CSK Reigns Supreme in Facebook

Facebook has just released the top 10 words that ruled status updates in India in 2010. And CSK has ranked  as the eighth most popular word - even higher than Rajnikanth. It shows clearly that CSK fans can't keep their enthusiasm to themself, making the team - only sports team in the list. With it, CSK has firmly established itself as the most loved team with the most passionate fans. 

Please find below the words that ruled status updates from India in 2010. 

1. Common Wealth Games 
2. World Cup 
3. ChitChat 
4. Cancer 
5. Endhiran 
6. Raajneeti 
7. Suresh Kalmadi 
8. CSK 
9. Rajnikanth 
10. Tere Liye

Chennai Super Kings' Strategy during Auction

With the base prices of the players released by BCCI (Complete List available at cricinfo), it is time to plan Chennai Super Kings' strategy during auction. 

Good News from Auction List

1. Ashwin is listed at 100K USD: This means that most of the teams would have spent their money on other players, when his name is picked for auction.

2. Slot 3: Most of the players in CSK fan wishlist (Davy Jacobs, Gambhir, Warner, Bollinger, Eoin Morgan,  Harris, Pujara,Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra) are present in 3rd Slot (Base Price 200K). So Chennai Super Kings have a realistic chance of landing the players they target. 

3. Mathew Hayden: Hayden is not in the auction list. Personally, I expect him to be involved in some capacity (batting coach, reserve batsman, etc.. ) in the next year CSK Setup. 

Bad News:

1. McCullum, Shaun Marsh, Swann, Broad & Ross Taylor: All these players are present on the first list. So it would be tough to land any of them. 

2. Angelo Mathews & Murali: Both of them have choosen to be present in the second Slot. (Base Price of 300K USD). Tough to retain if teams are ready to bid for these players. 

Our Strategy:

As I wrote in my earlier blog post, Chennai Super Kings should focus on buying

1. Opener - (Aggressive Left-Handed Batsman)

2. Strike Bowler - Fast (Preferably a foreigner)

3. Strike Bowler - Spin (Preferably an Indian)

Slot 1

Bid for the following players  - McCullum, Shaun Marsh, Swann, Broad & Ross Taylor & Dilshan. But only if they are priced at less than 600K. 

Reason - No foreign players (other than all rounders) are worth more than 600K. If it Genius Talent, utmost 750k is a reasonable amount. 

Slot 2

Same Strategy as slot 1. Bid for Angelo Mathews & Murali. But bid only until 600K. (Reason same as above). For Zaheer Khan, you can bid until 1.25 Million USD. 

Probable Scenario after Slot 1 & 2: Chennai Super Kings would have bought utmost 1 player during the slot 1 & slot 2

Slot 3:

This is the slot Chennai Super Kings should be really aggressive. Lot of good players are available in this list. And considering that most of the teams would have spent 4.5 Million by now, all the teams would be on a level playing field hereafter.

Aggressive Bidding Strategy:

1. Bollinger/Harris (It is essential Chennai Super Kings lands one of these players. Maximum Bid Value - 450K)

2. Eoin Morgan 

3. Ashish Nehra (If Zaheer Khan is not bought, u can bid until 1 Million for Ashish Nehra)

4. Praveen Kumar (If Zaheer Khan is not bought, u can bid until 750K for Praveen Kumar. Otherwise 600K)

5. Robin Uthappa (Can Bid Until 1 Million for Robin)

6. Dale Steyn (Bid Value - 750K for the world's best fast bowler)

Slot 4:

This is where Chennai Super Kings can make value buys like

1. Ian Bell (worth 300K)

2. Balaji (Worth 200k)

3. Ashwin(Worth 500K)

4. Badrinath(Worth 200K)

5. Pujara (Worth 200K)

6. Morne Morkel/Wayne Parnell (Worth 300K)

7. Maharoof (Worth 500K)

8. Mitchelle Marsh (Worth 100K)

9. Abhishek Nayar (Worth 200K)

10. Theron (Worth 100K)

Slot 5&6: I don't know most of them. So can't make a comment on those players. Other than Dwayne Bravo who is listed at 50K, others might not be a huge value ad. 

Probable Team CSK would be ending with

	Players	Probable Bid Price (In K USD)
1	Vijay	500
2	Davy Jacobs	400
3	Raina	1,300
4	Hussey	400
5	Badrinath	150
6	Dhoni	1,800
7	Albie Morkel	900
8	Maharoof	500
9	Ashwin	500
10	Praveen Kumar	750
11	Bollinger	500
12	Balaji	150
13	Warner/Foreign Opener	300
14	Dwayne Bravo	300
15	Eoin Morgan	200
16	Yo Mahesh	25
17	Shadab Jakati	25
18	Hemang Badani	25
19	Abhinav Mukund	25
20	Arun Kartick	25
21	Srikkanth	25
22	Theron	50
23	Mitchell Marsh	50
24	Mithun/Gony/VRV Singh	50
		8,950

Please suggest what should be CSK's strategy  in each of the slots for the auction?

Why should u follow @albiemorkel

Thought i do check out Albie Morkel's twitter page on&off.. I have not been following him so far. So it was a surprising to visit Albie's page today to find out that he has confirmed that he would stay with CSK on Nov 23rd. 15 days ahead of submission of names. Hmmm.. So started following him today to catch any more news like this.
So if you are not following Albie Morkel so far, follow him @ http://twitter.com/#!/albiemorkel

Chennai Super Kings retains Dhoni, Raina, Albie & Vijay

And no surprises in Chennai Super Kings retention. And.. they have made the same choices as mine. Retained players below

1. MS Dhoni
2. Suresh Raina
3. Albie Morkel
4. Murali Vijay

With the easy decisions made, now comes the hard decisions - who to buy in the auction. 

Key Things to Remember

1. 4 players are going to cost 50% of the $9 Million budget for all teams. So Chennai & Mumbai are lucky that they got much more value for their $4.5 Million. But to retain this advantage, Chennai should choose next 3 players who will cost 25% of the $9 Million budget wisely
2. Key Positions for Chennai in which they have to invest their 25%: 
1. Opener (preferably left-handed to compliment Vijay)
2. Strike Fast Bowler 
3. Strike Spinner
3. Indians as much as possible. As last IPL showed, World-Class Indians are much more valuable than World Class Foreigners
4. Buy them Young: Unlike the first auction, this team will never change. So it is crucial that CSK builds the most successful franchise rather than just focusing on short-term gains

Objective: Build a World-Class Team. 

My pick of 15 players below... (Players in bold text are my picks)

1. Opener 1 - Vijay
2. Opener 2 - atleast 2 of them to bought
1. Gambhir
2. Shaun Marsh
3. Davy Jacobs
4. Warner
3. Raina
4. Atleast 3 of them to be bought
1. Eoin Morgan
2. Ross Taylor
3. Pujara
4. Uthapa
5. Badrinath
5. 1 Batsman from above list
6. Dhoni
7. Albie Morkel
8. Bowling Allrounder
1. Broad
2. Maharoof
9. Spinner 1
1. Ashwin
2. Ojha
3. Shadab Jakati
4. Swann
10. Spinner 2 - 1 Player from above list
11. Strike Fast Bowler
1. Zaheer Khan
2. Ashish Nehra
3. Bollinger
4. Theron

Do you agree with my picks? Do you have any suggestions for Chennai Super Kings Team w.r.t auction? Post your comments below. 

IPL 4 Auction: Base Prices of Players

BCCI is slowly getting its machinery together for the IPL auctions on Jan 8 &9. It has decided a provincial base price for  all the individual players participating in the auction. And now the team is in the process of getting the players approval on the base prices. 

Key Information

BCCI has created 5 different base prices for the IPL 4 auctions. 

1. Base Price of 400,000 USD - Approximately 1.84 crore rupees
2. Base Price of 300,000 USD - Approximately 1.38 crore rupees
3. Base Price of 200,000 USD - Approximately 0.92 crore rupees
4. Base Price of 100,000 USD - Approximately 0.46 crore rupees
5. Base Price of 50,000 USD - Approximately 0.23 crore rupees

Around 62 Indian players & 5 TN Players (Dinesh Karthik, S Badrinath, R Sathish, R Ashwin, M Vijay & L Balaji) would be available through auction. Just listed down the base prices of few players that might be of interest to CSK Fans. 

1. Base Price of 400K USD - Dhoni, Shane Watson
2. Base Price of 300K USD - Raina, Muralitharan, Malinga, Pollard
3. Base Price of 200K USD - Irfan Pathan, Murali Vijay, Ojha, Sreesanth, 
4. Base Price of 100K USD - Pujara
5. Base Price of 50K USD - Manpreet Gony, Sudeep Tyagi, Sridharan Sriram

Remember this is just a provincial list. And the players still have the option to change the base price category in which they are listed. 


Sources

1. Economic Times - Sachin, MSD's IPL base price Rs 1.84 crore, Sourav's Rs 92 lakh

2. DNA - IPL auction: Players want base price kept low

Deccan Herald Reports on CSK's Retention

Deccan Chronicle reports that Chennai Super Kings are set to retain 

1. Dhoni 

2. Raina

3. Vijay

4. Albie Morkel.

Other Key Information from the news article

1. CSK will go flat out for Ashwin in auction. Murali has been communicated the same. 

2. Mumbai Indians are set to retain Sachin Tendulkar, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard (both overseas) and Harbhajan Singh

3. Delhi are set to retain Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra

4. Pune Warriors offered captaincy to Raina. But Raina chose to stay with Chennai Super Kings. 

Personally, I believe that this new article is drawn out from thin air rather than from reliable sources. So read it with a grain of salt.  More newsreports -
DNA Confirms they have not been able to confirm with CSK Team.
ESPNStar says that

Chennai Super Kings has announced the players they would retain.
India captain MS Dhoni, destructive middle order batsman Suresh Raina, opener Murali Vijay and South African all-rounder Albie Morkel, have been held. (Thanks Sri Raghav for the tip]

But still I would believe these reports only after the final list is submitted to BCCI tomorrow. 

Opening Ceremony of IPL - Season 4

Srinivasan shows his might and has ensured that the opening ceremony of IPL - Season 4 would be happening at Chennai. Since Chennai Super Kings are the current IPL Champions, IPL - Season 4 finals would also be happening at Chennai. Lucky that Chennai gets to see both the opening and closing ceremonies of next IPL. 

Auction on Jan 8 & Jan 9

The IPL Governing Council, that met today, has come out with a few key decisions
1. Official Reduction of 10 teams to 8 teams: It has been officially informed that there would be only 8 teams in IPL - Season 4. Final death knell on Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. Thanks to this decision, we don't have live with the new league format.
2.  Auction for IPL - 4 will take place on January 8 & 9. It has postponed from the earlier planned November.
3. Key Change in determining Finalists: Concept of Semi-finals has been removed from IPL. After the league phase is over, top two will play a play-off match that would determine one of the finalists. The team lose in this play-off would play against the winner of the match between 3rd and 4th placed team to determine the other finalist.


Simpler Explanation
Play-off Match: 1 - Team No:1 in League Table Vs Team No: 2 in League Table
Play-off Match 2 - Team No:3 in League Table Vs Team No: 4 in League Table
Play-off Match 3 - Loser of Play-off Match 1 Vs Winner of Play-off Match 2
Winners  of Play-off matches 1 and 3 qualifies for finals.


I have to agree that this is a lot better system that rewards top performing teams in IPL League Phase.

Fleming retained for 3 more years

As a first step in building a new match-winning Chennai Super Kings team, Chennai Super Kings have signed Fleming as coach for 3 more years. So we are sure to see Dhoni-Fleming Combo for  a few more years. Nice to see Fleming's commitment to the team. 

The team have also retained the support of Tommy Simsek, Gregory King and Steve Rickson. 

Now it is time for Fleming & Co. to pick the right team in the auction. 

Albie Would like to Stay @ CSK

After Dhoni & Haydos, Albie Morkel has also confirmed that he would like to play for Chennai Super Kings next season.. Check his twitter status @ http://twitter.com/albiemorkel/status/25239983473

Now waiting for Raina to confirm his allegiance to Chennai Superkings

P.S: Thanks Siddharth for the tip

Chennai Super Kings - Players to be Retained & Bought

Players to be retained

1. Dhoni: 3-in-1 player. Captain, Wicketkeeper and Batsman. Any doubts on whether he would be retained??

2. Raina: Foundation of all CSK Campaigns. Has not yet publicly confirmed on whether he would agree to be retained by Chennai Super Kings 

3. Murali Vijay: Had my doubts about his adaptability to South African pitches. Has proved his ability without any doubt. 

4. Albie Morkel: This all-rounder is the key to the team's wonderful balance. 

Substitutes:

1. Ashwin: If any of the Indian players does not agree to be retained, 3rd Indian player to be retained

2. Bollinger: If Albie does not agree to be retained, I would expect Bollinger to be retained.

Rules of Retention

1. Maximum 4 Players can be retained - Only a maximum of 3 Indian players and a maximum of 2 foreign can be retained. 

Players to be bought in Auction

1. Davy Jacobs: Impressed by his performance and attitude. Hope CSK are able to buy him in auction. 

2. Shane Watson: Worth every penny he gets paid. Let us see whether any club goes crazy about him. 

3. Ashwin: If he is not retained

4. Murali/Vettori: World class spinners who surely has another 2-3 years left in them.

5. Zaheer/Malinga: Whoever is not retained by Mumbai Indians

6. Hussey: He would be a wonderful addition to the team

7. Bravo/Oram/Razzaq: Another Bowling all-rounder would add a lot more value to the team. 

8. Dinesh Karthick:  Might be very tough to buy him in auction since he is a valuable addition to any team.

9. Yo Mahesh: Will be a valuable slow bowler addition to CSK Team. 

10. Badrinath: His presence in the team is crucial especially in the low-scoring games.

11. Maharoof:  Any of them would be a huge value addition to any team

Key Strategy: Buy them Young. Rather than putting the priority on winning the immediate season, it is essential to build a team that wins more trophies than any other club in India.

Who do you think should Chennai Super Kings buy and retain?


Also read my post on retention at the end of IPL Season 3 @ http://blog.cskfansite.com/2010/04/players-for-next-few-years.html