CHENNAI: "Has it?" Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming let out a wry smile on the eve of the match against Delhi Capitals in Chennai. The question put forth in front of Fleming was about the criticism of him and CSK not being able to catch up and adapt in the last three years.
After their title win in 2023, Chennai has not been able to replicate consistency, missing out on play-offs in the year that followed before finishing in the bottom last year. It meant they took a complete change of approach, invested heavily in young Indian players, and brought in Sanju Samson but that too hasn't given the expected results so far. After three loses in as many games, Super Kings haven't been up to the mark, leading to criticism on both captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and coach Fleming.
The 53- year-old had a momentary pause, before acknowledging the criticism. "No, results dictate that," said Fleming who has been the coach of CSK since their inception in 2008. "Criticism is fair when you don't do well. Look, I'm coaching throughout the year and two other competitions. I'm doing auctions across a lot of players. So it's not that I just turn off and then come to the IPL without an idea of where the game is going. In fact, it's the other way. I probably never spent more time studying T20 cricket around players around the world, just to serve the other teams as well, which feeds into the IPL."
"We were off the pace last year, I'm the first to put my hand up and admit it. And we pivoted quite quickly now. We're in a position where we have got some younger players. I feel very confident about this group of players. One of the challenges is the number of players we have changed in the squad means there is a little bit of a settling process where other teams have been together for a season. We understand that, so we are trying to accelerate that process. We just need a little bit of confidence and a bit of evidence, and that comes from getting across the line," Fleming reflected.
For any other franchise in the league, back to back poor seasons as Chennai had would have ringed alarm bells, calling for a change of guard. Super Kings, however, are not any other franchise. And Fleming is not any other coach in the circuit. In his time with this franchise, Fleming has seen CSK win five IPL titles and two Champions League T20 titles — a record no single coach can boast of in IPL. It is what made the franchise trust him with not just CSK, but also the teams in SA20 and MLC in the United States. Through all of Chennai's title wins, MS Dhoni was their captain and face of the franchise while Fleming remained in the background. And he was happy to do so. The former New Zealand captain said as much when asked whether he got due recognition. For him, it is about the players while the success gives him another year coaching. "11 finals and 5 trophies," he said when asked to attribute never-heard-before kind of longevity as a franchise coach.
However, the last two years have been different. With Dhoni stepping down and the team going through transition, Fleming has been in the forefront over the last two years more than ever. And much has been written, including in this daily, about how they fell short in the mega auction and have been trying to catch up since. One of the key reasons was the Impact Player rule and the way other teams caught up with it after CSK won the title in the first year. It meant the transition from Dhoni got only harder than it was supposed to be. Gaikwad had immense shoes to fill but not necessarily the player pool to catch up with the rest of the league. It meant a tectonic shift from an approach that guaranteed success. "By no means an excuse, the transition from our method at Chennai. For so many years we had a method and it made it very easy to pick a type of player because it was slower, spin heavy (surface at Chennai). Over the last five or six years, the game and the ground has really changed. You really have to change your game plan and the type of players that you've had. You need to acknowledge that aspect of it as we talk about how piece players fit into the puzzle," explained Fleming.
It is often said that the first step towards solving an issue is acknowledging that it exists. CSK and Fleming have done that over the last 12 months, but the turnaround has not happened in a pace that was expected. As the most successful coach in the league said, criticism do not exist in vacuum, results dictate the terms. Super Kings and Fleming are feeling the heat and they need results. Now more than ever. If things do not go their way in the coming weeks, the franchise may have to take a hard look at what other changes they need to make going forward.