In my previous post on MS Dhoni and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), after they had made it to the Indian Premier League (IPL) final this season, I wrote about how Dhoni had turned the franchise into a process-driven team rather than a result-driven team. The core philosophy of CSK is to minimise errors on the field and get the best out of each player. The team believes that if it can stick to its processes match after match, it will emerge victorious more often than not. You can read about it here Dhoni, CSK, and Bhagavad Gita
To many who were watching the CSK chase on Monday night, there was a bit of fait accompli in the way Ajinkya Rahane, then Ambati Rayadu, and finally Ravindra Jadeja chased down a difficult target that was revised by rain. It didn’t matter that Dhoni got out first ball. With ten needed off the last two balls, Jadeja, the Jamnagar boy, sealed the final with a six and a four off Gujarat Titans’s best death bowler Mohit Sharma.
THE DHONI FACTOR
A former cricketer recently remarked that Dhoni turns other people’s dust into gold. His remarkable clarity about each player’s role turned the corner for Rahane and Shivam Dube in T20 cricket. Rahane rediscovered shots he had put in the cold storage for the sake of Test cricket and hit fours and sixes at will in this IPL.
Dube, an underachiever in the IPL all these years with other teams, rediscovered his six-hitting mojo with the CSK this season. Another example is Rayudu, who retired from IPL after Monday’s final. The hot-headed Rayudu plied his trade with several franchises, including Mumbai Indians, but found himself loved and valued at CSK.
SO, WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS AT CSK?
To begin with, there’s job security. Players and the support staff know a loss, or even a string of losses, will not be held against them as long as they are loyal to the team’s ethos. The players know they will not be screamed at or put under pressure; rather, they will be protected and preserved with.
For any professional, the fear of failure is the biggest hurdle. Once reassured that failure will not be held against him, the chances of success increase tremendously. And this is precisely the culture that CSK has cultivated. The players are told that ‘we know you will come good one day, and we are prepared to wait for that day’.
THE X FACTOR
Teams that have a special talent or two are not only winning more often than others, they’re also more exciting to watch. Yashasvi Jaiswal for Rajasthan Royals, Shubhman Gill for Gujarat Titans, Rinku Singh for Kolkata Knight Riders, and for the past few seasons, it is Ravindra Jadeja for CSK.
With the ball, Jadeja will keep things tight and get the best batsmen out (Gill, for instance, in the IPL final on Monday). In the field, he will zip around at the speed of light and take a brilliant catch or effect a run-out. With the bat, he will hit two boundaries off the last two balls and win the final.
Jadeja is a once-in-a-generation cricketer and it is to CSK’s credit that they did not let things drift between the management and Jadeja after the captaincy fiasco last season. Things were not well between Jadeja and CSK for a while and in any other franchise, the player would have been allowed to go, but CSK ensured Jadeja stayed with them.
It’s an incredible franchise, and nobody should be surprised to see MS Dhoni playing yet another IPL next year.
