The Deccan Chargers (DC) were a franchise cricket team based in Hyderabad, India, that competed in the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket (T20) league in India. They were one of the eight teams that competed in the 2009 Indian Premier League, making their second appearance in all IPL tournaments. The team was captained by Adam Gilchrist and coached by Darren Lehmann with Kanwaljit Singh and Mike Young as assistant coaches.
They began their season by winning their opening fixture of the IPL on 19 April against the Kolkata Knight Riders, and went on to qualify for the semi-finals. They beat the Delhi Daredevils in the semi-final to reach the Final. They defeated the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Final by six runs to win their maiden IPL trophy and qualify for the 2009 Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20). They lost both their matches in the group stage of the CLT20 and failed to advance to the league stage.
Background The Deccan Chargers were one of the most expensive teams of the Indian Premier League and they also spent a large amount of money on players during the auction but finished at the bottom of the table winning only two of their 14 matches. After finishing last in the league stage of the 2008 Indian Premier League, the team management sacked the entire administration associated with the tournament in that year. They removed their CEO J. Kalyan Krishnan, the coach Robin Singh and the captain V.V.S. Laxman and replaced them with Tim Wright, the former Australian batsman Darren Lehmann and the Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist respectively. The Jaypee Group, who sponsored the team in 2008, withdrew its funding owing to the team's poor performances in that season. This allowed the Deccan Chargers to undergo a complete makeover, including changing the colours of the team from pale brown to vibrant blue and a new logo displaying a more vivid charging bull with the Deccan Chronicle as the primary sponsor for the team.
In the aftermath of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Pakistan, there has been a growing concern over the security arrangements for the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) in India with many international players inquiring the franchises over their safety and asking for an independent security assessment. However, due to the direct clash of the IPL matches with the 2009 Indian general elections, the Government of India refused to provide the paramilitary forces during the games with the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram reiterating, “Elections are unquestionably first priority over the IPL.” On 24 March 2009, Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that the IPL was to be held in South Africa and had decided to compensate the franchises for the extra expenditure they would incur in moving the team from India for this season.
Player acquisition
The IPL added a performance clause to its player's contract which saw the players lose 20% of their match fee if they did not find a place in starting XI on a match-by-match basis. However, this clause was applicable only on the contracts signed from 2009. The players' purchase cap was also increased from 5 million to 7 million. The maximum number of foreign players in each squad was also increased from eight to ten, though those in playing XI was still retained at four. The IPL also announced that the players' auction was shifted to 6 February 2009 while the month-long trading window would start on 15 December 2008.
The Deccan Chargers conducted the probe and later, terminated the contract of the Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi following the disagreement between Afridi and then captain, V. V. S. Laxman, on the poor first-season performances. The entire issue started when Afridi spoke to Geo News, a Pakistani news channel, about Laxman's inefficiency as the captain and suggesting Gilchrist as the better choice. Laxman later responded later by saying that Afridi had no team ethics and reminding him of being the part of a collective failure and was unfortunate for blaming only the captain for it. The Deccan Chargers traded Sanjay Bangar to the Kolkata Knight Riders for the second season during the trade window. They started acquiring players as their new coach, Darren Lehmann, signed the uncapped Australian all-rounder Ryan Harris and obtained local talent by signing the Hyderabadi batsman Tirumalasetti Suman along with the Himachal Pradesh wicket-keeper Manvinder Bisla. They also added five uncapped players from the domestic circuit to the squad including the local players, Abhinav Kumar and Shoaib Ahmed.
The players auction for the 2009 Indian Premier League was held on 6 February 2009 at Goa that included 111 overseas players. The Deccan Chargers opened their account by buying the West-Indian fast bowler Fidel Edwards at the base price of 150,000 to bolster their pace attack. Later, they improved their batting strength by acquiring the services of another West-Indian, Dwayne Smith, at the base price of 100,000.
Players retained: Halhadar Das, Kalyankrishna Doddapaneni, Ravi Teja Dwaraka, Herschelle Gibbs, Adam Gilchrist, Sarvesh Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Vijaykumar Paidikalva, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, R. P. Singh, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, V. V. S. Laxman, Chaminda Vaas, Arjun Yadav, Venugopal Rao Yalaka, Nuwan Zoysa
Players released: Shahid Afridi, Sanjay Bangar
Players added: Shoaib Ahmed, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Azhar Bilakhia, Manvinder Bisla, Fidel Edwards, Ryan Harris, Abhinav Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, Dwayne Smith, Suman Tirumalasetti
Squad Players with international caps are listed in bold. Year signed denotes the season the player first signed for the team
Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Year signed Notes Batsmen Azhar Bilakhia Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2009 Ravi Teja Dwaraka Right-handed Right-arm leg break 2008 Herschelle Gibbs Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2008 Overseas. Played for the Cape Cobras in the 2009 CLT20. Rohit Sharma Right-handed Right-arm off break 2008 Vice Captain. Suman Tirumalasetti Right-handed Right-arm off break 2009 Chamara Silva Right-handed Right-arm leg spin 2008 Overseas. V. V. S. Laxman Right-handed Right-arm off spin 2008 Arjun Yadav Right-handed Right-arm off break 2008 Venugopal Rao Yalaka Right-handed Right-arm off spin 2008 All-rounders Ryan Harris Right-handed Right-arm fast 2009 Overseas. Withdrew from the 2009 CLT20 tournament. Dwayne Smith Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2009 Overseas. Played for the Sussex Sharks in the 2009 CLT20. Scott Styris Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2008 Overseas. Andrew Symonds Right-handed Right-arm off break 2008 Overseas. Wicket-keepers Manvinder Bisla Right-handed 2009 Halhadar Das Right-handed 2008 Adam Gilchrist Left-handed Right-arm off break 2008 Overseas and captain. Abhinav Kumar Right-handed 2009 Replacement to Ryan Harris in the 2009 CLT20 squad. Bowlers Shoaib Ahmed Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2009 Harmeet Singh Bansal Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2009 Kalyankrishna Doddapaneni Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2008 Fidel Edwards Right-handed Right-arm fast 2009 Overseas. Sarvesh Kumar Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2008 Pragyan Ojha Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox 2008 Vijaykumar Paidikalva Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2008 Jaskaran Singh Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2009 R. P. Singh Right-handed Left-arm medium fast 2008 Chaminda Vaas Left-handed Left-arm medium fast 2008 Overseas. Nuwan Zoysa Left-handed Left-arm medium fast 2008 Overseas.
Administration and support staff
Position Name Owner Deccan Chronicle Head coach Darren Lehmann Assistant coach Kanwaljit Singh Bowling coach Vincent Barnes Fielding coach Mike Young Physiotherapist Sean Slattery Strength and Conditioning coach Steve Smith Sources:
Kit manufacturers and sponsors
Kit ManufacturersShirt Sponsor (Chest) Shirt Sponsor (Back) PumaDeccan Chronicle Odyssey Source :
Season overview Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League fixtures were announced on 24 March 2009 with all venues shifted to South Africa. The opening games of the IPL were scheduled on 18 April with the top-four teams from the group stage advancing to the knockout stage and the final scheduled to be held in the Johannesburg on 24 May.
Group stage On 19 April, the Deccan Chargers started their 2009 Indian Premier League (2009 IPL) campaign with an eight-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders at Cape Town. The Chargers rested Chaminda Vaas and named Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris and Fidel Edwards as their four foreign players for their first match. Though they lost the toss and were sent out to field, their opening bowling attack consisting of Edwards and R. P. Singh troubled the Knight Riders' top-order batsmen with the new ball removing three quick wickets. Pragyan Ojha troubled the middle-order but Brad Hodge scored a couple of boundaries off Styris to keep the scoreboard running before slamming one straight to Gibbs at point. Singh returned into the attack to remove the tail and restrict the Knight Riders to 101. Gilchrist started the chase for the Chargers with a couple of boundaries before they lost two quick wickets. Gibbs, who then teamed up with Rohit Sharma, steadied their innings with some quick singles and watchful boundaries before the pair finished off the game with seven overs to spare.
The Deccan Chargers defeated the Royal Challengers Bangalore for their second consecutive win of the season on 22 April. The Chargers retained the same starting XI for the second match after their comfortable win against the Knight Riders. After winning the toss and electing to bat, Gilchrist took the charge of the innings with clean hitting necessitating continuous fielding changes from the opposition. Praveen Kumar managed to remove Gibbs after changing ends and V. V. S. Laxman failed to make an impact again. Gilchrist, however continued his scoring, especially picking on short deliveries as he reached his half century in 31 balls. Rohit, who started off slowly on the other end, paced himself soon after Gilchrist got dismissed attacking Anil Kumble for three sixes over the mid-wicket which helped Chargers finish the innings at 184/6 in 20 overs. The Royal Challengers got a poor start in their chase stumbling to 62/4 in 11 overs before Rahul Dravid teamed up with Virat Kohli to progress the Royal Challengers' chase as the latter scored 50 off 32 balls. However, the target seemed too far the Royal Challengers as the Chargers completed their win by 24 runs.
On 25 April, the Deccan Chargers completed a hat-trick of wins this season as they defeated the Mumbai Indians. The Chargers made one change in this match with Styris being rested and Dwayne Smith taking his place. Gilchrist chose to bat after winning the toss and provided a quick start along with Gibbs for the opening wicket scoring at a rate of 10 per over. After Gilchrist's dismissal, Gibbs kept the momentum going as he teamed up with Smith to attack the Mumbai bowlers. Though the Chargers suffered a middle-order collapse soon after the loss of Smith's wicket, they were able to finish the innings at 168/9 in 20 overs. Singh provided a good start to the Chargers in the Mumbai innings removing Sanath Jayasuriya in his first over. However, Sachin Tendulkar teamed up with J. P. Duminy as they build a partnership of 84 runs in nine overs. Ojha pulled the Chargers back into the match removing three quick wickets. Abhishek Nayar joined Dwayne Bravo to progress the chase for the Mumbai but Edwards dismissing the both ended the match for the Mumbai as the Chargers won the match by 12 runs.