Deccan Chargers - IPL's Hyderabad Dream Team

The Deccan Chargers is the team for the Hyderabad franchise of the Indian Premiere League (IPL). The swashbuckling side is the champion of the 2009 IPL Twenty20 cricket tournament. Although lacking the glamour or star-power of a Bollywood actor-owner, it has proved its worth with star players and cricketing abilities.

Coached by the Australian cricketer, Darren Lehmann, who has led two IPL teams to the IPL trophy, the Deccan Chargers has had players such as Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and R.P.Singh in its team line-up. In the current season of IPL 2011, world-class players such as Dale Steyn and J.P.Duminy are a part of its arsenal. It is captained by Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan cricketing great, in IPL 2011.

The bull, which is the mascot of the Deccan Chargers or the "Chargers", symbolizes its strength and fearlessness, always ready to take their cricketing opponents head on with their technique and cricketing skill.

Deccan Chargers - Owners, Management and Sponsors
The Deccan Chargers team, belonging to the Hyderabad franchise of the IPL, is owned by Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures which is a subsidiary of Deccan Chronicle Holdings. The popular Southern Indian newspaper "Deccan Chronicle" belongs to this group. T.Venkatram Reddy and his daughter, Gayatri Reddy, are the owners. Twenty percent of the stake is held by Group M, another media-related company.

Deccan Chargers, the Hyderabad IPL franchise, was bought by the owners for USD 107 million in 2008. It has been reported that the owners made profits in the first year itself of the team's formation.

The current Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Deccan Chargers team is Dinesh Wadhwa, the former Regional Manager of ICICI Bank. India's badminton champion, Saina Nehwal, is the brand ambassador for the Deccan Chargers.

Sponsors for the Deccan Chargers include Ultratech Cement, McDowell's, Kingfisher, Puma and Linc. Partners include TV5News, Apollo Hospitals and 92.7 Big FM.

IPL 2008-2010 Performance of Deccan Chargers
Here's a summary of the performance of the Deccan Chargers IPL team in the first three IPL editions from the years 2008-2010.

• 2008 IPL 1 Edition - Features of Deccan Chargers' performance in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League in 2008 are:
  
  
  • They posted 2 wins and 12 losses from a total of 14 matches played.
  • Chargers were placed last at the IPL 2008 rankings table with 4 points and a Net Run Rate of -0.467.
  • In IPL 2008, the Deccan Chargers team included Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Rohit Sharma and captain, V.V.S Laxman. Former Indian player Robin Singh was the coach.
    
    
• 2009 IPL 2 Edition - Deccan Chargers become IPL Champions - IPL 2 was played in South Africa due to elections in India. The second edition of the IPL saw a fantastic performance by Deccan Chargers, who went on to win the 2009 IPL trophy. Some features of their performance are:
  
  
  • Out of 16 matches played, the Deccan Chargers won 9 and lost 7.
  • They were ranked fourth in the IPL 2009 Table.
  • In the 2009 IPL, Australian cricketing giant Adam Gilchrist was made captain of the Chargers. Darren Lehmann was appointed as the coach of the team. Several new players such as Dwayne Smith and Ryan Harris were signed up.
  • The Chargers made it to the semi-finals where they beat Delhi Daredevils. In the IPL 2009 final, the Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore and emerged victorious.
    
    
• 2010 IPL 3 Edition - The Chargers could only progress to the semi-finals stage in IPL 2010. Their achievement in IPL 2010 was as follows:
  
  
  • Out of 16 games played, they won 8 and lost 8.
  • They were ranked second in the IPL table.
  • In the semi-finals, they lost to the Chennai Super Kings.
  • The Chargers lost subsequently to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the match for the 3rd place.
    
    

Current IPL Edition - IPL 2011
In IPL 4 or IPL 2011, previous players had been put up for re-auction. Major cricketing Stalwarts such as Adam Gilchrist and Symonds were not retained. Adam Gilchrist, who was included in Kings XI Punjab, expressed his disappointment over not being retained in the Chargers team.

Deccan Chargers' run at the IPL 2011 has been below par. The team has languished at the bottom of the IPL rankings table, with a majority of losses.

IPL 2011 Deccan Chargers squad is captained by Sri Lankan batsman Kumara Sangakkara. The rest of the squad includes overseas players such as Cameron White (all-rounder), Dale Steyn (bowler), Dan Christian (all-rounder) and JP Duminy (all-rounder).

The Indian players include Bharat Chipli (batsman), Ravi Teja (batsman), Harmeet Singh (bowler), Ishant Sharma (bowler), Pragyan Ojha (bowler) and Shikhar Dhawan (batsman).

The team is coached by Darren Lehmann.

For more information, visit the Deccan Chargers website at www.deccanchargers.com