Fan fever: Prabhu Damodharan, co-founder of a CSK fan club, has not missed a single CSK match.
On January 30, when Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings (CSK) became India’s first sports unicorn, Prabhu Damodharan, a textile businessman from Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, was immensely proud. Damodharan, co-founder of a CSK fan club, and his friends have not missed a single CSK match. For them, the team is synonymous with success and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The importance CSK fans attach to Dhoni is echoed by Damodharan’s friend from Visakhapatnam, Praveen Balusu, vice president of an IT firm in Mumbai (the two met through CSK). Balusu, who wrote a book—A Dawn in the Lawn—about Dhoni, cricket and the Indian team, said Dhoni’s conduct and captaincy helped him hone his own leadership skills.
The former India captain and the IPL team he has led to great success are both integral to Saravanan Hari’s life. Hari, a logistics professional, always paints himself yellow before going to watch a CSK match. Harnam Kaur has been a Dhoni fan since she was eight; she played cricket in her native Una, Himachal Pradesh, wearing the CSK jersey. She owns all official CSK kits.
Radha Gowtham, from Chennimalai in west Tamil Nadu, says CSK changed her life. “I was always told that girls and boys are different,” she said. “But, the first match I watched taught me what freedom means and that everyone is equal [as there were no divisions among the cheering crowd].” Now, she wants her little daughter to watch every CSK match to learn the same.
The people of Tamil Nadu were crazy about cricket long before CSK came into being. And though players like Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Lakshmipathy Balaji and Dinesh Karthik had played for India, the fans felt the lack of a cricketing superstar from the state. When the IPL began, most of the other teams had stars from the respective states. CSK bet on Dhoni from Jharkhand.
Reigning supreme: CSK team after winning IPL 2021 in Dubai.
At the time, it may have seemed reasonable to question whether Dhoni would be able to connect with the team’s identity. Now, “thala” (head/leader) is a ‘naturalised’ Chennaiite and embodies that identity. In its remarkable growth over one-and-a-half decades (its market cap is around Rs1,000 crore more than its parent entity India Cements), CSK has cut across barriers and forged lasting bonds with fans. This was key to its successful return after a two-year ban.
Praveen Balusu's nephew Taran Peddu with CSK take-away gifts.
The team has over 30 million followers on social media platforms. Karnataka felt the full weight of this following when Cauvery protests forced CSK to shift home games to Pune. But, the team also has strong travelling support, even when the matches are outside India. Damodharan says that there were days in 2021 when he flew to Dubai only to cheer for the team during the IPL.
Game on: Praveen Balusu wrote a book about Dhoni, cricket and the Indian team.
The Dravidian identity that has been weaved into the team is a strong platform to connect with fans. Moreover, the birth of CSK was during a period of social transformation. The DMK was in power in 2008 and the calls for social justice and equality were rallying cries. It was also the time when the demand for Tamil to be declared a classical language and the Tamil way of life to be preserved as a unique tradition was being widely discussed. CSK’s symbol—the roaring lion—was also reminiscent of the symbol of the Pallava dynasty. It also helped that the theme song caught on.
The most intriguing aspect of the CSK craze is arguably the colour yellow. It was alien at the start, but fans now call it “yellove”. There are stark examples of how much the colour means to fans. Hari’s body painting comes to mind. Then there was a CSK fan in Cuddalore who painted his entire house yellow. “I wear yellow whenever I go for a function or event,” said Damodharan. “I have even been successful in influencing my wife to wear a yellow sari or salwar when we go out.”