Whistle Podu! IPL team Chennai Super Kings to launch academy in Canada
By Gautam Viswanathan, Deputy Editor, The Inspired Indian
Calling all cricket fans: Indian Premier League side Chennai Super Kings are all set to launch their first academy in Canada this September.
Set to open in Brampton, Ont. in the first week of September 2025, the academy will be CSK’s seventh development centre in North America. The franchise currently has six centres in the USA: Dallas, Phoenix, Austin, Boston, Atlanta, and San Francisco.
The Super Kings Academy has 12 centres in India and eight overseas: their setup in the US aside, CSK also develops the next generation of talent in Reading, UK, and Sydney, Australia.
Built with the aim of providing world-class infrastructure and expert coaching to young cricketers, the academies are built on three key pillars: opportunities, state-of-the-art facilities, and unform coaching, providing a structured curriculum to the next generation of talented sportspersons, which aims at developing not just their cricketing skills but also their problem-solving abilities.
Chennai Super Kings tapping into Canada’s Indian community
Given cricket’s overwhelming popularity in India, and Brampton’s large Indian-origin population, it is no surprise that Chennai Super Kings have chosen the city known as Canada’s capital of cricket.
South Asians are now a majority group in Brampton, with about 350,000 people in the city of some 650,000 people originating from the Indian subcontinent.
That’s not all: Brampton is home to 22 cricket sites across 16 locations, with more than 70 seasonal organizations and tournaments. In total, these facilities accounted for 19,000 hours of field time in 2024-25.
Over $2 million has been spent in recent years on upgrades to sports facilities, with an additional $7 to $10 million allocated through 2025 for lighting, batting cages, shade structures, and artificial cricket pitches.
Brampton is also constructing its first year-round cricket dome, a $25 million facility featuring an indoor field, batting cages, and climate control that is expected to open by early 2026.
One of India’s leading Twenty20 teams
Chennai Super Kings are the joint-most successful IPL champions, winning in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, and 2023. They also have the most appearances in the IPL final, finishing runners-up in 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2019.
They achieved an unprecedented double victory in 2010, winning both the IPL and Champions League Twenty20 in the same year.
The team have a history of recruiting some of the world’s best players, including legendary Indian captain MS Dhoni and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
Other world-famous athletes include South African batsman Faf du Plessis, Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, and New Zealander Stephen Fleming, who coached the side to victory.