5 Cricketers who played and coached the same IPL team

The Indian Premier League (IPL) since its inception in 2008, has been a boon not only for the Indian players but also the overseas cricketers. A separate window has been created for the IPL to take place as most of the countries do not schedule their bilateral series during the tournament. It is considered the best league for the same reasons as all the top players from all the major Test playing nations are available for the whole season.

Over the years, a lot of legendary players have also played for the IPL teams and the franchises have smartly not let them go even after the retirement. Rather these players have ended up taking the head coach job for the same team played in the T20 extravaganza. Here we bring you five such players who played and coached the same team in the IPL.

Five cricketers who played and coached the same IPL team:

1. Stephen Fleming (Chennai Super Kings)

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) secured Stephen Fleming’s services in the inaugural season of the IPL. The southpaw went on to play 10 matches for the franchise scoring 196 runs at a strike-rate of 118.79 and played the last match of his IPL career in 2009 against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

During the same edition, he was appointed as the coach of the team and Fleming retired as the player. Ever since then, the franchise hasn’t required the services of any other coach. They are the only team to stick to the same captain (MS Dhoni) and the coach over all these years. The Dhoni-Fleming combination has worked wonders for the Men in Yellow as they have won three trophies so and are the second successful team in the league.

The CSK has also managed to qualify for the playoffs/knockouts in all the seasons they’ve played in the IPL. They were banned for two years in 2016 and 2017 but when the franchise returned in 2018, CSK retained Fleming as the head coach and they won the 2018 edition in style.