Chennai Super Kings to consider owning team in Women’s IPL

CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan says the expansion of the men’s IPL is good for the game.

Kasi Viswanathan admitted fans were disappointed with this year’s poor showing, “but they understand cricket is a game and one or two years would be like that.” - K. RAGESH

Chennai Super Kings will consider having a team at the proposed Women’s IPL.

“Once the BCCI decides to have women’s cricket, we will be interested. We will take a call when it is offered to us,” CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan told Sportstar here on Saturday.

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Kasi, who was here to speak at a cricket conclave organised by the city-based Ranji Memorial Society ECC, felt there was scope for a proper Women’s IPL. “Look at the improvement in India’s women’s cricket after getting the recognition,” he says.

The fans have been the backbone of CSK - Kasi Viswanathan

As for the men’s IPL, he believed the expansion of the league would not cause any fatigue for the players or the fans, and that increasing the number of teams from eight to 10 was good for the league. “Now they have extended the calendar to 10 weeks,” he said.

Tracking domestic players

He said captain M. S. Dhoni, coach Stephen Fleming and a system that tracked and picked new talents from the domestic circuit were the main reasons why CSK emerged as one of the most successful teams in the IPL history. “We have eight or nine former first-class cricketers as talent scouts at the CSK since its inception. They follow the domestic game so closely. So when we wanted someone who could bowl with raw pace, we could rope in K. M. Asif; our scouts from Kerala, Sunil Oasis and M. A. Satheesh, had been tracking him.”

Kasi said CSK watched closely all the divisions in Tamil Nadu, besides the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). “At the TNPL we have around 75 players from districts in the eight teams. The TNPL has helped Tamil Nadu cricket in a big way. It has produced 14 IPL players; that is a big number for a young league,” he said.

Looking back at last season’s poor showing, he admitted the fans were disappointed. “But they understand cricket is a game and one or two years would be like that. The fans have been the backbone of CSK.”

About the speculation from some quarters that everything wasn’t right between CSK and Ravindra Jadeja, he said that wasn’t true.

“Everything is fine,” he said.