Stephen Fleming

Stephen Paul Fleming (born 1 April 1973) is a cricket coach and former captain of New Zealand Cricket Team. He was a left-handed opening batter and an occasional right arm slow medium bowler. He is New Zealand's second-most capped Test cricketer with 111 appearances. He is also the team's longest-serving and most successful captain with 28 test victories and lead the team to win the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy, the team's first ICC trophy. Fleming captained New Zealand in the first ever Twenty20 International against Australia in 2005.

Fleming retired from international cricket on 26 March 2008. He played in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League for the Chennai Super Kings and became the team's coach in 2009. He is the current head coach of Chennai Super Kings and has coached them to five IPL and two Champions League T20 titles. He also serves as the head coach of other Super Kings franchises, Joburg Super Kings in SA20 and Texas Super Kings in Major League Cricket. He served as the coach of Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League from 2015 to 2019. Fleming was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to cricket, in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Early and personal life
Fleming was born on 1 April 1973 in Christchurch to Pauline Fleming and Gary Kirk. Pauline raised him as a single mother, and he did not meet his father until he was 16. Fleming played rugby for Cashmere High like his father.

On 9 May 2007, Fleming married his long-term partner Kelly Payne in a ceremony in Wellington. The couple have a daughter, born in 2006, and a son, in 2008.

Domestic career
Fleming has played county cricket in England for Middlesex, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. He captained Nottinghamshire to County Championship victory in 2005, their first Championship title in 18 years.

International career
A left-handed batsman, Fleming made his test debut in March 1994 in the home series against India winning the Man of the Match award on debut after scoring 92. He made his ODI debut on 25 March 1994 in the first match of the ODI series that followed and scored an unbeaten 90. In England's tour of New Zealand in 1996–97, he scored his maiden test century in the first test at Auckland. In the third Test of the series, he took over the captaincy from Lee Germon becoming New Zealand's youngest captain at 23 years and 321 days. He led the New Zealand team to a bronze medal in the 1998 Commonwealth Games.



Fleming led the team to win the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy, which was New Zealand's first ICC trophy. Fleming became New Zealand's most successful test captain in September 2000 with a victory over Zimbabwe which was the 12th win under his captaincy overtaking Geoff Howarth and finished with 28 wins, the most by a New Zealand captain. Fleming's scored his best ODI score with an unbeaten 134 to help New Zealand beat hosts South Africa in the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Chasing a rain adjusted target of 229 off 39 overs, Fleming hit 134 off just 132 deliveries as New Zealand cruised to a 9-wicket victory. In February 2005, Fleming captained New Zealand in the first ever Twenty20 International against Australia. In the second Test between New Zealand and South Africa at Cape Town in April 2006, Fleming scored his 3rd Test double-century and became the first New Zealander to achieve this feat.

On 25 October 2006, Fleming captained his country for the 194th time in an ODI overtaking Arjuna Ranatunga for most matches as a captain and finished with 218 games as a captain, a record which has since been eclipsed only by Ricky Ponting. He captained the side in the 2007 World Cup and scored 353 runs at an average of 39.22, leading the team to the semi-finals. On 24 April 2007, Fleming resigned as captain in a post-match press conference held after the semi-Final defeat to Sri Lanka. In September 2007, Fleming was replaced by Daniel Vettori as the New Zealand captain. Fleming confirmed his retirement from the New Zealand team at the end of England's 2008 tour of New Zealand to spend more time with his family, and to play for the Indian Premier League. Fleming scored over 7000 runs in test cricket and took over 170 catches, the third highest Test aggregate for a non-wicket keeper.

IPL career
Fleming was acquired by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for US$350,000 for the inaugural season of Indian Premier League. He played just one season and scored 196 runs in ten matches with CSK finishing as runners-up.

Coaching
Fleming was appointed as the head coach of Chennai Super Kings in 2009 when he retired as a player. Under his coaching, CSK won the 2010 season and qualified for Champions League Twenty20. Chennai won the 2010 Champions league. Fleming coached CSK to its second consecutive IPL title in 2011 and its second Champions League Twenty20 title in 2014.

Following the two-year suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, two new franchises Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions were established for the 2016 Indian Premier League season. Supergiants appointed Fleming as the head coach. Fleming returned to Chennai Super Kings for the 2018 season. Fleming coached CSK to its third IPL title in 2018. Fleming led CSK to the title again in 2021 and 2023 IPL. CSK became the most successful IPL franchise with five title wins and ten final appearances during his stint as head coach. He was appointed as the head coach of other Super Kings franchises, Joburg Super Kings of SA20 in 2022 and Texas Super Kings of Major League Cricket in 2023.

Business interests
Fleming has been involved in setting up CricHQ with the company's CEO Simon Baker and former New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum. Fleming is one of the investors and a director in the company. In June 2015, the company raised US$10m from Singapore private equity firm Tembusu Partners.

Playing style
Fleming was an elegant left handed batter and played shots such as the flick off the pads, straight drive, cover drive and cut shots. He was also a prolific slip catcher and was particularly noted for his captaincy, having been praised by Shane Warne as the "best captain in world cricket".

Centuries
Fleming, a left-handed batsman, has made 17 centuries in international cricket nine in Test matches and eight in One Day Internationals  and sits ninety-sixth in the list of century-makers in international cricket.


 * Test


 * ODI

Captaincy
Fleming had captained New Zealand in 303 matches including 80 Test matches, 218 ODIs and 5 T20Is, a New Zealand record and the third highest ever.

Records and achievements

 * Tests
 * Most wins by a New Zealand captain (28)
 * Second most number of matches as captain (80)
 * Third most runs for New Zealand (7172)
 * Third most matches for New Zealand (111)
 * Most fifties for New Zealand (46)


 * ODIs
 * Most wins by a New Zealand captain (98)
 * Second most number of matches as captain (218)
 * Third most runs as captain (6295)
 * Most matches for New Zealand (279)
 * Second most runs for New Zealand (8007)
 * Second most fifties for New Zealand (49)


 * Combined
 * Third most international matches as captain (303)
 * First non-wicket keeper to take 300 catches in international matches

Honors
Fleming was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to cricket, in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Player

 * New Zealand
 * ICC Champions Trophy: 2000
 * Commonwealth Games: 1998 (Bronze)


 * Nottinghamshire
 * County Championship: 2005

Coach

 * Chennai Super Kings
 * Indian Premier League: 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023
 * Champions League: 2010, 2014

Controversies
In 1995, Fleming was caught and admitted to smoking marijuana with teammates Matthew Hart and Dion Nash while on tour at their hotel.