Mar 23, 2006 07:01 PM
2668 Views
(Updated Mar 24, 2006 08:53 AM)
Well, I was keeping wickets three weeks back and was having the after effects of a catch I saw few days before by Allan Knot and I was geed up to make my own act. I took a tumbling low catch in the leg side of one of my fast bowlers.
The result: I got a muscle torn on the right knee and was yelling with pain and the advice from Doctor was to shy away from Cricket for five weeks.
What do I do, I cannot simply be out of cricket. Then I decide to log on to Cricket Fantasy League in the course of India England series and paid by Credit Card and registered for it and oops I found myself in ocean of Cricket crazy freaks battling it out for the top spot. Here goes my reflection.
The Game: Cricket Fantasy League
Conducted by:Cricinfo Website
Link: https://cricinfo.fantasyleague.com/
Context:India England Test and One Day series
The Concept:To choose players from the two teams for your Dream XI which will be scoring points for the runs, catches, wkts , run outs and stumpings.
The winners: The team that scores most points for each test, each One Day match and for the cumulative of Tests and One Day matches both individually and together.
The Prizes:Big prize Money in Pounds and lots of travel and other gifts connected with Cricket.
How to register: Each entry costs 5 Pounds (US $ 8.75) which is valid for entire Test and One Day series. You need to have a current International Credit Card and active e mail account to register. It is very simple and takes just fifteen minutes to register and select your team.
Team selection Criteria: You have an option of choosing four to five Batsman, 1-2 All Rounders , 1 wk and three to four bowlers to get the right eleven. The Team cost is 1000000 and each player has a value according to his credentials. While the Value of Flintoff is 120000 the value of Chawla is 50000.So you cannot just load with top players. You can only choose up to eight players from any of the two Countries.
Points: There are positive points awarded for the runs scored, wickets taken, catches and stumpings and run outs and negative points for dismissals of Batsman and runs given by the bowler. For more details, check out the site.
Choosing the Team; This is the most important facet of the game. The following guidelines will help you to decide the right team and you are allowed to make four changes for each match.
The pitch condition for the match is a very important criterion for the right team balance for each game. If you take Nagpur, Mohali and Mumbai, all the three pitches are distinctively different and your choice of the right Batsman and Bowler for each pitch is very vital.
The choice of players have to be from those who are going to make it in the eleven for each match, else you have lost one slot upfront.
The balance has to be right between Batsman, all rounder and Bowlers depending on whether it is going to be Batsman friendly or Bowler friendly pitch.
The current form of players is very vital for the selection of players in the team. For example all those who chose Harbhajan and Tendulkar for the first two Tests suffered loss of points and who knows, they will turn the table in Mumbai.
Ground zone: This is a beautiful concept and you need to select the groundzone player for each match where if he scores will get extra point. I chose Jaffar as GZ player for the first test which was behind the wkt and Dravid for second Test which was square of the wkt and come up trumps for most GZ points for both matches.
Game Interface: Very comprehensive yet very simple.
The Horizontal tool bar gives you Guide, Matches, Players, standings, Prizes and Scorecards (of Matches) while vertical toolbar helps you as a game Guide. Below your team, you have the option of joining a league, making team changes and picking Groundzone and team options.
Cricinfo being a very organized and fantastic website for cricket lovers has conceived the game beautifully and I bet even the pundits can go wrong in this game. Unlike the games organized by ESPN STAR SPORTS, the browsing is very fast and the data as well as information on players and standings are crystal clear and transparent to make proper judgment.
Analysis of the Game:The game makes you a Captain for your team and your perspective analysis of the game as well as players stands a good stead in enabling you to garner lot of points. Cricket Fantasy League is not for the layman but is something special for people who breathe Cricket because you should never be biased in choosing a particular player and you have to go by shear merit and not by emotions.
What makes it very interesting?
Cricket Fantasy League is as unpredictable as the game of Cricket itself as you never know which eleven players are going to garner more points and which of them will fetch you negative points. For example Collingwood, Cook and Hoggard did very well in Nagpur while Dravid, Kumble and Munaf did the bulk of point scoring in Mohali. Yuvraj who had a fantastic series in Pakistan scored very few points the last match. Moreover if the pitch is dead as a dumbo, you need to load lot of Batsman out there while spinners will fancy points for a turner.
As unpredictable as the game itself
You will find the points booming down like a thud like a rocket which fails because the beauty of the Game is that it is so unpredictable. Deano Jones predicts 92% winning chances for India and Rahul makes one blunder by electing to field and I made the second by dropping Strauss for the Third Test in CFL.
You find Strauss and Shah scoring bulk of runs and taking major points and the points of most gamers went rocketing down because we expected the pitch to turn square from Day 2.Who would expect Shon Udal and Anderson to score bulk of points in the third Test-that’s the game for you.
The Game is just not another Game but addresses an important tool for judging the net worth of the players in both the teams. The higher the points garnered by the player means that he is the most valuable for the Country. Dravid and Flintoff prove this point for each team.
If you have not registered yet, you still have prizes for One dayers as well and prizes apart, it makes you more balanced in understanding the nuances of the Game itself
Don’t sweat out this summer, Go and play the Fantasy League online and enjoy yourselves.
Tip: Don’t go picking players by Star value like Tendulkar and Sehwag and keep it balanced. But for One Dayers, it is a different game altogether.
