Chennai departed for South Africa on Wednesday for the second edition of the lucrative Twenty20 tournament having lost out to the Rajasthan Royals in the final of the inaugural competition under the coaching reins of former South Africa skipper Kepler Wessels.
Wessels parted ways with the team at the end of the 2008 tournament, but new player-coach Fleming is confident his remaining South African contingent can take the team to top this time round.
"Coaching is a new challenge for me and it is something that I am looking forward to with great confidence," the former New Zealand captain said.
"Our core team remains the same and we look to another successful run in this year's tournament too.
"The fact that we have a fair number of South African cricketers in our team will hold us in good stead.
"Their input and feedback to the rest of the players will prove to be invaluable."
Preparations
The Chennai team will have a short six-day training camp in Durban before travelling to Cape Town for their first match against the Mumbai Indians on April 18.
And Super Kings' head of operations Kasi Viswanath says the party will be ready for anything by time skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, England star Andrew Flintoff and New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram join the team in Cape Town on April 15.
"We are ready for the big occasion," he said. "We have set our preparations in place with the aim of making the semi-finals as our first target.
"Dhoni as well as the overseas players have been involved in international matches for their respective countries and have the experience to straight away go into the matches.
"They will also have a little time off with their families before plunging into the IPL."
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