If someone told me that the Chennai franchisee would end up being the big spender, I would have laughed at his face. Turns out he had the last laugh.
The India Cements group who are the owners of the Chennai franchisee has splurged on buying Dhoni making him the most expensive cricketer in the IPL.
It would be an understatement if I describe this as most uncharacteristic. I had assumed that they would not go after the stars but instead seemed to have plunked for some big names like Hayden and Muralitharan.
As expected they have bid and won Fleming. He is a good buy in the sense that he has a good cricketing brain and as an opening bat can still wield a mean willow. However, the logic of pairing two left handers, Fleming and Hayden is beyond me.
The reason for adding Muralitharan seems emotional, however the saving grace could be the Chepauk pitch is conducive to turn and if I am not mistaken the home side, 'Chennai Super Kings' are bound to play a minimum of 4 games there.
Since they picked Raina during the second phase of the bidding, I suspect it to be an after thought. However, he is a worthy inclusion. The same can be said of Joginder Sharma.
Nitini,Morkel and Oram are safe bets and should prove their worth.
Now to the sore point, Parthiv Patel, what is he doing in a Twenty 20 squad and sickeningly what made them bid for him. Was there any trade- off?
This is how the 'Chennai Super Kings' squad looks after the bidding:
MS Dhoni
Muttiah Muralitharan
Jacob Oram
Albie Morkel
Suresh Raina
Matthew Hayden
Stephen Fleming
Parthiv Patel
Joginder Sharma
Makhaya Ntini
Nuwan Zoysa
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