Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Stephen Fleming’s long association in the Indian Premier Leagues (IPL) has been a proven success formula.
During their eight years of partnership at the now-suspended IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, the duo weaved magic and led the team to two successive IPL triumphs and as many Champions League trophies.
The partnership ended after CSK was suspended for two years by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R.M. Lodha panel, after involvement of some of their team officials and co-owners in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal. Rajasthan Royals were also suspended for the same duration.
Following their suspensions, two new franchises, based out of Rajkot and Pune, won the bids to be part of the IPL for next two seasons.
With this, Dhoni-Fleming partnership could again be a possibility as Sanjiv Goenka’s New Rising-owned Pune franchise, which bagged Dhoni in the players’ draft on Tuesday, is likely to appoint the former New Zealand captain as the head coach, according to a report in The Times of India.
However, a formal declaration in this regard is expected in next few days.
In the first IPL draft on Tuesday, the Pune franchise picked five players – former CSK players Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin and Faf du Plessis, and Ajinkya Rahane and Steven Smith, who played for Rajasthan Royals.
Following the draft, Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises and brother of Sanjiv Goenka, tweeted: “#IPLDraft Pune with Dhoni as Captain and Fleming as Coach has built a formidable core team. Winning choices made.” The announcement gave rise to the speculations that Fleming could soon be heading to Pune.
Meanwhile, Fleming declined to comment.
“I am not in a position to make any comment at this point of time,” Fleming was quoted by the TOI as saying.
Sanjiv said an announcement will be made soon.
“We have approached a lot of people and have shortlisted a few. But I don’t think it would be right to reveal any name at this stage. We are in the final process of negotiations and you have to wait for a couple of more days for the name,” Sanjeev was quoted as saying by the TOI.
Sanjiv, a Kolkata-based industrialist who also co-owns ISL franchise Atletico de Kolkata with Sourav Ganguly, ruled out the possibility of involving the former India captain with his IPL team.
“We are not thinking of getting Sourav on board. It is not even a remote possibility in the future,” he added.
