It is the professionalism and not the age which matters the most: Stephen Fleming

All the eyes were on the comeback franchises the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the mega-auction this year. While the former went for experience and bagged many players over the age of 30, the latter spent whopping amounts on the T20 stars and formed a strong unit. As it turned out, the experience proved too good in front of the agility of youth and the Men in Yellow went on to win the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, the coach Stephen Fleming believes that the professionalism is an important factor in the T20 leagues and not the age.

Many had mocked the CSK as an aged team as they had as many as 9 players who were above 30 years in their squad. They were never going to be a great fielding side but still, they were managed properly by the team management. The franchise built a strong side filled with veterans by retaining the core who were with them for a long period of time. Most importantly, they had the magical skipper in MS Dhoni up their sleeves and he did wonders to their fortunes once again enduring one of the best seasons personally as well.

Third title as the coach

The duo of Stephen Fleming and Dhoni won their third title together but the former feels that every win has been different. He also stressed that they looked into the professionalism while picking the players in the auction and not at the age which worked well for them eventually. “Each year has been different for us. We stayed pretty consistent with the core of our team when others kept chopping and changing. It’s one thing that players are older, but it’s the professionalism that we got to look into as well,” he said during the post-match presentation.

MS handles me

The former Kiwi cricketer has been working with Dhoni since 2009 and the duo has brought many laurels to the franchise to together. When asked if it easy to handle the skipper, he wittily replied saying that it is Dhoni who handles him and not the vice-versa. “MS Dhoni handles me (smiles). It’s about man-management. When he goes on the field, he can do the things. There’s a lot of trusts as well, and it’s a nice relationship to have with him,” the coach concluded.

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