I’m not pretending I’m some kind of God at fantasy here, either. I’ve had more than my fair share of luck. But there has been a small method to the madness nonetheless, and I’ve had to have done something right to get the results I have.

1. Analyse the pitch draw.

Firstly, analyse the pitch draw. Is it worth blowing all your money on top batsman Roy Turnham with England playing on two crumbling pitches and one sticky pitch in the group stages alone? Pretty big risk for, most likely, not much reward. Do you cash in on the exceptional skills of India’s Drsadvata Kuruvilla? With 3 batting pitches, again, this is very risky. To save you the hassle of scouting through each team’s pitch draw, here are the five pitches that each team will be playing on in the group stages of the World Cup.

England – Uneven, slow, crumbling, crumbling, sticky

New Zealand – Uneven, sticky, green, hard, flat

Australia – dry, flat, uneven, green, hard

India – uneven, hard, slow, flat, hard

Pakistan – sticky, dry, uneven, crumbling, flat

Zimbabwe – sticky, green, crumbling, crumbling, hard

Sri Lanka – uneven, slow, sticky, sticky, hard

Netherlands – sticky, green, green, flat, green

South Africa – sticky, flat, slow, green, crumbling

West Indies – Sticky, hard, green, uneven, green

Bangladesh – flat, green, uneven, hard, flat

Bermuda – sticky, uneven, slow, sticky, sticky

UAE – uneven, green, slow, crumbling, slow

Ireland – Uneven, dry, hard, green, flat

Scotland – Uneven, flat, green, green, green

Kenya – dry, flat, green, flat, crumbling

Canada – flat, sticky, hard, crumbling, flat

USA – Uneven. Uneven, sticky, crumbling, slow

First observations:

• Stray away from selecting more than one English batsman - look to their bowlers instead
• A couple of the top Indian batsmen may be money well spent for your side.
• Looking to pick up a Dutch medium pacer for cheap might be smart - I’d suggest Tjalling Janssen or maybe Thomas van der Laan
• Picking a Bangladeshi batsman might be smart
• Bermuda’s, USA’s and UAE’s pitches are all favourable to bowling, stray away from selecting their batsmen - again, look to their bowlers

Look for other, similar patterns and hints in the pitch draw, as you’ll also likely be able to figure out the types of players who’ll play most, and more games equals more chance of points.

2. Busts

A “bust” is a player who fails to make expectations or, in this case, is not worth the money you are asked to spend to include them in your side. Let’s look at the three who I feel are most likely to fill this category.

Drsadvata Kuruvilla:

Team: IND

Sorry Bob, but with an average of $10,000 allowed per player you select, $16,363 is just too much to spend on this player. The slow pitch is the only pitch where Kuruvilla can realistically be expected to succeed, and being a finger spinner with just 19 wickets from 19 ODIs, it’s still going to take a fair degree of luck for Kuruvilla to succeed in terms of wickets taken. There is no doubt in my mind that those with the hopes of winning this season’s fantasy competition should shy away from selecting Kuruvilla, as tempting as his exceptional summary may be.

Roy Turnham

Team: ENG

With the pitch draw England have been dealt, Turnham is another who may just command too much money in return for his services. Sure England will still expect him to play well despite the unfriendly conditions, but at $14,188, he may not quite give you the return you’re looking for in a big money player. Boasting an impressive average of 44.47, Turnham is not as a definitive selection in the bust category as Kuruvilla might be, but I’d recommend straying away from his selection if you can help it.

Percy McShane

Team: SAF

From the limited number of posts in the WC Fantasy thread already, it seems McShane is a player that everyone wants to spend big money on. The pitch draw offers him a chance, but he has never really demolished batting lineups consistently in the manner of a Guthrie and at $14,704 he is not worth the money for mine. 35 wickets in 30 ODIs isn’t quite good enough, though at 23 McPain is yet to peak and, once full of power, he will be lethal. Stray away from him now, though.

3. Value players

Looking now to three players who, in my opinion, will be good value for money and allow you to spend bigger money elsewhere.

Vaibhav Gupta

Team: IND

A number of batting pitches for India and the legendary experienced, powerful Gupta at just $7,772 is likely to exploit these pitches nicely for your fantasy team. An ODI average of over 40, Gupta should be able to put in at least one performance that will bring you a large amount of points for very little money, and with the way the competition works this year, he’s a must-have.

Govil Sandip

Team: BAN

Sandip has been arguably Bangladesh’s most consistent performer over the past two seasons. He is extremely cheap at just $5,962 and will allow you to spend big money elsewhere. He is not a real wicket taker, however he has conceded just 254 runs from 409 balls in ODIs and carries an average of 63.50 to boot. For those who like to pack their team with a few stars and then look for cheaper players to make up the deficit, Sandip has to be a real consideration.

Charles Sacristani

Team: ZIM
Despite his wage of $10,224 being over the $10k average per player, it’s too hard to go past picking Sacristani after looking at the Zimbabwean pitch draw. It’s almost impossible to ignore the two sticky and one crumbling pitch that Sacristani will no doubt get a chance to weave his magic on somewhere along the line. 94 wickets in 41 ODIs, ignore him at your peril.

Those are my basic feelings on WC Fantasy squad selection, remember I have just as much power to predict the future as you do and a lot of this is guesswork, so any information you take into account, you do so at your own risk.

Best of luck with selecting your teams, and enjoy the tournament.

Group 1

England 1 131.35
Zimbabwe 6 112.18
Sri Lanka 7 110.45
Bermuda 12 88.27
UAE 13 88.14
USA 18 70.79

England, Zimbabwe & Bermuda , so half the group has remained the same from the last World Cup. The three new teams, Sri Lanka has replaced South Africa, UAE - Ireland & USA for Kenya.  You would expect England & Sri Lanka to be favourites to qualify and for Zimbabwe to fight for the 3rd spot qualification. That would be what most would expect, but we all know what happened in the last World Cup - England at once stage were struggling to qualify (thanks to Kenya mostly!). The fight amongst the minor nations will be interesting, but the ones to pull of an upset against the major nation would be most likely to qualify from the group and create havoc amongst the major nations. ITs only 5 matches fellas!

Players: There are some superstars in this Group that on their day can win the game single handedly. Turnham from England was sensational in the last World Cup, but England have superstars left, right & centre.  Nuwan Tasleem easily the best all-rounder in the game, has been in great form for Sri Lanka of recent. Of course from UAE - Hamdan, Khaleel & Musa a trio they will be relying to help them qualify. Then you have the leading wicketaker in ODIs - Charles Sacristani from Zimbabwe. Bermuda has  Chiswicket and USA..well I dont know much about them - sorry.

Group 2

New Zealand 2 128.86
Pakistan 5 112.71
Netherlands 8 110.24
Bangladesh 11 91.19
Ireland 14 85.71
Canada 17 78.98

Just 2 new teams in this group, Ireland & Canada. Last time Pakistan cruised to the quarters and New Zealand were 2nd. I dont think the same thing will happen.  Although there are only 3 major nations compared to the last World Cup (Sri Lanka was in this group), so that it makes supposedly easier. Though the Netherlands are higher ranked than 3 major nations an impressive feat. Bangladesh has been struggling and I know we have to see the best of them, so I believe they the stuff to qualify to the next stage. Ireland & Canada also have an oppurinity, with an underperforming Bangladesh side and another minor nation in Netherlands, just matter of creating an upset against New Zealand or Pakistan.

Players: Well New Zealand, I think we will see the return of Guthrie, but like England they have a team of superstars really. Watch out for Lill, probably the most economical bowler in the game. Pakistan have an allrounder in the making called Paindoo (I think), maybe its him time to shine. Bangladesh have some great spinners and its only their batting that has disappointed them really. Ireland watch for the quick Kidd-Gunn, who will not doubt have an impact in this World Cup. Unfortunately dont know much about the rest.

Group 3

Australia 3 119.98
India 4 118.00
South Africa 9 104.49
West Indies 10 103.25
Scotland 15 85.64
Kenya 16 81.02

The last group is without doubt the Group of Death. 4 Major nations, a vastly improve minor nation in Kenya and Scotland who are capable of creating upsets. The changes from last World Cup Group is that South Africa & Kenya have come in.  Australia will be favourites, India have not been performing well, the West Indies are in form as are the Kenyan and only Scotland is struggling at the moment. So this group is going to be one dirty fight for qualification into the next round. Of course it could also turn out to be the most boring group of all - who knows?

Players: Well Australia is no different from England or New Zealand. Rohit Sharma has hit fair few runs recently for India and I think he will be a threat to the other nations. India have solid lineup to boast and are right up there with Australia! South Africa have sound bowling attack and like Bangladesh its their batting that has let them down. Saying that they have always performed well (the batsmen) in the World Cup.  For the West Indies, question is will Thambi be selected? Not that it will matter match, as they some class finger spinners.  Kenya were quite destructive with their bowling this season and have very well balanced lineup. Ongola is their leading wickettaker, but Menza is hot form at the moment. Finally, unfortunately I dont know much about Scotland.

This World Cup will be different, we have a few veteran NT Managers who are in their 2nd World Cup - including the previous WC winner Cleanprophet managing England again. No doubt that experience will be advantageous, but the other managers, some have experience at the U19 level and for others have been playing FTP since its beginning.  In that way we might see some interesting tactics, something to look out for.

Deltron is of course running the Fantasy Comp again - so start doing your research now (dont bother the NT Managers, they will be busy I can assure you of that!).

The teams have met on fourteen occasions, with Jakstaz picking up 9 wins (64.29%) and Rish XI winning a mere 5 wins (35.71%). In there club tangles, they have played 2 Twent20’s, 2 YOD’s and 10 SOD’s. Jakstaz have had a 100% record in YOD despite a 50% record in Twenty20’s.

The teams have always been friendly rivals as both managers attend the same school. This makes bragging rights good, very good. Jakowako66 enjoys the rivalry a lot as he says it’s “Warm-hearted banter”.

But last Sunday (29 Novermber 2009) was the first match the two clubs have played each other since 09 Aug 2009. Due to this delay, there had been a lot of build up to the match. I know send you over to our Match Reporter:

Hi there folks! Tooday we saw Jakstaz .Vs. Rish XI commence.  They was at M.Jordan’s Palace, with a Uneven track, with the bright sunshine blaring down on them. Rajindra Thomas won the toss for the Jakstaz and elected to bowl first, seeming to try and take advantage of the bowler friendly conditions.

Upul Senadeera was opening the bowling for the Jaksstaz (RF). The first over was a good one, starting off with a maiden. Arthur Spalding was his opening partner (LFM) and he gave away 6 runs off the first over.

Things were going well for Rish XI until over 7.5. They found themselves a wicket down, Arthur Spalding with the brake through, bowling number 1 batsmen S.Locastro. 3 Overs laster Rish XI lost thier 2nd wicket, Chris Taaffe, bowling a bouncer and making the batsmen edge it down leg for a stunning catch by Keeper Haywood.

Two more wickets fell in consecutive overs, leaving Rish XI 46-4 after 12 and a half overs. Rish XI battled on but lost yet another wicket in the 18th over. Rish XI had found themselves at 73-5, with opener  Mujtaba still fighting on.

Things were looking bad for Rish XI until the opener and Veletta put on an impressive 171 run partnership, taking the advantage back a bit. Mujtaba finally got out with an impressive 119 (142) who truly saved Rish XI’s innings. A back up innings of Veletta did wonders too with an unbeaten 86 (102)

This put up a target of 248 for the Jakstaz to chase down at a RRR of 4.97.

Malkiat Kandula and Herbert Haywood opened the innings for the Jakstaz and got them off to a flyer. After 5 overs they were 26 for 0, before Haywood was sent back to the pavilion.

Then Jakstaz gun player, Michael Jordan, (At the feeble age of 19) came in. He’s Jakstaz only NAT player and has a bright future at Jakstaz. Kandula soon left him a couple of overs later with O’shea departing the following over. Jakstaz were 46-3 before the biggest partnership of the innings unfolded. It was still only worth a mere 50 runs but at one point, threatened to cause an upset for the visitors.

As Barrat had to depart for 24, things looked bleak for Jakstaz. Especially when Michael Jordan left the crease, leaving with the top score of the innings with 34 (54). Wickets crumbled from there onwards with a tail-ender managing a unbeaten 23.

Jakstaz eventually got bowled out for 147 after 37.4 overs, with Rish XI winning comfortably by 101 runs.

Tony : Yes I am and Welcome to the Peregrine Plane, home of the HG/Origin Peregrines. They have just completed a great 6 wicket win over Takutimu and we have with us the Captain of the home team, Chimwala Wiltshire. Chimwala, you must be happy with the win after being 4-27, were you a little nervous at that point?

Chimwala: Obviously, yes. This season the boys have been very good at setting a target, but they haven’t chased as often. The Cooper lad bowled incredibly at the start and maybe our top order just underestimated him and were surprised. We have a reasonably good tail though and I was confident about Alick, he always performs in moments like this. Partnered up with Hilton we always had a chance and they finished it off brilliantly.

Tony: Your bowlers did a really good job out there today, they all contributed, even Alexander who didn’t take a wicket but he kept it tight and probably contributed to wickets falling at the other end.

Chimwala: There wasn’t a lot in the pitch and with Bruce playing a defensive anchoring innings we quickly changed plans. I told the spin twins to keep the bats where they were, because I knew Kieron and Adrian can bowl it so that it’s impossible to score quick runs without getting out. In the over 20-30 it’s vital not to fall into a deadlock which is what Takutimu did. Later on they had to suddenly accelerate and Clive profited from that.

Tony: Velvet Morning next week in round 6, they have done a good job to get this far, they had a fantastic win over JAGNZ warriors earlier today. Their seamers bowled exceptionally well but won’t get the same assistance from the pitch as they got in New Zealand. A drier pitch here means they will have to work harder. Are you confident going in to next week?

Chimwala: At the start of the season we had a team meeting and we decided we have the class to beat any team on any pitch. Therefore we don’t really mind the home advantage at this point, although it does allow us to spread the bowlers a bit, with the league match on Friday. Velvet Morning look a strong team and they have shown it by defeating Greenfielders and JAGNZ, but we are confident we should beat them if we’re sharp.

Tony: Any changes you think the selectors might make to the side? Your opener Gilbert looks like he is struggling a bit at the moment, not moving his feet as well as he was a couple of months ago when he made that batting down the list a couple of months ago.

Chimwala: We’ll probably change a few things. We miss a second convincing opener so Fernix (Stapleton-Cotton) might get the nod and Fish will probably play next week. Depending on the team that plays on Friday, in a big match v Ashburn, we’ll have to decide who won’t play on Sunday. The bats will all play at least one match, but who plays when, that’s up to the coach. Bowling wise I’m pretty sure Donovan will play, as well as the spinners. Again, that’s up to the coach, but I feel I might play the SOD match and hand over the captaincy to Rodwell or Hilton for the PC match.

Tony: And lastly I know the club are playing it down a bit but the lack of success in the Pavilion Cup to date, is that playing on the boys’ minds. You have had a couple of shock defeats going in as favourite. Do you think going in as the 9th seed has taken the pressure of a bit and let the boys play their natural game more?

Chimwala: I don’t think it’s about being top seed, but more a bit of underestimation and wanting too much. This season, we are having more and longer tactical debates, a more balanced team and because it is clear that we will be going all out for the cup this season, we have been sharp from the start. Previously, we would try to play our best team in SOD and in the PC, but it backfired a few times, hence we have decided we won’t mind finishing a bit lower in the leagues this season. Our selection has been improved with the likes of Cudjoe and Rodwell and youngsters like Warner and Hone are overperforming to enable others to be rested. If we focus on the cup, we should get very far, but we will have to focus on it with the entire selection, not just the XI that are playing that week.

Tony: Thanks Chimwala and back to you Richie.

Thanks Tony some interesting comments from Chimwala Wiltshire, very interesting indeed. A quick look at some of the other results and we see the last unseeded team, Black Fire going down to flameing moles. They were spun out for 91 and left lamenting what might have been. They have had a fantastic run in the cup this season but it had to come to an end eventually.

A couple of big results from across the Tasman and the 11th Seed CPS Vandals have been beaten by Wild Tangent. Reagers, The 18th seed has also fallen, they lost to Whitsunday Drunk Rock XI in somewhat of an upset at Meadow Park. Whitsundays led by Kade Cawse’s 85 not out got home with more then 5 overs to spare.

One time runner-up Spitting Furballs also came up short today against Kerikeri 1st XI. A fantastic 71 not out in difficult conditions by Kerikeri captain, Samuel Bizzell got his team home by 5 wickets. But the big story of the round is the loss by Scaly Piscine CC. The 377th seed, Karachi Stallions proved too strong for the 8th seed and it didn’t go down well. Manager Scaly was last seen climbing into his car after the game mumbling something about there being more skill in Ludo.

The closest battle for the round almost didn’t happen with the Highlanders landing at the wrong ground for their clash with Jaffna Jets. They eventually made it to Falkirk in time for the game and struggled on a good pitch to make 255. It never looked enough and when Jaffna reached 4-204 in the 37th, it all looked over. 4 relatively quick wickets and suddenly it was 26 required form 39 with only two wickets left. A partnership of 23 almost got Jaffna home but a late wicket just added a little more spice to the game before Jaffna’s last wicket pair got their team home.

The matches appear to be getting tighter as the better sides start to play each other and with only 64 teams left to go into Round 6, 41 of those in the top 100 seeds. The lowest seed Warwickshire, at 451. I will be cheering for him though he does have the Delhi DareWhackers.
Thanks for dropping by once and hope to see you all again next week.

The managers:

Heffner: Also known as the ayatollah he is one of those enterprising individuals who can turn dust to gold with their touch. Hailing from the quaint NZ mountain town of thiwegutfiusdgfvildgvlidfgvliuvgidagvidavgwweffsdgdf (which translates as “this is the name of a town, no  $^$^$#g story behind this and no!!!! there is no reference to any part of the human anatomy in this name”) this latter day Midas surprisingly started his professional career as a heavy weight wrestler.  Bald and ursine, in a previous job in his youth he had to wear a bear costume to entertain the children at the local mall but had been dismissed after he took his role a little “too seriously” with a couple of kids he later described as
those fu …. (ah well that is from his unauthorized memoirs so highly unreliable) and according to his authorized autobiography “slighlty spoilt” (please find attached a special savings coupon to buy this enlightening masterpiece for half the price and also get 3 months free subscription of the Muffner magazine) .  Fortunately during this little episode he was spotted by a scout of the local wrestling league and impressed by his skills : “i heard women screaming and turned around to see this big bear executing a perfect clothesline despite the short height of his opponent” he offered him a contract. Barely contained by his new costume, this bulging giant grew a beard, learnt a few words of arabic and made his grand
debut as “the ayatollah”. Highly talented, unfortunately, he entered the industry at a time when wrestling for guys with his appearance comprise of : howling twice, once at the start at the kids (and he really enjoyed this) and once in pain at the end, uttering a few unintelligible curses at the audience and then picking up the fatter of the two checks after the game. During a career spanning two decades he rarely won anything of note but amassed a sizable fortune. This he later utilized to launch a magazine in partnership with his best friend Muff (another extremely  interesting character, this allegedly hirsute recluse is famous for his adamant refusal to be seen in public and many a papparazi have lost their minds in the quest for a single shot ….. but i digress) . Known for its high standards of journalism and … well hmmm…..unmatched photography the Muffner magazine swiftly became an unprecedented success story and granted heffner a status seldom attained by a publisher. When the famous Australian billionaire and former media mogul Sir Ash Packer decided to take a break from his new found interest in sheeps - i.e sheep farming (all those other lurid stories are false or at least unsubstantiated) - and launch his own cricket league Heffner acquired a franchise and the rest is history.

Hasraz: as singularly uninteresting and undistinguished as his opponent is colorful this guy has been one of the most amazing success stories in the game. starting as a lowly sight screen operator he soon made his way up the ladder through his sheer determination and intelligence. Presently, besides managing his club he is also the brains behind the new T20 FTP leagues. Bespectacled and scholarly,and intensely moodi (sic: as described by his players) at times he looks like a lowly office clerk but has some of the most amazing ideas stored below his shock of thinning black hair: he has been credited with ingenious innovations like blue balls,dancing umpires and the abandonment of uniforms in favor of unique costumes for every player. I caught up with him at one of the league matches:”This last one alone has increased FTP revenues by 50%, did you see how fast mcshane bowled in that new full body swimming costume… and still have to ask currie about that tuxedo” but when i made a suggestion about some limits to this rule and mentioned the kaden musa incident,he replied with a smile “well ahem… we all know Roy has problems… for some reason he had a feeling of dejavu and thought he was back at the GABBA. kaden is recovering well
and should be back in a week, in time for this week’s costume auction. But while we are on the subject that was some loincloth that roy was wearing. I think we will do the jungle theme again in one of the semifinals”. And then before i could ask him another question his gleaming new mobile phone rang and he  walked off talking animatedly, all i could hear was:
ye…. shilp…… shahru…..riders…. yeah we will make the game more enjoyable….
akhter… balls……..hahahaha…..

The teams:

The teams are both known for their cricketing prowess in their respective countries, Ayatollah are the season 7 NZ SOD champs and twice runnersup in the PC while hasraz have won the Pakistan SOD title thrice in five seasons. Both teams have some explosive players who can singlehandedly win any match on their day.

Players to watch:

Peter Hosking: this giant of a man is a friend of the ayatollah’s from his wrestling days. a devastating batsman and a hulking presence behind the stumps he divides opinions as equally as his immaculately center parted hair. some like his legendary compatriot darren guthrie bristle at the slighest mention of the guy with the most fiery moustache in the game. “that @#$%#$% %^*&*%$%, he is no cricketer, he …”
according to informed sources this animosity dates back to the day when the ravens won the SOD title and a euphoric and intoxicated guthrie caught up with the king and tried to do what he had earlier attempted with william whitney (some sources claim he  committed the sacrilege of tugging the king’s facial hair) unfortunately for  this “reknowned reverse swinging” speedster this time he had the wrong target in mind and by the time his inebriated teammates realized that his screams werent celebratory in nature the king had ensured that  he missed at least half of next season. A press release by the ravens claimed that he had
slipped and fell on the wet dressing room floor. Another FTP legend, the octogenarian spinner Bo thambi starts (or at least whatever stands for starting at his age) whenever hosking’s name is mentioned. apparently an encounter with the former left him as bent as a bo. A visibly beaming Hosking later remarked” theyre right when they say there is little difference between kids and old people” A few like his best friend john booth cant stop (literally) singing his praises…. “pe..t..e…. is… my b..est friend”, when asked about hosking’s aggression he replied ” pe…te is…my…..b…est fr…iend”  this reporter decided not to
be too inquisitive and took his word for it after further inquiries were met with equally diplomatic replies(i had a bus to catch, dont see how the moron takes all those wickets, jack make sure this doesnt get into the final print like last time when you forgot to replace the e with an a in sir packer’s surname)

Christian Cage: The highest run getter this season and the highest paid player in his club he claims to be the lost brother of a famous thespian from hollywood and has solidifed this claim with his perofrmances from last season where he might as well have played the matches from his home. There are claims that heffner and hosking later had a meeting with him where they asked him to give up his fascination with finding hidden patterns in his scores (his scores read 0,0,0,0,0,0)  from the season or they will take the same numbers off from the right side of his paycheck.Since then he has performed remarkably well and has also refrained from his previous bizzare antics like looking for secret passageways in the palace
of wisdom and tearing down heffners desk for some ancient map.

Mohammad Jamil: This portly father of six is a retired policeman who took up cricket at the unlikely age of 32. Assigned as security for the visiting Kiwi team, he was asked to bowl a few balls at the batsmen of the two teams after the bowlers collectively went on strike against the recent rule of bowling speed limits of 60kph to make the game “more interesting for spectators”. Jamil impressed all and sundry with his impressive bowling after he dismissed 6 promising Pakistani opening batsmen, 6 former captains and the entire kiwi top order with his lethal 54 kph swingers. He was immediately drafted into the pakistani team but finding the income insufficient to support the modest lifestyle he maintained during his earlier
career he signed up with FTP and has become one of the most successful bowlers in the game.

The Ground:

Palace of Wisdom
Located in the back of Heffner’s mansion adjoining the swimming pool (which heffner has benevolently made available to all his Muffner staff and his guests), the palace can seat over 16000 people. It is expected that Heffner will use the home advantage and go with an uneven pitch to assist his seamers. When asked about the pitch, rival captain anjum mohammad said “It will not be easy for us, the weather is expected to be hot and humid so we will have to keep an eye on those swimmers (his english is not very good so we assume he meant seamers) but we have watched a lot of their videos and read about them in magazines (cricinfo, he later elaborated) so we have them all figured out”
Prediction:
The Ayatollah with the home advantage should be a tough nut to crack for the visitors. An uneven pitch coupled with his battery of experienced seamers in front of the fiercely partysan crowds that inhabit the palace should be enough to unnerve the visitors.

Achieving such task takes time. How on earth do you build towards such expensive constant investment from the beginning? Personally, it takes 5-6 seasons of fun prize-money distribution, rising through the divisions, and playing the game right. This article separates itself to two sections

a) Loose, rough guide to get double-deluxe
b) What’s it like?

How it starts

From the beginning, I never had the aim to feast my eyes on deluxe but only to go up and up if possible. I won my easy games at division 5, went on an express promotion train ride to Div 1.1 T20 Aus. Div 1 SOD Aus took 3 seasons longer however. Promoting means more experience for your players, however small the gain, it’ll eventually add up. Valuable players on the transfer market either have a good blessing of experience, or the potential to have it. Other includes talents.  With a better academy, your training times increase (small but when accumulated, you’ll see the difference), and with better experience this makes it even better.

Few steps to get double-deluxe:

- Don’t sell your performing players as you promote
- Distribute your prize-money evenly for your weekly investments
- Distribute additional amounts to a value that you can sustain without bankrupting yourself
- Get some luck from your youth pulls along the way, sell the fringe players you get, sell whatever players you deem unfit for your club
- Get some bonus gate receipts off Pav Cup

Selling a player for $1m means you can distribute an additional $63,000 per week for a whole season. When you’re in a country like England or Australia, that means around 2.8x the average alone. Prizemoney amount to 300-600k usually, so that adds another $20,000++. Just because you’re selling good players, doesn’t mean it’s detrimental to the future of your club. Out of perhaps 60 pulls in 4 seasons, you’re likely to keep around 20% of them, thats 12 players. Maybe 2 to 5 will be in ur first team, and the rest in your 2nd XI. They’re assets by themselves that could be sold for much given they have a good price tag in them (helped by the added Exp if you’re in a high div and/or progress further in the Pav Cup)

What is it like to have double-deluxe?

Yes there’s bragging rights, however let’s all be humble pies in this game shall we? There are several ways to play FTP and this is just one of them. Although I have double-deluxe, I’m not a top FTP gun and even if I were, we ought to celebrate our achievements something not on the virtual world

I did not realise this, but having double-deluxe academy means your players train faster than 99% of all managers in FTP. This has actually costed me a fair bit, added with my lack of researching training times or checking them, I did not realize that of the many players I’ve had in my youth academy, 90% of them had the potential to out-skill my current older first XI. And yet only 30% probably are getting the games and experience right. The rest are either 2-4 levels of experience behind. Whether it was very costly or just costly, I’m not sure, because I wouldn’t know if I could’ve promoted to top tier Aus.

Double-deluxe, if you haven’t realised already, comes with a price. My expenses are:

As you can see my main income comes from selling players. Many of these sales have not stopped me from winning games, and I’ve had the potential to play my younger players (players that have enjoyed a higher-level of academy more than my older players) so that they have more experience (their skills out-potentialize my older ones by 2-3 seasons).  My #1 rule, and a rule that I know many managers keep (otherwise the market would be filled with awesome players) is to never sell performing players, they are almost simply priceless. As long as you have 11 performing players every week, theoretically you won’t need your other players, so go sell them, make money, splash it on your investments, go rich and be like me.

~ Triplelite (Wild Tangent)

But i put to you the reason for the lack of good quality youths is not to do with their training programmes or the experience recieved from the youth matches its simply a lack in faith by managers and managers not prepared to take a gamble and put the better youths in their first X1.

The easiest way to develop a good level of youth players is to be daring and put those few you think are special in the big matches. If you can successfully incorparate one or two youths into your team on a regular basis then the rewards will be well worth the risks.

Opposing parties will say that teams can’t afford to take this risk and at best the players will only be as good as the current set of 1st X1, but even if that is true then have more players of high quality can only benifit your team. If you have 16 players of simalar abilities in your seniour squad now then you can keep those 16 and if 4-5 youth team players come up to that level the lesser players in the group can be sold off allowing you to purchase2-3 better quality players and the cycle continues until a few seasons later your team level is 2 or more levels higher meaning promotion or cup victories are easily in grasp.

And even if they don’t go on to be big stars in your team or big money transfers the higher quality of youths will push your youth skill level up and as just you will challenge for more trophies and then can attract better standard youths so the cycle once again begins.

These are the players who go into the U19 world cup (which runs every 2 seasons) as 19 year olds as opposed to 18 year olds. As you might expect, to play in the world cup as an 18 year old, a youth must be exceptionally talented, as opposed to being 19 where they must merely be good. A year’s extra training makes a heck of a difference, and being 19 in a WC year makes them much more likely to play in the WC. Where a player plays in the U19 WC they get a fair amount of extra experience, and gives their manager some added interest in watching how they do at national level.

However what, you ask, is the platinum generation. Well, it’s a new phrase I’ve just coined. You see, as the article title suggests, there have been a few changes to FTP; in particular to the youth setup and the manner experience is gained by youth players.

For the last 7 seasons, youth players gained palpably little experience in youth games. In order to gain a reasonable amount of experience, YP’s needed to play in senior games, which was hard for them to do, owing to their lower skills and much lower experience when compared to senior players.

Experience in FTP is a very valuable asset, and allows a player to punch well above his weight in terms of bang for buck; i.e. in game translation of skill into results.

Recently then there have been changes. Depending on your take on events, FTP Ash has either bowed to the clamour of players who wanted a smoother transition of players from youths to seniors, or else corrected a glaring weakness whereby youths were getting virtually no experience for playing lots of games. Either way, youths now gain more experience for youth games. Instead of graduating with dreadful or poor experience, YP’s are now predicted to be graduating with ordinary or average experience once they reach 20, without having to play many senior games.

These youths then are going to be better than those graduating before them. They will have significantly higher experience, which leads as previously stated, to better in game results.

In addition, the present generation of youths are tending to be better trained than their forefathers. FTP managers know how and when to train various skills nowadays, and those who still inhabit YP land – unlike many if not most of FTP – have better youth academies in which to train these players. So their actual skills will be higher, through better training, as well as having higher experience.

Not to mention that youth trainers at the present day tend to be looking for higher skills to begin with – many youths trained in the past would like as not be sacked by a youth trainer today. As an example, I sacked an average batting 16 year old this week; his other skills were mediocre and he had no in game talents. I can buy better youths on the market, and make more money from training them. However in the past I trained a poor skilled player – so that in itself is a skill inflation of at least 2 levels.

Point being then – this is the ‘platinum’ generation. Higher skilled to begin with, better trained, and with higher experience factored into their youth training. This generation is going to dwarf previous generations. While current NT players primary levels are around outstanding, these guys will hit that same level aged 20/21 and will in due course well and truly surpass current NT players’ skill levels. They will also have higher experience in due course, as a result of having 2 extra levels from additional experience at youth level.

We’ve come a long way in this article already. But as in my previous article, from here on in I intend to move a little further; from factual analysis to a little intelligent conjecture. What will the lasting results be from these changes?

The first and most clear happenstance is that present NT players are going to be less powerful. They will be marginalised by the youngsters moving up the ranks. It may not happen for 3-4 seasons yet, but it is definitely going to happen in my view. There will be a changing of the guard up at the top of FTP, as old players are replaced not simply due to age, but because they can’t compete with this fresh and powerful generation coming through.

Secondly, the new generation is going to be the very strongest in FTP for a long long time. They will be the first who have been trained properly and to very high skills, and will have those extra levels of experience. They will then also be the first to gain extra experience and skill in the form of training and games in seniors.

Let us call current 18-27 year old players generation X, and players from the present 14-17 age group generation Y, and players after that (present age under 13 but who will be around in season 12+) generation Z. Generation X will be surpassed by generation Y. However generation Z will never catch up with generation Y unless further changes are made, due to generation Y being the first to have extra experience, and being more likely to gain senior cricket quicker, and retain first team experience. So generation Y is truly the platinum generation, and will take FTP by storm over the next few years.

Thirdly, it is expected that those managers from lower levels may well move up the tree. Current top teams with their generation X NT players, will be clinging to their positions on the basis of old players with larger experience but weaker skills than generation Y players, until those players drop off the end of the conveyor belt. But top teams will be unlikely to be able to bed in generation Y players; they need the extra experience of generation X, and the added skills their greater age provides at the present time. So the teams best placed to take advantage of generation Y will be those in the middle, who can play these players from the platinum generation as soon as they make senior level, in their senior teams. They can then ride the levels on the back of these players. Current top level teams had better either save their pennies to tempt the mid ranking teams to part with these generation Y stars, work out their own strategy for blooding their own generation Y, or else get ready to cede their crowns.

Hope you all enjoy this article, and your thoughts upon its contents are appreciated.

Kind regards, and happy FTP’ing, YorkshirePudding.

I settled in front of the radio back in the office looking over the ground, I spy some horses over at neighbouring Krackerfield going through their paces, I wonder if they have any tips for me this week. The commentator reports that Eastview (46th seed) are in big trouble against Jays. After trotting to 1-81 after 17 overs, they lose 5-39 in the next 14 and despite a late fight back by Wundenburg and Hughes can only muster 207. That was never going to be enough on a hard pitch; the Jays open with a century partnership and chase it down without raising a sweat, a good effort on a hot day.

Then in what turned out to be the start of a bad day for those in GREEN as the man himself, the manager of Relegation Material suffered the ignominy of a major upset as oz fan xi overcame a large ratings gap to force their way into round 5. In a performance reminiscent of the great leg spinner’s effort in the Semi final of the 1999 world Cup, young Darryle Windsor bowled his heart out to snatch 4-31 as Relegation Material failed to chase 209. oz fan xi can be thankful to their captain and wickie Graham Davison who deserved a century but fell for 99 on the penultimate delivery caught off the hook down at fine leg, without him they would have required an even greater effort in the field. The Outside Guys,  Ricky Town (who got beaten to a pulp) and Tales of the Unknown all join their illustrious leader amongst us also-rans.

I poured another Jack Daniels, I was tempted to open a bottle of Johnny Walker Black but realised that was missing for some reason.  The latest report coming through on the radio from Bangladesh finds Kwicket (20th seed) in real trouble at 6-114 chasing 160 on an unusually green wicket in that part of the world. The 58th seed South Wiggy CC was also struggling in that part of the world and needed 130 odd in 15 overs with only 3 wickets in hand. Kwicket loses 7 and 8 in a hurry and that game is all but over.

Night falls and the sprinklers come on; I make the call to Roland Reefer, the heads groundsman, to suggest they probably aren’t required after the showers that we had during the day. Seeds are falling quick and fast with both Kwicket’s and South Wiggy’s innings coming to an end ( I wonder if there is a North Wiggy). Wheelbarrow (23rd seed) and De Kroegtijgers (71st seed) are both struggling and look like joining the long list of top 100 seeds failing at hurdle number 4.
Many others appear to be struggling as I finish some paperwork as I like to do listening to the scores over the weekend.

I check my list of seeds and it is much smaller this week with so many dropping out, 16 of the top 100 GONE, and a further 37 of the top 200 GONE. Only 98 of the top 200 left after only 4 weeks. Many sides taking it a bit more seriously this week but still feeling the wrath of the FTP gods for mocking them in earlier rounds. The JD inspired haze tells me its time to retire for the evening and I take one last look for that bottle of Johnny Walker Black, giving it up for a lost cause as I switch off the lights and walk to the front gate and my waiting taxi.

I wonder what surprises Round 5 will bring us?

It wasn’t long and we had our first genuine upset with the 38^th seed Wagga United stunned by the 653^rd team in the world despite a generous ratings advantage. Now the experienced among us know that ratings don’t mean all that they appear and on any given day you can lose the un-losable, even Bangladesh can beat Australia. Anyway back to the game and dynamic century by Bill ‘Bull’ Richardson on a sticky that inexplicably couldn’t get a vote in the man of the match award, he was the only one who could handle Roberts (6/35) and Jacko’s struggled through to 184. Their bowling then took care of the much vaunted Wagga United batting line up to complete a 54 run win.

After this genuine shock most of the games appeared to go according to seedings even though one former Greenie was given a shock by a former heavyweight team that is now left to fatigue for most of the season, he scrapped home just and lives to fight on. Suddenly all hell broke loose and the ‘cupsets’ came thick and fast. Seed 80 fell, 150 followed closely behind after falling for 207 on a flat. Then one time top ten side Wowsers was absolutely shocked by Alan Heath, a rare left arm wristy who took 6-4 off 7.3 overs and fell for just 83. He certainly didn’t play his best side as so many that lost their chance at this season’s cup but I bet he was hoping for better then this.

Seeds were dropping like flies; 152, 154, 106, 119 all falling; the latter came up against another former Greenie though he wasn’t former on Sunday. Hardly an upset with the ratings so close but Abdul Qadir turned back the clock to the 80’s and the days of big hair and parachute pants, and his 4-28 set them up for the win. I wonder what it was like bowling in parachute pants (ice ice baby and u can’t touch this blaring on the car tape decks in the crowd, CDs weren’t even invented yet). Am I one of the few who remembers the hoopla of the so-called indestructible discs?

Sorry I digressed into nostalgia with the sight of Qadir whipping his arm over again.

Into the night and a cool breeze picked up as it does so often out this way but the heat was still on for many seeds. Most of the seed struggling with their seconds against teams that were just going for it. 6 of the top 50 and 10 of the top 100 fell today, only 82 of the top 100 are left fighting on. After a few diversions, 6 year old daddy’s girls can be very demanding of their said daddy’s time, I scrolled through the Team progress pages and found so many teams in the high 500s and 600 range that had become bots. And unlike my second round opponent hadn’t been replaced yet, surprisingly many of them making Round 2 before being knocked out.

Then I came across the lowest ranked player left Lucky Losers (1097) before it became apparent that something is wrong with the seedings or something is wrong with the ranking graphs for some teams. On further inspection, i.e. looking at my graph I realise there is 4 months missing and it goes from mid June to the current ranking in one hit. So panic was averted and missiles recalled.

Reading the forums this week and I see more and more teams as the games get harder stating that they will tank, and there aren’t even priority picks to make it worthwhile. One current GM and one former one have both stated recently that no-one should throw a match because they think they can’t win. And if you need proof read a few paragraphs up the page and previous articles as well. Underdogs can win and do. If you want to save your best players for your leagues like many have already then absolutely but throwing it because you think you can’t win is just plain crazy.

Choda’s Champions and I both made it to Round 5 a couple of seasons ago beating 4 teams that were better then us and Damage Inc made it to Round 6 last season doing the same. Don’t give up, play your best side, do what you do best, cross your fingers and hope the FTP Gods are smiling on you that day.

So good Luck to all that are left, may the FTP Gods smile on you on Sunday.