[yespkorg]

Chennai is the home of Mr N.Srinivasan, secretary and presidentelect of BCCI and a key administrator who lays down IPL policies. His message in IPL-4, the first to be run free from the flamboyance of founding chairman Lalit Modi, was very clear.

Cricket takes the front seat – not the glitz and glamour of Bollywood, nor that of the leggy cheerleaders.

Had Modi not been in selfexile, he would have put up a closing ceremony with all the trappings of cinematic razzamatazz. Pop stars and dancers would have been holding centre stage until the time came to actually play the final. That was Modi’s way. He reveled in playing the godfather of kitsch.

On Saturday night, after the home team Chennai super Kings had trounced Royal Challengers, owned by the ‘king of good times’ Vijay Mallya, there were only modest fireworks, the pyrotechnics coming almost an afterthought.

Who wouldn’t fancy a bit of fireworks to celebrate an occasion, a victory? IPL-4 was, however, the season in which it was decided that the stardust would not hold centre stage and that the primacy of cricket would be upheld. It was for the good of the IPL economy too. After four years, the business has to look at its bottom line, trim its avoidable expenses and come up with smart money.

Beyond that is the history of the game in Chennai. The tradition of club cricket here goes back more than 70 years. The city gave birth to professional cricket through the likes of Salim Durrani as visiting pro long before the idea became a universal phenomenon post-Kerry Packer. Durrani had a day job at Spencer's but his duty was on the cricket field in the Madras league.

In winning the IPL title for the second year in succession, Chennai Super Kings were paying a live tribute to the league cricket system of the city. The city's cricketers always believed that their league was the most competitive even as it gave them sustained opportunities to play the game and hone their talent.

The sporting corporate entity, India Cements, which owns the Chennai Super Kings, had consistently sponsored many of the teams that won various trophies in the city, including the Palayampatti shield, the symbol of supremacy in senior division cricket. To put together winning combinations in a city-based team is not a new concept for them.

Some of south India's best players gravitated towards the main sponsor of city cricket. So CSK were doing just what they had to do salute the city's cricketing spirit with yet another win.

DC Chennai