Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings are a franchise cricket club based in the South Indian city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. They are a part of the eight-team Indian Premier League (abbreviated as IPL).

CSK’s home ground is the M.A Chidambaram Stadium, also known as the “Chepauk”. They have also used the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi a few times.

The Chennai-based side is the only team to win the IPL for two consecutive years (2010, 2011). They have also won the now defunct Champions League T20 twice, in 2010 and 2014.

The team was suspended for the 2016 and 2017 edition of the tournament due to a spot-fixing case and will return to the league in 2018. Prominent names like M.S.Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Brendon McCullum have played for the team.

Background

After the Indian Premier League was floated in 2008, the Chennai franchise of the league was bought by India Cements, whose vice-chairman was former ICC and BCCI President N. Srinivasan.

A separate entity was formed called the Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd. in 2015 after a Supreme Court ruling that allowed separate commercial interest in the IPL and CLT20.

CSK won their first title in the year 2010, captained by former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Achievements

CSK played their first IPL match on 19 April 2008 against Kings XI Punjab, and posted a massive total of 240 runs. They went on to win the match by 33 runs.

CSK achieved their first title win in 2010 after a faltering start to the season. They also won the now-defunct Champions League T20 in the same year and became the first-ever IPL team to win it. They are also the first IPL team to achieve a title double which was achieved by the Mumbai Indians in 2013.

The Chennai Super Kings became the first ever team in the IPL to retain a title when they won the IPL successively in 2010 and 2011. They won their second CLT20 title in 2014 to become the first IPL team to achieve two Champions League T20 titles.

Suresh Raina is CSK’s leading run scorer with 3699 runs from 132 IPL games, while the leading wicket-taker is Ravichandran Ashwin with 100 wickets from 111 IPL games. Their captain M.S Dhoni is the most successful IPL captain with 79 wins out of 132 games.

Michael Hussey became CSK’s first batsman to score a century in the inaugural season of the IPL. In the same season, they broke records again as two of their bowlers picked up a hattrick - Lakshmipathy Balaji and Makhaya Ntini. 

Trajectory of the Club

Having acquired some big names like M.S Dhoni, Matthew Hayden and Muttiah Muralitharan in the opening auction of the IPL, the CSK team strengthened their side and as a result reached the finals in the very first season itself. However, they lost the title to the Rajasthan Royals and settled for a runners up position.

In 2009, they continued their first season’s performance by ending up second in the table. Their hopes of a first title were ended in a disappointing semifinal exit against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In the third and fourth season, CSK hit peak form by winning back-to-back league titles.

The club was on a steady path towards glory before they got involved in a major spot-fixing case in 2013. N. Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested by the Mumbai police on charges of placing IPL bets.

Two years later, the Supreme Court suspended the owners of the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings who were allegedly involved in match-fixing. This suspension effected a ban on the teams who will return in the current season of the IPL in 2018 after two years.

Fans

CSK have fans all over South India and have their own song, titled “Whistle Podu”. The fan song is quite famous, especially in their home state. The team’s captain M.S Dhoni is a fan favorite and is seen as a hero.