Former Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden is all set to open a cricket academy in India. Hayden who also plays for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL would be opening this academy in Chennai by 2010.

Photo: Matthew Hayden playing for Australia

Hayden signed a pact with the Chennai Super Kings franchise to set up the academy, on July 25, 2009.

Matthew Hayden has also mentioned that he would look to other experienced cricketers like Stephen Fleming of NewZealand and Rahul Dravid of India for support. “Rahul Dravid has those values in him which I can also identify with. I had a few long discussions with him in South Africa regarding this and I would surely love to have him with me,” Hayden said.

Hayden wishes to impart his cricketing knowledge to the numerous youngsters in India who wish to play for the country some day. Cricket is a famous sport in India and Hayden wants to impart proper ‘cricketing education’ to youngsters.

“It’s not just about cricket. We should be able to understand that the kids who will be training in the academy may not go on to become cricketers in life. Education is something they can always fall back on and it will be given equal importance,” he further added.

Earlier Steve Waugh worked for Udayan in Kolkata which has inspired Matthew Hayden to start his own academy in India. “I have always been inspired by the way Steve (Waugh) worked for Udayan in Kolkata. Similarly, I am also looking forward to do something for Chennai,” he said.

Matthew Hayden, who retired earlier in 2009, has been one of the most successful cricketers for Australia. He aims to inculcate the ‘Hayden way’ among the budding cricketers through his academy.

Chennai Super Kings will be the biggest losers as their top stars Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey will depart on April 29.

The already battered Kings XI Punjab will not have the services of fast bowler Brett Lee and Simon Katich, while another struggling team, Deccan Chargers, would have to bid adieu to Andrew Symonds.
Kolkata Knight Riders would loose Ricky Ponting.

The players are leaving to take part in a team training programme ahead of the Carribean tour.
New Zealand stars Jacob Oram would also leave the Chennai Super Kings camp early next month, to be followed by his team mates Daniel Vettori (Delhi Daredevils), and big hitter Brendan McCullum (Kolkata Knight Riders)

With these departures there would be a perceived changes in the fortunes of the teams. South African big hitter Herschelle Gibbs would join the Deccan Chargers, while his skipper Graeme Smith will strengthen the ranks of the resurgent Rajasthan Royals.

Shane Warne will also have the services of Pakistan’s Younis Khan and Sohail Tanvir.

Chennai Superkings can take consolation from the fact that their bowling department will be strengthened with the arrival of Makaya Ntini this week.

Albie Morkel is also slated to join the Chennai Superkings. Will these changes affect the fortunes of the team? Only time will tell.

The speculation over captaincy was triggered after Shaun Pollock addressed the media. Shaun Pollock said the physio would take a decision on whether Sachin Tendulkar plays or not. Tendulkar’s absence was a big disappointment to Mumbai fans, and things look bad for them still.

Pollock also said the presence of all rounders was the strength of the Mumbai Indians, but added the presence of a number of left handers in the Chennai Super Kings team makes it a difficult proposition to bowl to them.

Sachin Tendulkar is unlikely to play in Mumbai Indians’ clash against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday, giving a slight edge to the host team. There are rumours that in the match of Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings captained by Dhoni, Shaun Pollock may lead the side instead of Harbhajan Singh.

For Mumbai Indians also there is some good news as West Indian al rounder Dwayne Bravo has joined the team. Dwayne Bravo will replace Dominic Thornley, who was hit by a Zaheer Khan delivery.

It also seems, Mumbai Indians may replace Pinal Shah with Under-19 sensation Saurabh Tiwary, but a final word is not out.

The pitch at the Chennai venue promises to have a truckload of runs.

Sidhu said, “Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings team are the strongest if we compare the players on the paper. But I will put my money on the Mohali team to hold the championship trophy as I am a Punjabi.”

DLF IPL has taken the world by storm and is good for the betterment of players, Sidhu said. He also said that the premier league in India will change the face of world cricket.

“No one would have imagined that so many runs could be scored in a 40 over game. Nowadays, nobody wants to sit and watch cricket for five days. Mr Pawar is like (Formula One driver Michael) Schumacher who has taken the cricket in a fast lane,” Sidhu said.

When asked about the Indian Cricket League (ICL), Sidhu said ICL has been ruined completely. But Sidhu also had a word of caution for the Twenty20 format. He said that as time progresses, viewers could well lose interest in the game.

Considering the matches so far, I guess we can agree with Siddhu here. Kolkata Knight Riders definitely looked strong on the field too, not just on paper. And they seem to be the team that has gelled well – despite the presence of such rivals as Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in the same team.

Chennai Super Kings had a brilliant game – but they have had only one, and they meet Mumbai Indians who has already lost once against a pretty shoddy Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said that its too early to predict which team would win the DLF IPL tournament. According to Dhoni, the team that gels well early would win the series.

MS Dhoni said, “The teams have played just one or two matches. You cannot make any assessment on this basis. There are lots of matches left. There will be ups and downs. The team which gels well throughout will be the winner.”

Dhoni has a point there. So far, the teams which looked like they were playing as a unit have won. Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers have looked haphazard so far, despite the presence of some experienced players.

Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians

The main problem that worries Mumbai Indians is the fitness of their captain Sachin Tendulkar. He missed the team’s first match against Bangalore Royal Challengers because a groin injury. It is not known till now whether Sachin would be able to play in tomorrow’s game against the Chennai Superkings. Harbhajan Singh had captained Mumbai Indians in the absence of Sachin.

If Sachin Tendulkar is absent, then it would be Harbhajan Singh who would be leading the side just like the last game. All eyes would be on the ongoing rivalry between Matthew Hayden, the Chennai Super Kings batsman, and Harbhajan Singh, the Mumbai Indians spinner. Well, it is not as bad as the rivalry between Harbhajan SIngh and Andrew Symonds for sure.

According to Dhoni, the start of DLF IPL has been just perfect. “The start has been great, Brendan McCullum’s batting has been a solid one. Fans also got what they wanted. They saw some huge sixes, dance by cheerleaders, teams piling up huge scores and bowlers taking wickets. It provided excitement for the fans.”

The Chennai Super Kings captain also rubbished the possibility of him opening the innings in tomorrow’s match. On the other hand, if Sachin Tendulkar is available for play tomorrow, we may get to see tendulkar opening with Sanath Jayasuriya – that would be an explosive combination.

Matthew Hayden is now playing in the The Chennai Super Kings IPL team, under Indian captain MS Dhoni is is captaining th Chennai side.

The veteran batsman said IPL was the start of an incredible journey and the initial matches of the DLF IPL tournament has set very high standards for the rest of the tournament.

DLF IPL has so far seen some high scoring matches, except the one match that was played at Kolkata’s Eden gardens between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.

Chennai Super Kings in its inaugural match defeated the Kings X1 Punjab, captained by Yuvraj Singh, for 33 runs.

Matthew Hayden, who was involved in some ugly on-field chats with Indian spinner harbhajan Singh during India’s tour down-under, said he always maintained a “soft corner for India”.  “I first visited Chennai in 1997 with the A team. Walking out to bat, I looked around at this stadium and dreamt of the day I will play for the Australian team. I have always had a soft corner for India and now, playing for Chennai Super Kings, my life has come a full circle as this city will be my base during the IPL.’

When asked about his bitter rival Harbhajan Singh and their ongoing rivalry, hayden said, “We have had a few fantastic battles in Australia, and now I am looking forward to renewing my rivalry with Harbhajan.’

Matthew Hayden described Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of Chennai Superkings, as a fine thinker and a confident individual.

Hayden said he has had serious run-ins with Harbhajan and such a contest on the field would be electrifying for the whole world.

Matthew Hayden also said the IPL Twenty20 format brings back memories of Kerry Packer’s breakaway league which threatened to split cricketing fraternity, but said cricket as a game would benefit immensely from IPL.

But what happens as the Australians are to pack their bags from IPL in the first week of May for their training camp against West Indies?

Hayden does not seem perturbed. He says the big hitting Albie Morkel from South Africa can replace him in the Chennai squad.

Hayden is also all praise for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, saying the Ranchi-lad has a fine cricketing brain.
Matthew Hayden also said big scores would be the order of the day in IPL.

Dhoni seems to be comfortable in his own skin with the Chennai team – especially if you see the Tamil ads he features in for Sonata Watches. Despite initial apprehensions, having foreign players in city teams have not seemed to matter much at all – except that they are much mroe consistent tan our local players and take away the shine.

As an euphoric Chennai Super Kings led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni welcomes Mumbai Indians for the home match, both the teams will have plans knit around the presence or absence of one man – Sachin Tendulkar.

In their first match against Bangalore Royal Challengers, Mumbai Indians may not have missed Sachin Tendulkar as a batsman, but the absence was evident as a skipper, and of course his aura, which would have pumped in an extra dose of adrenalin into the Mukesh Ambni-owned side.

True opening batsman Luke Ronchi did not last long in the Mumbai stadium, but the big hitting Australian can be pardoned for this was his first match in the Indian sub continent. And Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka, who first mastered the art of hitting over the top while field restrictions are in place, did not let Mumbai Indians team down.

But imagine the prospect of Sachin opening with Sanath Jayasuriya for Mumbai Indians. That is one thing which even the agile thinking of Indian ODI and Twenty20 – and now Chennai Super Kings – captain MS Dhoni and the master cricketing brain of Chennai Kings coach Keppler Wessels would not relish much, even though they would have thought of umpteen plans to tackle such a scary scenario.

Mumbai Indians did fall short of another ten fifteen runs against Bangalore Royal Challengers but Robin Uthappa showed his prowess to be dangerous.

Thronley got retired hurt with more than a dozen stitches, which means he is almost out of the Mumbai Indians squad. This also means Sachin Tendulkar can make a quiet entry into the squad without much of a reshuffle. Sachin Tendulkar can also chip in with Sanath Jayasuriya for a spell of bowling, who went for 39 runs in his four overs, to give some variety to the bowling attack.

Abhishek Nayar showed that he is an exciting prospect with his willow as well as some stunning catches.
Bowling would be Mumbai Indians’ main worry and Sachin Tendulkar needs to do some damage control and may be try and bowl his entire quota without much damage. India discard Ashish Nehra was wayward, but he was taking the field after a huge gap.

Among the Mumbai Indians bowlers, Shaun Pollock was spot on with an amazing 4.17 runs per over rate, at one point bowling five dot balls to Bangalore Royal Challengers’ skipper Rahul Dravid, but The Wall would rather fend him off than try cut loose and throw his wicket.

This time also, Chennai Super Kings would not do some thing foolish, but the likes of Matthew Hayden and Dhoni would definitely try and upset Pollock’s rhythm early on, lest he unleashes his nagging accuracy and make life difficult.

Shaun Pollock did play a cameo 28-run knock of 12 balls while batting for Mumbai Indians, and the South African would be mighty pleased and eager to carry on from were he left.

After the initial success of getting Rahul Dravid when he was looking dangerous, Mumbai Indians bowler Harbhajan Singh did well to get another key man Jacques Kallis, but the pressure of captaincy did show. If Sachin Tendulkar comes into play, Harbhajan Singh would have a different take and might relish reviving his love-hate relationship with Matthew Hayden.

Mumbai’s Dhaval Kulkarni also did a decent job with the ball, though he would be getting pearls of wisdom to improve his approach to the game from coach Lalchand Rajput, Sachin Tendulkar and Shaun Pollock himself as the tournament progresses.

Chennai Super Kings are riding on a wave of success unleashed by Michael Hussey and and Matthew Hayden, M S Dhoni and Suresh Raina to it apart from Parthiv Patel and you know why they have emerged as bookies’ favourites.

Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttaiah Muralitharan would have to do more than the job of containment and he is capable of that also. Jacob Oram, M Goni, Amarnath and Sharma weren’t impressive at all during the high scoring match against Kings XI, but they have time to make amends.

In the absence of a testing bowling attach, Chennai Superkings would want to bat anyway and put up a mammoth total on board before hoping for the Mumbai Indians to buckle under pressure.

So the role of Hussey, Hayden and Dhoni is vital for Chennai Super Kings. But you cannot expect Michael Hussey to perform another big innings simply going by the law of averages and also because that was a sort of once in a lifetime exploit. It can’t be repeated every other day.

But Hussey would undoubtedly want some big hits for himself and would not allow himself to be bogged down. Its either a hit or a walk back as the Aussie doesn’t trust dot balls.

Dhoni has so far failed to perform with his bat, and this is the big match for him to unleash his hard-hitting fury. Chennai Super Kings needs a valiant effort from the Indian Twenty20 skipper.

Suresh Raina played a cameo and he will be expected to do that again or may be even promoted up the line-up if Parthiv is dropped. Stephen Fleming may also get a look in.

The verdict is that there is no clear edge for Chennai SuperKings vs Mumbai Indians as is perceived.

Teams:

Chennai Super Kings
MS Dhoni, Muttiah Muralitharan, Jacob Oram , Albie Morkel , Suresh Raina, Matthew Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Michael Hussey, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, Makhaya Ntini, Nuwan Zoysa, R. Ashwin, S. Anirudha, Sudeep Tyagi.

Mumbai Indians
Sachin Tendulkar,Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Shaun Pollock, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Loots Bosman, Ajinkya Rahane,Abhishek Nayar, Yogesh Takawale, Pinal Shah, Ashwell Prince.

However, most cricket fans expected Indian heroes such as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, M S Dhoni and Wasim Jaffer failed sympathetically in the first three matches of the IPL.

Meanwhile, these matches saw tremendous performance by three foreign players such as New Zealand’s Brendan McCullum, Australian star batsman Michael Hussey and Australian paceman Glenn McGrath.

Brendan McCullum has given a terrific start for the Indian Premier League by smashing a world record-high 158 not out for Kolkata in the opening Twenty20 shootout in Banglalore. This gave Kolkata Night Riders a comfortable victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The team owned by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has many foreign players as its members. After a lavish ceremony to mark the launch of the league all eyes were on this opening fixture all eyes were on the performance of Kolakta Knight Riders.

The New Zealand wicketkeeper had scored 158 not out for just 73 balls, including 13 sixes – the highest individual score in the first match of IPL extravaganza. Unfortunately his teammate and captain of the team Sourav Ganguly could not thrill his fans as he managed to score only 10 runs in the opening match.

In comparison, team-mates Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting managed just ten and 20 runs respectively, but Brendan McCullum’s efforts were enough to give the visitors a comfortable and ultimately unassailable lead.

However for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, most of the stars including Captain Rahul Dravid and foreign players such as Mark Boucher, Jacaues Kallis and White disappointed 55,000 odd people assembled in the ground expecting home side victory. The Bangalore local hero and former Indian team captain Rahul Dravid managed only two runs in the opening match.

It was a superb century from Australia’s Michael Hussey, which has helped star-studded Chennai Super Kings to a 33-run victory in their match against Punjab. Hussey, the world’s top-ranked Test batsman, produced a stunning innings of 116 not out from just 54 deliveries in their opening match. Another Chennai star, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakara has scored a 54 in a thrilling smash. However Chennai Super King’s captain and Indian cricket team captain M S Dhoni failed and was able to take only two runs in the opening match.