The great Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan said he felt at home while playing for the Chennai Super Kings in the upcoming Indian Premier League.
"My ancestors hail from Tamil Nadu and my wife is from Chennai. That way it is a privilege for me to be playing for a team from this place," he told reporters at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.
"Playing for Chennai is special, I feel at home here," he added.
The highest Test wicket-taker said while every team in the competition was strong, "Super Kings is great".
"(Super Kings captain) MS Dhoni has been lucky winning everything so far. I hope he will win the League also," he added.
The wily Lankan off spinner felt spinners would play a crucial role in the League despite their short four over spells: '' In fact, on Indian wickets, he has even a bigger role to play.''
"Pitches in India help the spinners and more so the wicket at M A Chidambaram stadium."
"In fact, a spinner has more chances of getting a batsman out in the T20 games. He may get hit for a couple of sixes, but he has more chances of getting a batsman out as he has to go for his shots straightaway and may mistime."
"I have not played regular T20 games at international level so far. But while playing this format for Lancashire, I played a key role."
"We have to have a good spinner even in a T20 match. A bowler has to adjust and try to take wickets in the span of the four overs he gets to bowl. The same holds good for a batsman who has to get runs in the few overs he gets to bat."
Murali, regarded as one of the best spinners ever said he was very keen to do well for the Super Kings: "Whichever game you play, you compete. I want to do well and get the Cup for Chennai Super Kings."
Muralitharan refused to agree that T20 would in any way hamper the more traditional format of the game: "Test match cricket is the ultimate in the game."
"On the other hand, I think that Test cricket will survive because of T20. People may not have time to see Test cricket but for a player Test cricket is the ultimate."
''For me, adapting to T20 is easy'', Murali said.
Chennai Super Kings is the Chennai franchise for the Indian Premier League. The team will be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the highest-paid IPL Player, and coached by Kepler Wessels. There is no Icon Player for the team.
Chennai Super Kings are a part of the eight club Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by India Cements, who paid $91 million to acquire the rights of the franchise for the next 10 years. Former India test player Kris Srikkanth is the brand ambassador for the franchise, and another former Indian opener V. B. Chandrasekhar will be the chief selector. The brand ambasssadors for the team will be South Indian actor, Vijay and actress, Nayantara.
The M.A.Chidambaram stadium (often referred to as Chepauk, the place where the stadium is located) will be the home ground of the IPL team. The theme song of Chennai Super Kings, penned by Vairamuthu, is presently being composed by G V Prakash Kumar.
The name “Super Kings” is to honor the rulers of the golden era of Tamil culture, the team logo has a Lion to reflect the King of the Jungle. In addition the word “Super” is colloquially used in the state of Tamil Nadu to reflect all things thrilling and exciting and is a word of the lips of almost every one in Tamil Nadu. Incidentally the Chennai team playing in the ICL (the rebel league) is named as “Chennai Superstars”.
Players
Chennai Super Kings are one of the three franchises with no icon player. The lack of an icon player benefited the Super Kings during the bidding as they managed to bid successfully on two (Dhoni & Muralitharan) of the six A listed players.
The team plans to have twenty three players on its roster. Besides the list of players already acquired, the team will pick the remaining members from the three catchment areas - Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Railways - that have been allocated to it.
- Name - Age - Country - Position
Batsmen
- Matthew Hayden - 36 - Australia - Left-handed Batsman
- Stephen Fleming - 35 - New Zealand - Left-handed Batsman
- Suresh Raina - 21 - India - Left-handed Batsman
- Michael Hussey - 32 - Australia - Left-handed Batsman
- Anirudha Srikkanth - 21 - India - Right-handed Batsman
- Subramaniam Badrinath - 28 - India - Right-handed Batsman
- Napoleon Einstein - 18 - India - Right-handed Batsman
Wicketkeepers
- Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain) - 26 - India - Right-handed Wicket keeper
- Parthiv Patel - 22 - India - Left-handed Wicket keeper
All Rounders
- Jacob Oram - 28 - New Zealand - Left-handed Batsman/Right-arm medium-fast
- Albie Morkel - 28 - South Africa - Left-handed Batsman/Right-arm fast-medium
- Shadab Jakati - 27 - India - Slow left-arm orthodox spin
- Abhinav Mukund - 18 - India - Left-handed Batsman/Right-arm leg-break
- Viraj Kadbe - 18 - India - Right-arm leg-break
Bowlers
- Muttiah Muralitharan - 35 - Sri Lanka - Right-arm off-break
- Joginder Sharma - 24 - India - Right-arm fast-medium
- Makhaya Ntini - 30 - South Africa - Right-arm fast
- R. Ashwin - 21 - India - Right-arm off-break
- Sudeep Tyagi - 20 - India - Right-arm fast-medium
- Lakshmipathy Balaji - 26 - India - Right-arm fast-medium
Administration and Coaching Staff
- Owner - India Cement Ltd.
- CEO - TBA
- Ambassador - Kris Srikkanth, film stars Joseph Vijay and Nayantara
- Chief Selector - V. B. Chandrasekhar
Coaches:
- Head Coach - Kepler Wessels
- Assistant Coach - TBA
- Physiotherapist - Tommy Simsek
- Physical Trainer - Gregory King
