• Sportzyverse
• IPL 2024
• 05/23/2024
• 0 Comments

The 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) saw significant leadership changes at two of the league’s most successful franchises, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI). The Chennai Super Kings announced just before their IPL opener that MS Dhoni had handed over the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad. In contrast, MI’s leadership switch was marred with controversy when Hardik Pandya was named captain, replacing Rohit Sharma.

Controversial Captaincy at MI

In December, MI’s decision to replace Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya divided fans and led to a rocky start. Hardik faced boos at the Wankhede Stadium, and the disruption affected MI’s performance, resulting in the team finishing at the bottom of the table with only four wins in 14 matches.

Conversely, Ruturaj Gaikwad’s transition to captaincy at CSK was well-received. Despite missing the playoffs on net run rate, Gaikwad’s leadership was praised. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan highlighted the smooth transition and the support from both fans and senior players in an interview with CSK’s YouTube channel.

“The discussions we had with the team management from before a couple of years when Ruturaj came into the CSK and started performing well, we felt that he will be a good choice to captain the side. Both Flem (Fleming) and MS (Dhoni) had long discussions with him, they had plans to make him as a future captain,” said Viswanathan.

Viswanathan took a veiled dig at MI by emphasizing CSK’s non-interference policy in cricketing matters, which he credited for the seamless transition and the positive environment within the team.

“The team management chose him as the captain. And all of you know, never has the management of CSK interfered with the cricketing matters. So, that helped Rutu also, because he was very clear that the instructions have come from team management. He had the responsibility to deliver. I’m confident he will do very well in the future years also,” Viswanathan stated.

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Support and Responsibility

The CSK CEO further noted that the crowd’s acceptance and the clear delineation of roles within the team helped Gaikwad manage the pressure and perform well as captain.

“The pressure of captaincy has not affected him. We look forward to his contribution to CSK in the future. The pressure is too high because he’s following the footsteps of MS Dhoni. Nobody can match him, but MS had the confidence that Rutu (Gaikwad) has it in him to do a very good job. The acceptance from the crowd really helped him for sure, that is for sure. Because if there is pressure from the crowd, you can imagine what happened to other captains,” Viswanathan added.

CSK finished the season with seven wins and seven losses, securing fifth place on the points table. Viswanathan emphasized the importance of the team’s autonomy in cricketing matters and the resulting sense of responsibility among the players.

“Definitely, the CSK management, as well as the fans, have helped the CSK team to do very well. That is important because there is no interference in creating matters with the team. They are left with their job to do. It adds more responsibility to the team. They know now there is not going to be interference from the management, which means they have to deliver. They are professionals; they have to deliver. That has helped us,” concluded Viswanathan.