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 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.

Chennai Super Kings led by Indian ODI and Twenty 20 skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will miss the two star foreign players Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel in their inaugural match against Kings X Punjab in Chandigarh on Saturday.

Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel of South Africa are expected to join the team only for the match against Bangalore Royal Challengers on April 26, it is reliably learnt.

This means M S Dhoni’s side would also miss the services of Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel for their match against Mumbai Indians on April 23.

But Chennai Super Kings have a battery of foreign players to make up for this : Stephen Fleming and Jacob Oram of New Zealand, Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden of Australia and spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka can make up for this.

This is exactly why they took on so many foreign players on board, despite criticism. Only four foreign players can be part of the playing eleven as per IPL rules. A key recruit, Laxmipathi Balaji, may also be ruled out following injuries.

This, however, makes Chennai Super Kings’ bowling look a tad weaker than it should have been, with options getting limited.

The DLF IPL Twenty20 tournament starts on April 18, which means Ricky Ponting (Kolkata Knight Riders), Andrew Symonds (Hyderabad), Brett Lee ( Mohali) and Matthew Hayden (Chennai Super Kings) would be able to play just more than two weeks in IPL.

The Aussie players are to depart for West Indies on May 8.

The Australians play three Tests, three One Day Internationals and a Twenty20 match in the Caribbean.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was bagged by Chennai Super Kings for $1.5 million.

Meanwhile Tamil film star Vijay and actress Nayantara have been roped in as the team’s Star ambassadors. At the introduction yesterday, Vijay was definitely off-colour, sitting sheepishly on a tinsel throne under the smoke and lights. Did not look like all his acting skills came to his rescue!

Chennai Super Kings cricketing affairs head V B Chandrasekar hinted that the team wanted M S Dhoni at any cost, adding it had decided to go in for four top batsmen apart from all-rounders and class bowlers including Makaya Ntini (200,000) and Muthaiah Muralitharan ($600,000).

Chennai Super Kings also bagged Australian opener Matthew Hayden for $375,000.

The team, captained by Indian ODI captain MS Dhoni, includes Mathew Hayden and Mike Hussey of Australia, Stephen Fleming and Jacob Oram of New Zealand, Makhaya Ntini and Albie Norket from South Africa, Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, and Indian players Suresh Raina and Joginder Sharma.  Lakshmipathy Balaji  who has not played a single match for India since 2005 has also been hired by the Chennai IPL team as an additional bowler.

Matthew Hayden had referred to Harbhajan Singh as an ‘obnoxious little weed’ in a radio interview and Harbhajan Singh had called Matthew Hayden a liar – denied quickly by Harbhajan Singh, and provoking a protest from Cricket Australia.

Matthew Hayden said the choice of words while calling Harbhajan Singh an obnoxious little weed went wrong, adding that it added fuel to fire in the already charged-up Commonwealth Series.

Matthew Hayden said he would probably try and meet up with Harbhajan Singh to resolve their differences. Australia would also tour India in October, but goes to the Wet Indies in May.

Matthew Hayden, one of the biggest hitters in world cricket now, has been bagged by the Chennai IPL team which will be captained by Indian ODI captain M S  Dhoni, while Harbhajan Singh will play for Reliance’s Mumbai Indians IPL team.

Our take? The general antagonism towards Harbhajan Singh by many in the Australian team has worked in India’s favour. So a patch up really is a good idea? Maybe India should just elt it all simmer for as long as possible. Bhajji seems cool about it, anyway!

Aussie spin wizard Shane Warne , who will captain and coach Jaipur IPL team, says the DLF IPL Twenty20 tournament would not be an acrimonious affair, despite India’s controversial tour of Australia.

The Austalian tour had been a much charged-up affair following a spate of controversies including the racism charges levelled against Harbjahan Singh and his show-downs with Andrew Symonds and Mathew Hayden.

Andrew Symonds and Mathew Hayden will play for Hyderbad and Chennai IPL teams respectively. Indian captain MS Dhoni too will play alongside Hayden in Chennai Super Kings – that should be fun!

But the spin wizard is not impressed with the controversies on the field. Shane Warne thinks the teams would have handled the charged-up atmosphere a bit differently.
Shane Warne also said Australia should opt for Victoria’s Bryce McGain as a future prospect, adding Stuart MacGill would bounce back to form.

The Australian media have pointed to a serious spin lacunae in the line-up as a cause for concern after Shane Warne retired.