The ascendency of India as an economic world power

Indian Cricket League is going to organize its first Twenty20 competition from 30 November of this year. Six city based teams will participate in the competition. Names of the players and coaches of all the teams have already been public recently. Known as India’s rebel cricket league, ICL is expected to create a new trend in the cricket world aside from international and domestic cricket matches. ICL will be organized by Essel Group. However, BCCI has not approved the competition yet and perhaps will never recognize it.

The six teams are Chandigarh Lions, Mumbai Champs, Kolkata Tigers, Delhi Jets, Chennai Superstars and Hyderabad Heroes. Each of the teams includes some foreign players along with some local players. Earlier, I wrote an article on Kolkata Tigers. Now, I am going to write on Chennai Superstars. The squad includes nineteen players including five foreign star players besides the local players. Chennai Superstars includes eight all-rounders which, I think, one of the big advantages for the side.

Foreign stars of Chennai Superstars are former Australian batsman Stuart Law, all-rounder Ian Harvey from Australia, English wicketkeeper Chris Read, Sri Lankan all rounder Russel Arnold and first bowler Shabbir Ahmed from Pakistan. All of them have already played international matches for their countries. So, undoubtedly they will have a big part to play for Chennai Superstars in the upcoming ICL Twenty20 Championship.

Besides the star players from abroad, there are some star local players as well in Chennai Superstars. Among the local players Hemang Badani and Sridharan Sriram played for India’s national team earlier. It is true that both of them are now out of the national team but they have sheer consistency in domestic cricket. Sridharan Sriram can be very effective with his left arm orthodox bowling along with his batting. Hemang Badani has played both Test and ODI for India. He has lots of experience in him and can play a vital role for Chennai Superstars in the ICL Twenty20 competition.

All the foreign recruits of Chennai Superstars have lots of experience of playing in higher level of cricket. Stuart Law is a middle order batsman with huge experience of first class cricket. However, Wicketkeeper Chris Read does not have good batting performance so far in his career besides his wicketkeeping talent. I think, Sri Lankan all rounder Russel Arnold will be vital for Chennai Superstars with his big shots and off spin bowling in ICL Twenty20 championship. All rounder Ian Harvey can also contribute to the success of Chennai Superstars with his medium first bowling and batting.

Though the team seems to be balanced, the only problem for Chennai Superstars is that the squad lacks a quality spinner. The team includes only one specialist spinner- Syed Mohammed in the squad. Indian wickets always help the spinners. I think, it will be a big problem for Chennai Superstars in the tournament. However, they got Michael Bevan as their coach. Michael Bevan has lots of success for Australia in his career. Now, it is yet to see how far Chennai Superstars can go in the tournament under the coaching of Michael Bevan.

Here is the list of the players of Chennai Superstars

   
Source:

Rediff