Fleming likely to coach Chennai Super Kings

Stephen Fleming, the former New Zealand captain, is likely to take over as the coach of Chennai Super Kings from Kepler Wessels for the Champions Twenty20 League. He, however, will not be playing for the team in then tournament next month. Wessels, who led the team to the finals in the inaugural IPL season and helped them qualify for the Champions Twenty20 League next month, confirmed that his one-year tenure was over. "My contract was just for one year," he told Cricinfo.

Fleming had a disappointing IPL campaign playing for Chennai, scoring 196 runs from 10 games at a strike-rate of 118.78, failing to score a fifty. He was unavailable for the semi-final and final as well after heading back to New Zealand for the birth of his child.

He recently committed to Wellington for the domestic Twenty20 campaign in New Zealand beginning February 2009, a move which could also see him turning out for the team in the next edition of the Champions League

His appointment is the latest in the series of management changes by the IPL teams ahead of the second season. Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers, who finished at the bottom of the league, brought in Adam Gilchrist as their new captain, replacing VVS Laxman and Bangalore's Royal Challengers, who finished just ahead of Hyderabad in the points table, replaced Martin Crowe, their coach last year, with Ray Jennings. The Hyderabad, Jaipur and Delhi franchises have already changed their chief executives.

Michael Hussey had already announced that he would represent Chennai and not Western Australia for the Champions Twenty20 League which kicks off on December 3 with the finals in Mumbai on December 10. Chennai Super Kings will face Victoria in their opening Group A encounter on December 4 in Mumbai. Middlesex and Titans are the other teams in the group.