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Chennai: Here’s a brief compilation of all the venues where your team, the Chennai Super Kings, are scheduled to play during the league phase of the 2009 Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament commencing on April 18.

1. Kingsmead, Durban


Located in a city known for its concentration of populace of Indian ancestry, Kingsmead has a capacity of 25,000 and is within walking distance of Durban’s famed Indian Ocean shoreline. It hosted its first one-day international in December 1992, but its first Test in January 1923.

Kingsmead was also the venue of the famous "Timeless Test" played in 1939 (March 3-14) between England and South Africa. The match lasted for 10 days, but was eventually declared a draw as the English had to catch the ship home!
The ground hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup semi-final. Interestingly, it is widely believed that the changing tides of the nearby ocean helps swing bowlers move the ball nicely through the air.

Chennai Super Kings matches (4): April 23 (vs Delhi Daredevils, 4 pm); April 27 (vs Deccan Chargers, 4 pm); May 14 (vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 4 pm); May 20 (vs Kings XI Punjab, 8 pm).

2.Supersport Park, Centurion, Pretoria


Considered as one of the best grounds in the world, Supersport Park is a 20 000-seater that boasts a wonderful grandstand and superb open grassed embankments. It hosted its first one-day international in December 1992 and its first Test in November 1995 with Shaun Pollock making his Test debut for South Africa against England.

Although the Supersport Park pitch favours fast bowlers, it has proved to be an excellent one-day cricket ground, with a wicket that is conducive to free scoring.
The ground hosted five World Cup matches in 2003, including two Super Six clashes.

SuperSport Park has a minimum seated capacity of 17,500, including 69 hospitality suites, 32 embankment suites and 40 wheelchair spaces.
On significant upgrades to the stadium, it boasts of a capacity to pour 9,000 beers per hour!

Chennai Super Kings matches (3): April 30 (vs Rajasthan Royals, 8 pm); May 07 (vs Kings XI Punjab, 8 pm); May 18 (vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 8 pm).


3. Newlands, Cape Town

Newlands is regarded as the most picturesque Test cricket venue in the world, with the mountains, shrouded in clouds, overlooking the ground shrouded in clouds. Newlands hosted its first one-day international in 1992 when Hansie Cronje captured 5 for 32 to help South Africa to a six-wicket win over India. It was a Test ground over a century before that, hosting the second Test between England and South Africa in March 1889.

The stadium was the venue for the 2003 Cricket World Cup opening ceremony and the opening match of the tournament between South Africa and the West Indies. The islanders went on to score a shock victory against the hosts.
Chennai Super Kings matches (2): April 18 (vs Mumbai Indians, 4 pm); April 25 (vs Kolkata Knight Riders (8 pm).

4.St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth


St George’s Park, also known as the Crusaders Ground, hosted the first ever Test match in South Africa and also outside of England and Australia, in March 1889. England beat South Africa by eight wickets. Curiously, the Park hosted the final Test in the 1969 series after which South Africa was banned due to apartheid.

It was also the venue where India crashed to a shock 70-run defeat against Kenya in 2001. The park later hosted one of the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup between England and Australia.

In 1896 it witnessed one of Test cricket's most remarkable games. England's George Lohmann took 7 for 38 in South Africa's first innings and then 8 for 7 in their second as they were bowled out for 30.

Chennai Super Kings matches (2): April 20 (vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 8 pm); May 16 (vs Mumbai Indians, 4 pm).

5. Buffalo Park, East London

It is one of the smaller grounds dotted with grass embankments and a 14,000 capacity, but the Buffalo Park offers a beautiful view with the ocean in the background. Of more significance is the stadium is the home of Chennai Super Kings strike bowler, Makhaya Ntini.

It first tasted international cricket in December 1992 when India defeated South Africa in the seventh and final one-day international of their series. Later, in December 1994, Pakistani paceman Waqar Younis claimed a hat-trick against New Zealand, while in January 1999 Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper put on a fourth-wicket stand of 226 for the West Indies against South Africa.

Incredibly, Shaun Pollock captured 6 for 35 for the Proteas in the same match!
The ground hosted its first Test in October 2002 when South Africa thrashed Bangladesh by an innings and 107 runs as Graeme Smith hit 200 and Gary Kirsten, the present India team coach, 150.

Chennai Super Kings match (1): May 04 (vs Deccan Chargers, 4 pm).

6. The Wanderers, Johannesburg

The Old Wanderers first hosted Test cricket in 1896, when South Africa faced England and George Lohmann claimed 9 for 28 in South Africa's first innings to help the English to a convincing innings victory.

The New Wanderers, also known as the “Bull Ring”, hosted its first Test match in December 1956, the first one-day international, between South Africa and India, in December 1992 and subsequently, the 2003 World Cup final.

The Wanderers seats about 34 000 people and boasts 182 corporate suites. Considering its square of 10 pitches, fully-automatic irrigation system with underground pop-up sprinklers, an international standard drainage, the ground is rated as among the best in the world.

Chennai Super Kings match (1): May 02 (vs Delhi Daredevils, 8 pm).


7. De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley

Kimberley is more famous as the scene of the great Diamond rush in the 19th century. The cricket ground, De Beers Diamond Oval, has plenty of the grass banks that are so popular with the local spectators. It hosted its first one-day international in April 1998 when Pakistan overhauled Sri Lankan total of 295 to record a four-wicket victory to set the pattern for high scoring matches.

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With cricket entering a new era in the form of the Indian Premier League and its attendant razzmatazz, Chennai Super Kings hit upon the idea of launching a fan club in a bid to leverage the vast loyalty base. The concept is relatively new to cricket and to an extent, follows the contours of the well-established football fan clubs, the Manchester United for instance.

The huge success that was the IPL earlier this summer opened up marketing avenues for the various franchisee units to cast their net wider to garner more fan support. After all, the loyal fan is the backbone of any sport and it is no different in cricket.

In football, the fan clubs have been in existence for some decades now with loyalty passed on from one generation to the next. It meant that the roots of the clubs permeated deeper into the social fabric to an extent that some of the topnotch sides enjoy even global fan base. Incidentally, the bigger picture runs along these lines and perhaps, a decade from now, the team would enjoy a global profile, much like some of the European football clubs do these days.

Of course, Super Kings are in for the long haul as loyalty evolves only over a period of time. To this end, they took the first small step at a time when the concept of IPL and Twenty20 cricket is still in its nascent stage.

When the IPL was launched, it was akin to a roll of the dice as none could foresee its impact on the public or, for that matter, its success. In other words, it was an unchartered territory, but by hindsight, the league has transformed cricket into “cricketainment”. It has opened the doors to new riches, not just by way of dollars, but also providing the spectators much more than just a cricket match.

Thus, it was quite logical that Super Kings would go forward and take the concept to the next level by way of the fan club, offering a plethora of incentives to its members, by way of merchandise, subsidized tickets and what not. As the marketing gurus would say, the fan club is a path towards building of the brand called Super Kings.

In fact, the Chennai Super Kings, en route to the final where they lost to Rajasthan Royal in a nail-biting encounter, picked up a huge fan following, not in the least due to the presence of the new Indian cricketing icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain. The team’s popularity was as much due to the galaxy of stars it boasted as the manner in which it played the game.

Discipline and decorum were the team’s watchwords while deftly sidestepping the pitfalls that consumed some of the other IPL sides. Of equal significance was the fact that the team’s franchise owners, India Cements Ltd., have been involved in cricket for some decades now by way of supporting and participating in local league. Thus, the Chennai Super Kings stood to gain from this vast cricketing experience of their owners. It was no surprise then that the team received the Fairplay trophy for the manner in which the players carried themselves on and off the field.

Now, the Chennai Super Kings hope to tap into the huge pool of passionate cricket fans and secure their lifetime loyalty through the club. The city, for instance, is known for its cricket loving public that has a deep sense of appreciation of the finer points of the game. It is a legacy with deep roots and something that the Super Kings can count on as they work towards building their profile as a team that not just entertains but also wins matches.

-- Anand Philar

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Truth to tell, the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament has been rather addictive and over the past six weeks, it has had hundreds of converts who had initially viewed the supposedly slam-bang stuff with some skepticism. But with daily telecasts, plenty of sixes and fours, thrilling finishes and some memorable individual performances, the IPL did catch on and how!

And now, it would take some getting used to spending the evenings without the IPL action. On April 18, there was justifiable apprehension about the success of the tournament when the Kolkata Knight Riders took on the Royal Challengers at the M Channaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

But then, Brendon McCullum provided the kind of start that had all the eight teams salivating and the Kiwi opener dished out fireworks in the course of his century that set the ball rolling in the IPL

On Sunday, June 1, at the DY Patil Staidum in Mumbai, the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals scripted a near-perfect finish to the IPL with the Jaipur team winning the trophy on the last ball of the match.

The IPL brought together top players from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies to play alongside their Indian counterparts in a fantastic mix-and-match environment. To top it, the rules requiring the inclusion of home grown talent in the form of Indian Under-19 players besides those from the region of the franchise lent a different dimension to the IPL.

Thus, in more ways than one, the IPL has been a trend setter, taking cricket to a new level while offering a platform for the cream of World’s cricketing talent to showcase their ability. Of course, there is scope for further fine-tuning as the 2008 edition was a learning curve for just about everyone, including the organisers themselves.

Even as the IPL showered riches on the players, given the unprecedented salaries, there are strong indications that other cricketing nations are keen on launching their own leagues. In this context, the IPL has been a trail-blazer.

It is still early days yet and it remains to be seen whether other nations would be as successful as India or even able to match the IPL in size and financial backing. There are already talks about having two IPL in a calendar year, but the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was spot on when he rejected such thoughts saying the league needs to be nurtured and developed before it could be expanded by way of additional teams or frequency.

For the Chennai Super Kings, it was a memorable run to the final after suffering some shock defeats along the way. However, when it mattered most, the Super Kings got their act together, especially in the semi-finals against the Kings XI Punjab when the Chennai outfit, ably led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, turned on the heat with a brilliant team effort.

If anything, on the basis of performances in the 2008 IPL, there is bound to a revaluation of players as the franchises themselves would be keen to revisit their decisions on player choice. This year, just about everyone was racing against time and mistakes do happen when decisions are taken in haste.

However, at the end of it all, it was one big party that attracted unprecedented viewership and that in turn provided the final seal of approval to the IPL.

Lalit Modi, during his speech on the eve of the final, admitted that mistakes were made, but then these would be rectified for the next season.

The purists might remain unconvinced that T20 is the way forward, but for the huge paying public and the cricketers themselves, the IPL was a manna from heaven in more ways than one.

- A.R. Ramakrishnan

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It has been a roller-coaster ride for the Chennai Super Kings to their semi-final destination in the Indian Premier League. Winning the first four games put them in the front of the eight-team pack, but dramatically, the fortunes hit a low with three consecutive defeats before they picked themselves up to eventually make it to the knock-out phase.

Through the ups and downs, the Super Kings kept their composure and showed great character, not once tumbling out of the top four slot, although there were justifiable fears over their qualification to the semi-finals. Yet, when it came to crunch situation, the Super Kings rose to the occasion to beat the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers in their final league game to book their tickets to Mumbai, the venue of the last three games.

At the start of the league, V B Chandrasekar, Director of Cricket Operations, kept harping on the first four games. “We have to win these games, for it will have a lot of bearing on our semi-final prospects. Four victories will also give us the momentum and thereafter, we can look to consolidate our position,” he had said about a week before the tournament commenced.

Looking back, one can now appreciate the logic behind such thoughts. The Super Kings, perhaps, were at the top of their game when Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey and Jacob Oram were in the ranks. The trio made sizeable contributions to the four victories before leaving for home to join their respective National teams on international tours.

The Super Kings have never looked as solid as their performance graph traced a zig-zag course after the trio left. Defeats to Chargers and the Bangalore Royal Chalengers, both of whom finished at the bottom of the league table, exposed a few chinks in the Super Kings’ armour.

They touched their nadir against Rajasthan Royals, getting dismissed for 109 and then Sanath Jayasuriya’s 48-ball century blasted them out of the park in Mumbai. It was thought that their bowling attack was suspect, and there were sufficient reasons to believe it was so.

“I think, our bowling has since stabilized and now has a settled look about it,” reflected Chandrasekar. “Our batting too is looking pretty solid, and so, I think, the team is as good as it can ever be under the circumstances,” he observed.

It is another matter that no Super Kings player figures among the top five in batting or bowling on conclusion of the league. But conversely, the Super Kings have tallied 150-plus in nine of the 14 matches, including 200-plus in three games. As for the bowling, the fact that they are the only team in top five with a negative Net Run Rate tells it own tale.

The induction of Lakshmipathy Balaji has certainly pepped up the bowling that is also in the capable hands of Manpreet Gony whom coach Kepler Wessels described as “find of the IPL”, and Albie Morkel, the all-rounder from South Africa. The two other frontline bowlers, Makhaya Ntini and Muttiah Muralitharan have only given glimpses of their ability that has made them World’s leading bowlers.

Gony heads the bowling with 14 wickets, followed by Morkel (13) and Balaji (11) whose 5 for 24, including a hat-trick, helped Super Kings beat Kings XI a second time, at home. Balaji, having returned to competitive cricket after a long lay-off owing to injury, has been the pick of the lot. Although lacking in pace, he has more than made up with line-length bowling besides a deadly, toe-crushing yorker.

Chandrasekar pointed out that should Muralitharan and Ntini also get into their flow, then the Super Kings will possess a potent attack that could well take them all the way in the IPL.

“Great players have a way of playing a big role on the big stage, and let us hope that both Murali and Ntini fire in the semis,” he said. Perhaps, the same applies to the rest of the team that skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni needs to motivate to up their levels on Saturday. The occasion cannot be any bigger, nor the challenge.

-- A.P.