount of success?

Well the simple answer to that is THIS one player has a happy knack of getting the team composition right!

Let’s have a look…
In the IPL the most desired players are foreign professional i.e. International cricketers of immense caliber. These foreigners can have high impacts in any game but when its ONLY 20 overs, their performances can be telling. The IPL (to promote Indian cricket) allows only 4 foreign players in any playing eleven. Now look how well CSK have used these foreigners
The 4 foreign players for CSK are Mike Hussey, Dough Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo & Albie Morkel. Lets further dig into the proficiencies of these crickets. One an opening batsman, one a opening bowler & 2 all rounders

By having a foreign opening batsman & bowler, what CSK effectively did is that they had their BEST, most expensive INTERNATIONAL talent upfront; charging onto the opposition straight away in the short 20 overs, With bat or ball..
The next 2 international players are good, quality all rounders able to contribute with the bat, ball or field making small but impactful contributions. This according to me has been the reason for CSK success. It obviously helps that they have had tremendous HOME (Indian) talent like Vijay, Badri, Raina & AShwin but the best utilization of the limited 4 foreigners is what stands out.

This really is not an isolated example either. Look at the RR in the 1st season that they won IPL. They won because they had 2 fantastic international talents at the top of their game. There was Sohail Tanvver who won the purple cap that year & then there was Shane Watson. Shane Watson has been very vocal about that season with the Royals, the positive impact it has had on his fledgling career & Warne’s contribution to his PERSONAL success.

So there you have it many similarities all leading to success.
1. A fantastic captain (Warne & MSD)
2. Fantastic opening bastman (Watson & Hussey)
3. Fantastic opening bowlers (Tanveer & Bollinger)

Another success of these teams (especially when you look at it from the team composition point of view) is that they both had quality spinners. CSK has Ashwin & RR obviously had Warne.