Published: Feb 05, 2016, 10:51 AM (IST)
Edited: Feb 05, 2016, 06:21 PM (IST)
Former New Zealand cricketer, Stephen Fleming has been an integral part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) so is MS Dhoni. Fleming begun his expedition at Indian Premier League (IPL) as batsman in 2008 for CSK and went on to coach the franchise. Though CSK has been suspended for two years, Fleming and Dhoni will come together once again for Rising Pune Supergiants. The 42-year-old Fleming, who was in Kolkata for a brainstorming session with the franchise owners before the IPL auction, shared his thoughts with Times of India in course of an exclusive chat on Thursday. READ: Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) in IPL 2016: Know your team
Fleming strongly believes, IPL and ICC World Twenty20 2016 will have have different approaches with regards to franchise and team members, he said, ” It will be interesting to see how the national teams approach the ensuing World T20 meet. I, however, believe that T20 cricket should remain in the domain of franchises. The popularity of IPL, Big Bash League, BPL and CPL clearly points in that direction. At the international level, T20 should be restricted to a few friendlies’ between national teams and the World Cup.” READ: IPL 2016 auction: Complete list of IPL teams with funds before Indian Premier League (IPL) 9
When asked how different countries have different captains and personnel for different formats and how that will affect short-formats, Fleming mentioned, “T20 requires a different approach and mindset. That explains the evolution of T20 specialists. The point I am making is that it does not make sense for international teams to travel half way across the globe to play two or three T20s. Recently , New Zealand used their Test squad to play T20s against the West Indies because it didn’t make sense for New Zealand Cricket to fly out their T20 specialists to the Caribbean for just a couple of games.” READ: Suresh Raina: Challenging to stop MS Dhoni’s trademark shots in IPL
Fleming also mentioned multi-tasking is important in limited over and plays an important role in these formats, “You can say that because it certainly gives the team management more options, but I think a lot depends on the skill set of individual players. Top class players like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers hardly ever bowl, but they are match-winners. The same applied to Muttiah Muralitharan.” Fleming considers Kolkata Knight Riders at an advantage with maximum all-rounders on their side, he added, “It is always a big advantage to have genuine all-rounders in any format. There is no denying the fact that KKR have been well served by Jacques Kallis, Andre Russell, who single-handedly won them a couple of matches. However, on the flip side, a team stacked with all-rounders often ends up under-utilising its resources.”
Fleming is very happy to retain old players in the new franchise like Dhoni, Faf du Plessis and Steven Smith in Rising Pune Supergiants, he said, “They all have excellent credentials as leaders and I am looking forward to working with them. We all know about MS. Smith is a super batsman with an unorthodox style. It is important to have leaders within the team to be successful.” Since Dhoni, Smith, du Plessis, Rahane and Ashwin have been picked for 39 crore, Fleming’s franchise have still 27 crore on hand and he expects to have quality players in this season, he said, “As many as 351 players are set to go under the hammer, but there are only a few star players left in the fray. It will be a huge challenge, but we are working on it. Let me assure you that we will have a quality squad for IPL-9 and we will take it from there.”
