A little over a week ahead of the much-anticipated player auctions, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has confirmed that Chennai Super Kings will make an effort to sign star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. The offspinner was part of CSK since 2009, before turning out for Rising Pune Supergiant in the two seasons (2016 and 2017) when the Chennai-based franchise was suspended. Dhoni stressed on the need to include a lot of local players in the squad, while also confirming that the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis and Brendon McCullum are on their radar.
"It's always a tough call," Dhoni said during a promotional event in Chennai. "We will definitely go for him in the auction. Ashwin being a local lad... we want a lot of local players in the side. We have somebody like a [Dwayne] Bravo, Faf [du Plessis] and Brendon McCullum [on the radar]".
As per IPL rules, CSK cannot use their Right To Match (RTM) card for Ashwin, as they've already retained three capped Indian players in Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja. Which means, they will have to outbid any of the other Ashwin suitors to have the spinner in their ranks again. Dhoni conceded that at an auction like the one that is to take place on January 27 and 28, price will dictate the terms while stating that 'Ashwin will come first in the auction' for CSK.
"These are the things where it becomes difficult. We don't know what margins to go for. You look at all the other players that we have got and then we can go for someone else because it gives the stability to the side. For somebody else, a player may not be worth the same, but for your team because of all the other players, he may be that one person who really strengthens the side. Ashwin will come first in the auction but as I said I have to wait and watch. I can't put any number to it but we will try to get him for the reasons I have said but at an auction it's the price that dictates the terms."
Dhoni further explained that emotion will have to be kept aside, and if a player goes outside the team's 'range', then they'll have to be let go while keeping the focus on building a strong team. Having retained three players already, CSK will enter the auction with a purse of INR 47 crore.
"How much money we can afford to go for each individual and still make a strong team will be the key. That's why I said we have to keep the emotions aside and we may want somebody and if the price goes outside our range and then we actually have to let him go. That's the adaptability factor that we need to have at the auction table because it will be turning at that point of time."
CSK's retention of their core group of players in their eight years of existence has taken much of the credit for their sustained success, and it is likely that other franchises will be wary of CSK trying to retain and snap up some of their old players. In such a situation, CSK also run the risk of over-inflation of player bids from the opposition, a 'strategy' Dhoni expects to witness during the auctions.
"It's always a strategy and as I said we need to have the right mix because there will be an auction next year as well," he pointed out. "You can always supplement players. Whichever areas you feel slightly weak, you can buy and trade a few players to get stronger in those areas. But the core group remains to be strong and that's what we will try to retain. But like you said, there may be inflation and so on. That's why I said we need to keep emotions to the side.
"If you back off one player that has had an inflated price, none of the teams are going to take him further at that point of time. Whom you may lose depends on the auction but as I said we won't get all the players. We have never gotten all the players. Some of the players who performed for us, their prices went high so much there was no way we could have gotten them back. Also when you retain players, you lose a big chunk of money. So we have to see everything.
Dhoni also advocated the need to give 'stability to the fan' by having players who stay at one franchise for a long duration.
"What we also want is to have a strong connection with the local boys and at the same time people who have played for us," he noted. "I always felt that people were like 'there shouldn't be any retainership and stuff like that'. But unless you give that stability to the fan... If I had played for eight different franchises in ten years then the association isn't there. But you want that sort of association, the franchise has to have a fan following. And that can only happen if the players stay in one franchise for a longer duration," Dhoni opined.
Dhoni captained the side in each of the eight seasons from 2008 to 2015, and reckoned he couldn't have even thought about not coming back to the side.
"A lot of people approached me, I can tell you that," he said. "I can't think of not coming back to CSK. As I said, it's because of everything - what we have been through as a team, how we have conducted ourselves, how the management has been, how the players have been, how the fans have been. I always keep saying it's like a second home to me. The fans over here have adopted me, they accept me like one of their own. There can't be any bigger compliment than that. So that thought of being with any other franchise was never a question.
"As a captain, it was slightly easy for me with the management. Actually when you go when you have lost a game, they already know the reasons - where the game changed, what could have been done or the wicket slowed down. If they know that, there is less pressure on you. The last two years we were not there, our fan following got stronger because none of the players were involved in anything.
"Often when some mistake is committed, people bear the brunt and the team has to bear brunt of whatever happened. But the players were cleared of all the controversies, and we are back to cricket and the fact that we sold whatever the endorsement [targets] were there. That is, in fact, a big endorsement of the fact that they believe in CSK and the franchise.
Comments
Add new comment