Not exactly Dad's Army: The Method to CSK's Madness

Sunil Gavaskar's 1985 book, 'One Day Wonders' based on India's World Championship of Cricket triumph, had an interesting anecdote.

Skipper Gavaskar himself, Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal were three players above 30 in the playing XI during that tournament in Australia.

Whenever one among the three would take a smart catch, field well or get a direct throw right, the others would come and say "Well done OT".

'OT', according to Gavaskar, was the short form of 'Over Thirty' -- a bit of self deprecating humour to let people know that 'Age indeed is just a number'.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni surely doesn't have any fancy terms reserved for his bunch of veterans but indeed his 'OTs' have done him proud as Chennai Super Kings gear up for their seventh Indian Premier League final.

He has successfully created "chaos in the opposition ranks" with his 'out of the box' thinking and made the difficult cricketers "fall in line with team culture" to create a cohesive unit.

The average age of the core team comprising Dhoni (36), Ambati Rayudu (32), Suresh Raina (31), Dwayne Bravo (34), Shane Watson (37) and Harbhajan Singh (37) is 34 and half years.

Yet they are a complete antithesis to what everyone terms as 'Dad's Army'.

But what has been the recipe of CSK's success despite having to start from scratch after a two-year ban?