Chennai Super Kings

**Chennai Super Kings** is one of the ten teams which play in the Indian Premier League. The team was found in 2008 and is owned by Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd. On 14 July 2015, the Supreme Court of India appointed RM Lodha committee suspended the Chennai Super Kings's owners from the IPL for a period of two years for the alleged involvement in the 2013 Indian Premier League betting case and the Chennai Super Kings then rested for two years and conquered IPL in 2018 gloriously. The team was captained by MS Dhoni since 2008 to 2023 and coached by Stephen Fleming since 2010. It has most fans in Instagram at 12.9 million followers.

The Super Kings had won the IPL trophy 5 times (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023). In 2010, they won the Champions League Twenty20 trophy for the first time and repeated the feat in 2014. The leading run-scorer of the team is Suresh Raina, while the leading wicket-taker is Ravichandran Ashwin. Chennai Super Kings has most records of appearance in playoffs (12) and finals (10). The team has one of the strongest fan bases in India. They are the most time champions along with Mumbai Indians at five times and they have the highest statistics of all IPL teams in India fully.

## Franchise history

In September 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the establishment of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 competition to be started in 2008. In January 2008, the BCCI unveiled the owners of eight city-based franchises. The Chennai franchise was sold to the India Cements for $91 million, making it the fourth most expensive team in the league behind Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad. India Cements acquired the rights to the franchise for 10 years.

### 2008–2009: First seasons

During the first player auctions for the inaugural IPL season conducted in January 2008, the Chennai franchise bought a number of contemporary star cricketers such as MS Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Muttiah Muralitharan, Michael Hussey. MS Dhoni became the costliest player of the auction, as the Chennai franchise bought him for $1.5 million.The franchise named MS Dhoni as the captain of the team and appointed Kepler Wessels as the head coach.They played their first game on 19 April 2008 against Punjab Kings at Mohali. The Super Kings won the game by 33 runs after posting 240/5 in 20 overs, which was the highest total of the tournament, a record surpassed by themselves in 2010. The Super Kings ended the league stage with eight wins from 14 games and finished third on the points table. They beat the Punjab Kings by 9 wickets in the semifinal. The Super Kings faced the Rajasthan Royals in the final of the IPL at Mumbai. Batting first, the Super Kings scored 163/5 in 20 overs and lost the game by 3 wickets off the final delivery of the match.

In 2009 season, The Super Kings finished with 17 points from 14 matches and earned a second place at the league table. However, at the semi-finals, their hopes of entering the final for a second time were crushed by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru who beat them by 6 wickets. The Super Kings opener Matthew Hayden, who scored 572 runs in 12 innings with 5 half-centuries at an average of 52 and strike-rate of 145, won the Orange Cap for the leading run-scorer of the season and was also adjudged Player of the Tournament.

### 2010: IPL and CLT20 double wins

In 2010, the Super Kings struggled in the first half of the regular season, winning only two matches out of seven. They won four of their next five games in the season mainly due to the efforts of Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina. After a defeat at home to the Delhi Capitals, the Super Kings were left with a must-win match against Kings XI Punjab at Dharamsala. The Super Kings won the match by six wickets as they chased down the target of 193 with two balls to spare with skipper Dhoni scoring an unbeaten 54 from 29 balls. Chennai got the third place as they had the better net run rate of the four teams which finished on 14 points. In the semifinal, the Super Kings scored a modest 142/7 in 20 overs against the defending champions Deccan Chargers. But an inspired bowling spell from Doug Bollinger (4/13 in four overs) did the most damage as the Chargers were bowled out for 104. This gave the Super Kings a 38-run victory that took them to the final. The Super Kings faced the tournament favorites Mumbai Indians at their home ground in the final. Suresh Raina's 57 (35) helped the Super Kings recover from 68/3 after 12 overs to put up 168/5 at the end of their 20 overs. Then, their spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Muttiah Muralitharan conceded only 41 runs in the 8 overs bowled between them to help the Super Kings won the game by 22 runs and secure their first ever IPL title. With this, the Super Kings also qualified for the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 that was held in South Africa.

At the Champions League Twenty20, the Super Kings were placed in Group A along with champions of Twenty20 competitions from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka. The Super Kings were at the top of the Group table with three wins and a super over defeat to the Victorian Bushrangers. In the semi-final at Durban, the Super Kings comprehensively defeated IPL rivals Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 52 runs. Suresh Raina won the Man of the match for his unbeaten 94 off 48 balls. The Super Kings played their first CLT20 final at Johannesburg where they beat the Chevrolet Warriors by 8 wickets, becoming the first IPL team to win the CLT20. Murali Vijay won not only the Man of the Match in the final for his 58 but also the Golden Bat for scoring the most runs in the tournament and Ravichandran Ashwin, who was the leading wicket-taker, was adjudged the Player of the Series. At the end of the season, Matthew Hayden decided to retire from the IPL.

### 2011-2015 seasons

In 2011, as two new teams were added to the IPL, the IPL Governing Council declared that each franchise could retain a maximum of four players of their squad, only three of whom can be Indian players, and the rest of the international players would be put in the mega-auction. The Chennai franchise, keen to have the same set of core players, retained captain MS Dhoni, vice-captain Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, all-rounder Albie Morkel for a total of $4.5 million. At the auction, they bought back some of their star players of previous seasons such as Michael Hussey, Ravichandran Ashwin, Doug Bollinger, Subramaniam Badrinath. In the 2011 IPL, they lost three of their first five games which placed them at the bottom of the ten-team points table. But then, they went on to win seven of their next eight games to finish second and register a spot in the knockout stages. They faced the top-ranked team Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the qualifying final which they won by 6 wickets thanks to an unbeaten 73 from Suresh Raina. In the final, they faced the same opponents again, which was held at their home ground M. A. Chidambaram Stadium. Murali Vijay and Michael Hussey put on a 133-run first-wicket partnership that helped the Super Kings to post a total of 205/5. Their bowlers, then, restricted Royal Challengers Bengaluru to only 147 to take the Super Kings to second consecutive title in the IPL. Vijay was awarded Man of the Match for his match-winning innings of 95. CSK also won all their home games that season becoming the first team in IPL to achieve the feat. However at the Champions League Twenty20 later that year, they won only one out of their four group matches and finished at the bottom.

In 2012, the franchise signed up Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for $2 million at the players' auction. They got off to a rather slow start in the regular season, winning only five of their first 12 games which put them in doubt of qualifying for the playoffs. Then they won three of their last four matches and qualified for the playoffs with a better net run rate than the Royal Challengers Bengaluru who also finished with the same number of points. In the eliminator, they beat the Mumbai Indians by 38 runs before comprehensively beating the table-toppers Delhi Capitals in the qualifying final by 86 runs. Murali Vijay, who struck his second IPL hundred (113 off 58 balls), won the Man of the Match. At the final, the Super Kings were defeated by 5 wickets by the Kolkata Knight Riders who chased down the target of 191 with two balls to spare, thus denying the Super Kings a hat-trick of titles in the IPL. At the Champions League Twenty20, once again they could not progress past the group stage with two wins and two defeats.

In 2013, the Super Kings strengthened their bowling attack by signing up five overseas and five Indian bowlers. In the IPL season, they finished first in the points table with 11 wins from 16 matches and qualified for the Playoffs and 2013 Champions League Twenty20. This was the first time in six seasons that the Super Kings had was at the top of the league table of the IPL. During the season, they also equaled Royal Challengers Bengaluru's 2011 record for most wins in succession in the IPL (7 wins on trot). In the first qualifier at Delhi against Mumbai Indians, the Super Kings posted 192/1 in 20 overs riding on unbeaten half-centuries from Michael Hussey (86* off 58 balls) and Suresh Raina (82* off 42 balls) before bowling out their opponents for 144. Thus they entered the final of the IPL for the fourth time in succession where they would play the same opponents, Mumbai Indians, at Kolkata. At the final, batting first, the Mumbai Indians made 148/9 in their 20 overs. In reply, the Super Kings were reduced to 39/6 at one stage before an unbeaten half-century from skipper MS Dhoni took them close to the target. However, Mumbai Indians won the match by 23 runs to win their first ever IPL title. Super Kings opening batsman Michael Hussey, who scored 733 runs that season at an average of 52, won the Orange Cap for the most runs in the season while all-rounder Dwayne Bravo won the Purple Cap for bagging the most wickets (32). The Super Kings gained direct qualification for the 2013 Champions League Twenty20 which was held in India in September–October. They were placed in Group B alongside Brisbane Heat, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Titans, Trinidad and Tobago. They won their first three games before losing the final group stage match against Trinidad and Tobago. With 12 points from four matches, the Super Kings progressed to the semifinals where they suffered a 14-run defeat at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur.

In 2014, the Super Kings started the season with a defeat in the opening match, after which they went on to win eight of their next nine matches to take the first spot in the points table. However, they suffered a loss of form towards the end of the regular season which resulted in three consecutive defeats. They won their last league fixture and finished third in the points table and qualified for the eliminator against the fourth-placed Mumbai Indians. They won the eliminator at Mumbai by 7 wickets and qualified for the qualifier. At the qualifier against Punjab Kings, the Super Kings won the toss and elected to field. Punjab Kings went on to score 226/6 in their 20 overs. The Super Kings, in reply, could manage only 202/7 despite a 25-ball 87 from Suresh Raina. They crashed out of the IPL, but, on account of finishing third, qualified for the main event of the 2014 Champions League Twenty20. In the group stage of the Champions League Twenty20, the Super Kings won two matches, lost one while another match was a no result. Thus with 10 points they finished second in the group table and qualified for the semifinal where they met the unbeaten team of the other group, Punjab Kings. After being put in to bat, the Super Kings posted 182/7 in 20 overs thanks to Dwayne Bravo who scored a 39-ball 67. Then their bowlers reduced Punjab Kings to 34/6 in the eighth over, and Punjab Kings were eventually bowled out for 117. At the final in Bengaluru, the Super Kings faced the IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders who set them a target of 181 in 20 overs. Suresh Raina guided the run-chase with an unbeaten 109 off 62 balls, helping the team to an eight-wicket win and their second Champions League Twenty20 title. Super Kings spinner Pawan Negi who took 5/22 during Kolkata Knight Riders's innings won the Man of the Match, and Suresh Raina, who finished as the highest run-getter of the tournament, was awarded Man of the Tournament.

In 2015, before the players's auction, Chennai Super Kings gave away Ben Hilfenhaus, John Hastings, Vijay Shankar, David Hussey. At the auction they bought back Michael Hussey for a price of Rs.1.5 crores (Rs. 15 M). They also bought Kyle Abbott, Irfan Pathan, Andrew Tye, Eklavya Dwivedi, Ankush Bains, Pratyush Singh, Rahul Sharma. In the final, they lost against Mumbai Indians.

## Controversies

In May 2013, Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of Srinivasan, was arrested by Mumbai Police on charges of placing bets on IPL matches. Gurunath Meiyappan, who was the Team Principal of the Super Kings, was issued a summons by the Mumbai Police and on interrogation it was found that Gurunath Meiyappan was in contact with bookies through actor Vindu Dara Singh. Following this, Srinivasan, on 2 June 2013, decided to step aside as BCCI President temporarily until the inquiry into the betting case completed. In February 2014, the three member panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India enquired into the betting case indicted Gurunath Meiyappan for illegal betting during IPL 2013.

On 25 March 2014, the Supreme Court of India issued an ultimatum to the BCCI demanding that Srinivasan either willingly step down as BCCI President or be removed from his position by BCCI. On 14 July 2015, the Supreme Court of India appointed RM Lodha committee suspended the owners of Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings from the Indian Premier League for a period of two years for illegal betting. On 24 February 2016, the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear a plea for lifting the ban on the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals teams and punished the owners alone by banishing them for life from IPL and replaced them with the Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions teams for IPL 2016 and IPL 2017 and did so because they needed emotional rest for two years from those destroyed controversies and abolished those two teams and made these two teams rule in 2018 and Chennai Super Kings won IPL 2018 and defeated Mumbai Indians and all the other IPL teams successfully.

## Awards and Achievements

**2008 Indian Premier League**
- Runners-up of 2008 Indian Premier League
- Fair Play Award Winner
- Highest total of the tournament _(240/5)_
- Centuries: _(Michael Hussey 116*)_
- Hat-tricks: _(Lakshmipathy Balaji and Makhaya Ntini)_

**2009 Indian Premier League**
- Semi-finalists of 2009 Indian Premier League
- Winner of Orange Cap _(Matthew Hayden)_
- Player of the Tournament _(Matthew Hayden)_

**2010 Indian Premier League**
- Champions of the 2010 Indian Premier League
- Fair Play Award Winner
- Highest team total of the tournament _(246/5)_
- Best bowling figures of the tournament _(Doug Bollinger)_
- Highest score in the tournament _(Murali Vijay 127*)_
- Centuries _(Murali Vijay 127*)_
- IPL Awards: Best Fielder _(Suresh Raina)_
- IPL Awards: Most Economical Bowler _(Ravichandran Ashwin)_

**2010 Champions League**
- Champions of 2010 Champions League Twenty20
- Winner of Golden Bat _(Murali Vijay)_
- Highest individual score _(Suresh Raina 94*)_
- Winner of Golden Wicket _(Ravichandran Ashwin)_
- Best bowling figures of the tournament _(Ravichandran Ashwin 4/18)_
- Player of the Tournament _(Ravichandran Ashwin)_

**2011 Indian Premier League**
- Champions of the 2011 Indian Premier League
- Fair Play Award Winner
- Won all home matches

**2012 Indian Premier League**
- Runners-up of 2012 Indian Premier League
- Highest team total of the tournament _(222/5)_
- Best bowling figure of the tournament _(Ravindra Jadeja 5/16)_
- Centuries: _(Murali Vijay 113*)_
- 1st player to score 2000 runs in IPL _(Suresh Raina)_

**2013 Indian Premier League**
- Runners-up of 2013 Indian Premier League
- 1st team to register 50 wins in IPL
- Fair Play Award Winner
- Centuries: _(Suresh Raina 100*)_
- Winner of Orange Cap _(Michael Hussey)_
- Winner of Purple Cap _(Dwayne Bravo)_

**2014 Indian Premier League**
- Semi-Finalists
- Fair Play Award Winner
- First Team to play 100 games in IPL
- Suresh Raina becomes the first player to play 100 games and score 3000 runs in IPL
- Winner of Purple Cap _(Mohit Sharma)_

**2014 Champions League**
- Champions of 2014 Champions League Twenty20
- Centuries: _(Suresh Raina 109*)_
- Player of the Tournament: _(Suresh Raina)_
- Leading Run-Scorer of the Tournament: _(Suresh Raina)_
- Best Bowling Figures of the Tournament: _(Pawan Negi)_
- Maximum Sixes of the Tournament: _(Suresh Raina)_

**2015 Indian Premier league**
- Runners Up of 2015 Indian Premier League
- Fair Play Award Winner
- Centuries: _(Brendon McCullum 100*)_
- Best Bowling Figures: _(Ashish Nehra)_ 4/10 (4 overs)
- Winner of Purple Cap: _(Dwayne Bravo)_ 26 wickets
- Best catch of the season: _(Dwayne Bravo)_

## Infobox (cricket team)

- **name**: Chennai Super Kings
- **alt**: Chennai Super Kings
- **nickname**: Super Kings
- **captain**: MS Dhoni
- **coach**: Stephen Fleming
- **city**: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
- **colors**: Yellow and Blue
- **title1**: Indian Premier League
- **title1wins**: **5** (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023)
- **title2**: Champions League Twenty20
- **title2wins**: **2** (2010, 2014)
- **owner**: Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd
- **ground**: Chepauk Stadium
(Capacity: 50,000)
- **website**: [https://www.chennaisuperkings.com/chennaisuperkings.com]
- **current**: Chennai Super Kings in 2024