The end of the English cricket season is drawing near - and with it Fantasy Cricket 2004. There are a couple more rounds of the main County Championship left ... and of course the ICC Trophy is just about to start.
The observant amongst you (i.e. the ones who bothered to read the rules before entering a team), will know that the ICC Trophy was not originally included in the list of matches which count towards the fantasy cricket competition. However, I'm having second thoughts about this - in particular I feel it's a bit odd to have the finale to the England cricket season excluded from the competition.
Obviously changing the rules this late in the day could be considered a bit unfair, so I don't want to do it if people have serious objections. The most obvious complaint is that people who have used up all their team changes are left at an unfair disadvantage - I'm unsure to what extent people have done this. Feel free to leave your comment below as to whether you approve or not including the ICC trophy. If there are strong views against, then I won't change the rules.
The first match is this Friday (the 10th) - so I need to make a decision by then. Incidentally, this change would extend the competition slightly: instead of finishind on Sunday 19th, it would finish on Saturday 25th (which happens to be my son's first birthday!). I'll add all the international players (with ratings of 1 or 2) in a couple of days if necessary.
I await peoples views with interest.
p.s. Is anyone going to any of the matches? I have been to one ICC Trophy match ... anyone willing to guess when & where?
Posted by david at September 6, 2004 12:15 AMThe website is excellent - great job!
I think it's a really good idea to add this competition. It would be good if we could have at least another 4 team changes (I'd like more). Paul
Of course it's not in my interest to extend things so I'm biased - luckily however it would suit my team as I changed my players for the one-day squad and hadn't quite got round to switching out the England players again this morning.
On the other hand I'm not sure that changing the rules is ever a good idea and I was managing my transfers in the expectation that the ICC trophy would not count.
Another thing against it is that this is a completely different type of competition where how far the teams go and how well England in particular do will massively change the scoring potential. (A seperate ICC Trophy competition would be better!!)
The other thing is that decision needs to be made quickly as if it is not included I want to change my team before the next county matches start!
Overall my vote is against.
Posted by: David E at September 6, 2004 05:59 PMDavid: Fair points. I must admit I am swinging back to thinking I won't include the ICC trophy - my main worry is that the SemiFinals & Finals happen after the normal season is closed. This means that it's easy to gain points then if you haven't used up all your changes. So the people the rule change is benefiting are the people who haven't managed their team changes well ...
Of course, if I'd included it from the beginning, then it would have been an interesting strategy to hold back several team changes (and a nice twist to the end of the season). Ho hum.
I will definitely make a decision by Wednesday evening/Thursday morning (so changes will be possible before the round of county matches that start that day).
(The idea of a separate ICC competition was intriguing, except for the fact that I know everyone would select Flintoff+as many Aussies as possible!)
Posted by: David at September 6, 2004 06:30 PMOK. Since there wasn't a huge demand for inclusion of the ICC trophy, and there were some problems with the idea, it's not going to happen. Hope I didn't confuse people there - it was worth checking at least :)
Posted by: David at September 9, 2004 11:02 AM