Cricketing Timewaster

[Levin]

I didn't think I was attached to my players and have listed two who have served me well in my 2 seasons in the game. Neither have attracted any bids yet and I'm beginning to worry that I'm going to have to fire them if they don't sell.

I'm well on the way of pebblethefish

[Antepli Ejderha]

Lots of ins so far for the Ferrets, I've now got a team of outstanding batsmen and bowlers with LR combinations and a more balanced bowling attack.

My youth squad is, bar one old player, being left alone.

I've placed many players on the transfer list, I'll give it a week and then sack those that don't sell.

Now to study some more of TopManager's advice to see what else I've been doing wrong.

[Levin]

Two of my three debutantes have got off to good starts. Hopefully I've not Jonah'ed Pooran there.

As have St Marks Hill Strollers. Using 6 bowlers I see. I've wondered about doing that to avoid the tiredness penalties late in the innings. I suspect we'll see a lot of Matsikenyeri, a young left arm fast.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Good luck to everyone in the official leagues that start tomorrow with the Youth T20.

I think I'll be sacking a few players tomorrow morning before my the week's wages get taken.

They've been on the market and not sold so rather than lose 5k in salaries per player I'll cull them.

[Granthamian]

After reading some of the posts on here I've decided to give this game a go. Not sure about the timing as I seem to have been pitched straight in to a new season with no time to acclimatise. I have to say there's a lot to get to grips with but I like what I've seen so far. I could not resist checking out the transfer market and would you believe it I seem to have bought one of Antepli Ejderha's players in the last few minutes. What were the odds on that! I spotted the Zeugma name and figured it could not be anybody else. Zackary Ellis is as we speak winging his way back to his Canadian homeland ready to make his debut for his new club The Braceby Lynx tomorrow. Hope he does not arrive with jet lag

[Antepli Ejderha]

Hope he does well for you Granthamian I'll be putting a few more on the market if you're interested?

Apologies, I forgot my manners, welcome aboard.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Levin Wellworth
longeared Nuhiu Rules
Antepli Ejderha The Zeugma Ferrets
ad hoc The Csiki Nurdles
pebblethefish Village Flowers
Etienne Croesoswallt Dragons
Vicarious Thrillseeker Bagillt Baptists
Viktor Boskovic Danefieldshire
Favourite Worst Nightmare St. Marks Hill Strollers
jdsx Fuzzy Ducks
@Granthamian The Braceby Lynx
TopManager

I think this is it for active managers.

[jdsx]

Welcome Granthamian Canada is a good country to be in!

[Granthamian]

Thank you for the welcome guys - quite a few names I recognise there from Xpert Eleven. Canada is a place I've always wanted to visit - this is as close as I am going to get for now. Good luck for the new season!

[Antepli Ejderha]

Absolutely destroyed in today's senior T20, conceded at 9 an over and only took a single wicket. Skittled out for a 100 run defeat.

I'll put it down to an extremely youthful squad rather than inept management and poor transfers.

[TopManager]

Whilst I appreciate many of you are not interested in NAT's - elections have started. Interestingly, the 2nd worst manager in FTP history (the son of the worst manager in FTP history) is running for re-election in the UAE - Thomo92. So you may want to consider voting in the UAE if you want to cause maximum controversy or vote him out (I'm indifferent)!



Some of you may find this data interesting - it was produced by the owner of the game showing the win/loss percentage of teams who played 5 spinners as opposed to 4. The main lesson I take from this data is that spinners take such a beating in the first 10 overs that by even playing at least 1 seamer in spin-friendly conditions, you increase your win percentage by 8%.

[pebblethefish]

Of course, part of the above would be because your one seamer is going to be your best seamer, while your fifth spinner is going to be your fifth best spinner, probably a youth, so he's not comparing like with like. Normally I play three spinners on spin-friendly wickets, but that's because I've only got three. I suppose this is where it would pay to have an all rounder so you could have six bowlers - open with two seamers bowling five each, then your four spinners can split the last 40 overs. Sadly I've never had an all rounder worthy of the name, so this is just a theory.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Had my first tie today in the Youth One Day tournament.

Tomorrow I've got the only zombie team in my senior league.

I've also sold off most of my squad players and hope that's it for the season.

Finally had the training reports in for both squads, not one single change.

[Granthamian]

Well it’s been a busy first week. I’ve played 4 matches, losing 1 (to a human manager, so it was to be expected), signed 8 players for a total outlay of 18000 dollars (what a contrast with X11!), and received my first world ranking (1305 senior 1447 youths - hey it’s a start ). I’m spending way more time here than in X11 which I did not think could happen. I’m enjoying it all very much so far.

PS: I noticed some players in the transfer market have 7 figure price tags. Holy moly, do the top clubs operate multi million dollar budgets then? Is that the journey we are on?

[ad hoc]

My squad additions in the off season seem to be making a difference. Initial indications would suggest that I can hold my own in the official leagues and maybe shoot for Upper mid table. In addition I seem to be more competitive in the otf leagues than previously. Tomorrow I notice I have a game in the Matt Krevs Memorial Cup, which is a first for me. I'm not quite sure what the advantage of being in that competition is - gate receipts I assume (set against players getting more fatigued)

[longeared]

I had a tremendous start to the domestic season - played four, lost four. In fairness we twice played the best side in the division and the other two were against the second best side, so I expect to start winning games when I play some teams more on my level.

Being in the big cup has two advantages, you get to play someone completely random and you get a very handy sum in gate receipts. It does bugger up your players fitness level though so expect to be performing a fair bit of rotation afterwards to get everyone back on track.

[Levin]

Granthamian The biggest transfers are about 3-4 million. Out of the OTFers I think I'm the manager who has spent biggest on individual transfers and I've never gone over 100k. The market doesn't make much sense to me still. You can get good money for exceptional youth players but I can't think how else you get massive reserves of cash unless you tank for a while and spend nothing on players. Which seems dull.

This week hasn't been much fun. One game won (out of five, including the OTF youth). I didn't expect much from first one day game so played my reserves mixed with 1st XI. They forced the match to it's final over. Which, given my opponent had a 30k rating advantage over me, is good. But it's making me wonder if I shouldn't have just gone all out with my 1st XI. But then, my mixed team got the same rating as the 1st XI team that played in OTF last week. So maybe all my off season purchases have been pointless.

I'm rather pleased to see a team in my one day league has gone bot as it means there is effectively only one relegation place in play.

I'm playing youths in the Matt Krevs, I don't stand a chance an need to save my energy.

Etienne came very close last night, he just ran out of wickets. It's odd that one day cricket has kept wickets as a margin of victory. I've no issue with runs but a match where a team only loses one wicket but takes to the final ball to win is closer than one where a team loses seven wickets but has ten overs left in their allowance.

Edit: oh, and I've lost 30k on the week.

[Levin]

My wicketkeeper is bothering me. In theory he's my best batter as well as my wicketkeeper. But he's averaging 30 and has more scores of 10 or less than he has over 40.

Maybe I'm worrying too much. I don't have superstar players. Everyone is much of a level so that I can be fairly confident that someone else will pick up the slack even if a couple go cheaply.

Oh, I got knocked out of the cup in about 35 overs (including both innings). But 48k isn't to be sniffed at.

[Granthamian]

Great win for you in the MLX final Antepli Ejderha - many congratulations!! Why don't they do a thumbs up smiley? This one will have to do ( I'm posting this here because VA surely won't read it - just in case he does not know the result yet)

[Antepli Ejderha]

Great win for you in the MLX final Antepli Ejderha - many congratulations!! Why don't they do a thumbs up smiley? This one will have to do ( I'm posting this here because VA surely won't read it - just in case he does not know the result yet)

Thank you, he's logged on to the MLX but it's probably in a state of shock, I know I am.

[Levin]

Some milestones passed in the last couple of weeks.

Batting

Name	Mat	Inns	No	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	0s	100	50
C Squires VF	29	29	2	1110	154	41.11	1228	90.39	2	4	2
G Hendry TCS	28	28	1	1036	124	38.37	1277	81.13	1	2	7
J Dungrani TZF	29	29	0	1028	122	35.45	1378	74.60	0	1	7

Bowling

Name	Mat	Balls	M	Runs	Wkts	Best	Ave	ER	SR
R Hutchinson TZF (rf)	29	1446	11	1150	52	5-28	22.12	4.77	27.81
D Ruse Wel. (rf)	29	1436	12	959	52	5-16	18.44	4.01	27.62
R Ratcliffe VF (rfm)	28	1744	17	1105	51	5-57	21.67	3.80	34.20

[Antepli Ejderha]

Another sound beating in the Senior T20 today, it's going to be a long season so I'll play a development side I think.

[pebblethefish]

I reached the second round of the cup for the first time ever! Against a team ranked 600 places above me! Ok, he played his youth team, but I'm still taking it

[ad hoc]

I reached the second round of the cup too, also for the first time ever (though I had not been in it before)

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Is it a thing, playing the kids and the stiffs? I beat a South African team - 747 places above me. He played a couple of 16 year olds, but the side was still strong. Do serious teams try to get knocked out early?