Leave it to Thala… And Inshallah!

It’s happened again. CSK are out. Again.

Chennai Super Kings have failed to make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in their illustrious history. Fortress Chepauk — once a citadel of dominance — has crumbled. Five straight home defeats. A record no CSK fan saw coming. The canary yellow has faded.

The aura? Shattered. General Thala? Defeated.

The IPL, in recent years, has outgrown cricket, and not in a good way. Franchises have made a mockery of the game, turning it into a content machine and cash cow. Gimmicks over grit. Vibes over victories. Cricket has become secondary. Aura farming has taken center stage. They tinkered with the fundamentals. Undermined sporting integrity. Chased brand over balance.

But here’s the thing, the game remembers. And now, CSK — the flagbearers of legacy over logic — have paid the price. This isn’t just a downfall.

It’s cricket’s revenge!

CSK’s downfall is poetic. The brand they fought so hard to protect is exactly what’s crumbling. They chose sentiment over strategy. Comfort zone over ambition. Even Thala’s brand has taken a hit.

Because real sport isn’t a Rocky movie, and MS Dhoni isn’t Sylvester Stallone. In the real world, age doesn’t spark comebacks. It exposes you. Quickly. Brutally. Publicly. It strips away the myth, bares your limitations in front of those who once believed you were untouchable. And if you’re blind to it, it dismantles the image you spent a career building. One loss, one season at a time.

CSK’s management made the cardinal sin of overrating the most fickle asset in sport: fandom. They put their eggs in the legacy, nostalgia, and blind loyalty basket, forgetting that fans — especially Gen Z — move on faster than a 30-second reel. In the end, the basic building block of franchise sport is winning. And nothing builds a brand of a franchise like consistent success on the field. Not content. Not campaigns. Not even Thala.

Even the money men know the truth. Sponsors, broadcasters, and stakeholders don’t invest in sentiment. They invest in results. Performance drives perception. Perception builds brand. CSK was a winning brand. They didn’t bank on RCB’s romantic narrative of a king without the crown. Just like Real Madrid, the All Blacks, the Patriots, dominance was their strategy; everything else was decoration.

Not anymore!

In an era of endless streams and 24/7 sports content, fresh success stories always outshine legacy teams. Lose enough, and even the most iconic franchise becomes replaceable. There’s always another “brand” wagon to jump on.

CSK, in clinging to the past, now have egg on their face. They bet on nostalgia. They retained underperforming veterans out of loyalty. They lacked bite at the auction. They let go of game-changers. They fumbled leadership transitions. And it didn’t start this season, the cracks have been forming for years. Every time things slipped, the response was the same: “Leave it to Thala… and inshallah!”

But sport doesn’t run on sentiment. It needs a process. Runs on systems, succession, and strategy. Or else, you get a Tom Wambsgans in charge, by accident or by default. In sport, if you don’t evolve, the sport bites back. It leaves you behind. It exposes the myth. Because history may applaud you, but the scoreboard never lies.

And in this game, no one is too big to fail. Not even Thala!