[A 1] Introduction
Ultra Cricket is a computer based sports simulation of both Test and One Day International (ODI) Cricket. I hope the game encourages more interest in the sport of Cricket around the world as well as allowing cricket fanatics a chance to make decisions about how Cricket should be played by "their" team rather than just have them complain about the administration of their local or national side.
[A 1.1] Requirements to Play
Ultra Cricket is a play by e-mail game. As such, players are expected to have regular and easy access to the Internet. An account with only email is all that is required. However, access to the World Wide Web is advantageous in accessing more information in a more attractive format. At the moment Ultra Cricket is free to play but some features are only available to club members.
[A 1.2] What is "Play by e-mail?"
Play by email games gave been around for years-especially amongst the Chess playing fraternity. The idea is simple, you want to play someone else in a challenging game but can't find the time (or even the opponent) to organise it properly. So you send your "instructions" by mail to a third party who referees everything and mails you back the result of the instructions. This means you get to play against many other real people rather than against a computer program, the logic of which you can often work out.
Thus Ultra Cricket is not a game you can "download" and play by yourself on your home PC. It is a "strategy" or "management" game that you play over an extended time against other people all around the world. You may even develop friendships with your fellow players over time.
[A 1.3] What is "Cricket?"
Cricket originated in England as a simple bat and ball game in the Middle Ages. By the mid-sixteenth century it was known as "cricket", and by 1700 it was played to a set of recognised rules. Cricket spread to the former British colonies, and by the middle of the nineteenth century it was played in Australia, Southern Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand and the Indian sub-continent. Cricket is a ball game played between two team of eleven players. It is played on a large grass oval with a central "pitch" being an area with less grass which is hardened by rolling a heavy weight up and down on it. At each end of this pitch are three pieces of wood placed vertically in the ground called the wicket. This is a total of 70 cm high and 22 cm wide. A simplistic way of describing the game is to say that the batting side try to protect these wickets with a bat whilst the bowling side try to hit this target with a ball which is quite similar in size to a tennis ball but heavier (much like a baseball).
The rules of cricket are complex and numerous and beyond the scope of this document - you'll be glad to know you don't need to know many of them to play Ultra Cricket. If you do want to learn more about the rules and have access to the WWW have a look at CricInfo's information about the game.
[A 1.3.1] What is the difference between a Test Match and a One Day International?
When Cricket originally developed I am sure it was all over in an afternoon, but soon the games started to stretch out over a few days as people became better at the game and the rules evolved. Getting someone out in Cricket is an order of magnitude harder than, say, doing the same in Baseball. In order to complete an innings you have to get ten players out. So you can see that an innings could potentially last a long time - and being an English game it is played at quite a sedate pace. Thankfully each team only has two innings (otherwise games could last for months). Anyway, the upshot of this is that the standard Cricket game played at International level (which is what is simulated here) is a two innings each affair with a generous time limit of five 6-hour days. This time limit is used to make sure games do end! It does however bring about the unusual result of a "draw" in Cricket-which is similar to "stalemate" in chess. Neither team wins, even though one team may be holding the upper hand. It is possible to "tie" a Test Match which is more closely akin to a "draw" in most other sports. It should not come as a surprise then that in this modern day and age people found a game that lasts for five days with no result rather frustrating. Hence the One Day game (or, more accurately, "Limited overs") was invented. This game involves both teams only having one innings each and each being allowed a maximum number of balls each to score from - the team scoring the most (regardless of the number of players dismissed) wins the game-no draws here thankfully!
[A 1.4] Who runs this game?
The person who administers this game will be referred to below as the "Commissioner". At the moment the game is run in the Commisioner's spare time before and after work and at lunch-times.
Each conference also has a Sub-Commissioner that offers their time on a voluntary basis.
[A 2] So what do I do?
You can picture yourself as Manager / Selector / Coach / Administration of a Cricket Team. You get to decide on training policies, match day tactics, team selection and squad development. "But what Team?" you ask. That is completely up to you.
There are a number of ways of joining Ultra Cricket. The most common and most satisfying is to start your own team. This can be done in a number of ways: you can design your own team following some specific rules (these are set out in another document); or you can choose from a pool of pre-designed teams for which all you have to do is choose the players' names. You can always take a pre-designed team and alter it to better suit your tastes (as long as you abide by the rules for creating a new team).
Another option which can get you into a league much quicker is to take over a team who's manager has ceased playing (for any number of reasons). The problem with this is that you will have to run a team with all the flaws and mistakes resulting from its previous management-and there is no magic wand for fixing long running errors!
If you want to find out more about setting up a new team see section [C 1].
[A 2.1] Introducing the Squad
Once you have designed your squad and sent it to the Commisioner, he will send you what is called a "Formguide." This lists all your players and their attributes and it is not surprising that for a game with many complex rules, the players are quite complex also. You will have given your squad a name - this can be anything within the bounds of good taste. Once a squad is settled on I will assign an abbreviation for you. This will be a two or three letter word (in upper case) which I will use to identify your squad in subsequent email and would appreciate you using in emails to me regarding your team-with over 500 squads I can't remember who runs every one. Your squad abbreviation will be unique and hopefully will bear some relationship to your squad name. A squad name can be changed when a new manager takes over a pre-existing squad, or else at a considerable cost (paying for things will be explained later). Under no circumstances can the abbreviation be changed once assigned.
You also get to choose your home ground name in the initial set-up (more on the ground in section [A 8]).
[A 2.2] Introducing the Players
The players in Ultra cricket are complex characters and after while one can be come quite attached to them! You are given some information about your players every week in the formguide. Other information is obscured from you and some of the information in the formguide is only a hint. Here is an example form guide:
Name Bat Aggr Abl Bowl Econ Fld Sp Sm Sw A Fit Btfm Bwfm Type
Lillith 80.8 86.5 *=- 0 0 64.2 0 0 0 3 - - - + ... (.)
Summerfield 91.6 71.8 === 22.1 16.7 78.1 63 5 46 2 - - - - = (.)
Meadly 64.2 80.3 =+- 25.3 21.2 73.8 55 45 5 4 - - - = ++ (.)
Junior 80.9 74.7 =+- 0 0 81.6 0 0 0 4 ? - - = - (K)
Boddington 99.7 74.9 +== 25.0 23.3 79.1 48 6 63 5 - - - = + (C)
Sharkey 73.8 73.1 =*. 85.6 76.7 72.4 89 72 24 3 - ? - - = (.)
Forest 81.2 69.8 === 77.9 81.4 50.2 71 56 67 3 I ? . = - (.)
Jones 65.9 53.1 =*. 79.9 86.6 63.8 59 90 61 5 - - - - = (M)
Abeson 61.0 46.0 -+= 75.9 83.9 69.9 47 99 42 5 - - - = = (L)
Barrie 56.1 44.2 =+- 82.2 76.0 66.0 53 99 36 4 ? ? - = + (.)
Sana 55.0 45.0 === 0 0 89.8 0 0 0 5 - - - - - (KL)
Friary 88.1 65.5 *=. 34.8 34.3 66.5 66 3 45 2 - - - - = (L)
Donkin 72.7 46.7 === 27.6 26.1 62.0 54 5 54 0 - - - + + (.)
Golk 61.0 56.8 =*. 86.2 75.8 52.2 68 72 44 5 - - - - = (L)
Grahamed 52.0 37.0 +=- 0 0 82.4 0 0 0 1 - - - + = (K)
Smitington 36.9 29.0 === 74.4 45.2 53.4 88 21 60 0 - - - ++ + (.)
Tyke 74.7 81.3 === 70.6 75.1 71.6 68 57 57 4 - - - = = (C)
Jeal 85.9 50.6 -+= 34.0 35.5 52.2 40 67 7 1 - - - + = (.)
Dibb 71.4 72.2 -+= 81.2 70.9 66.9 86 65 19 3 - - - + = (L)
Andilc 80.7 73.2 *=. 0 0 52.2 0 0 0 4 - - - + ... (.)
Dooddle 63.7 57.4 === 65.9 60.2 59.3 55 99 29 2 - - - = -- (L)
Thomson 51.0 49.8 === 66.3 72.5 64.3 79 48 53 3 ? - - = = (.)
Graham 49.0 41.7 === 70.2 68.4 57.0 87 57 22 2 - - - - + (.)
Dobbin 53.4 41.9 =+- 65.5 58.5 58.5 41 73 73 2 - - - ++ - (.)
Maddy 48.4 41.5 +=- 67.1 62.0 55.9 62 99 22 2 - - - = = (.)
Billy 63.4 42.6 === 35.4 35.9 46.5 40 5 66 1 ! - - + + (.)
Ged 48.1 37.6 -=+ 63.7 57.3 56.3 92 48 23 1 ! - - - + (.)
Johnson 34.5 28.8 -+= 72.3 50.5 54.9 59 99 46 0 - - - +++ + (.)
Key:
| Name | player's name | | Bat | batting skill | | Aggr | batting aggression | | Abl | batting abilities (against particular bowling types) | | Bowl | bowling skill | | Econ | bowling economy | | Fld | fielding skill | | Sp | bowling speed | | Sw | ability to bowl swing | | Sm | ability to bowl seam | | A | Age | | Fit | Health | | Btfm | batting form | | Bwfm | bowling/fielding form | | Type | special characteristics |
[A 2.2.1] The Name
Each player must have a name which is unique in their squad and within the bounds of good taste. The name must not have a white space in it (i.e. a blank!) so something like "My Player" would be unacceptable but "MyPlayer", "My_Player", "My-Player" or "My.Player" are all fine. It is also encouraged to keep all player names to less than 15 characters to help with the formatting of the output. Also please note that as time goes by players will leave the squad and you may not replace them with players of the same name - thus once you used the name "My_Player", that is it-you may not reuse it. To prevent people complaining that the game does not simulate real life very well, I have decided that no one can name a player "Bradman" (for those that don't know, Sir Donald Bradman is cricket's greatest ever batsman).
[A 2.2.1.1] Renaming Players
Many managers may want to rename players-especially when they take over a pre-existing side. Since the statistics (a very important part of any Cricket fan's life) are based on the player's name-once they have appeared once in an "official" match and appear in the Stats then their name is etched in stone (so to speak) and cannot be changed. If you should wish to rename a player who has not played a match yet you can do so by informing the Commissioner and hoping they get round to it.
[A 2.2.2] Batting Skill
The second column in the formguide is the player's batting skill. This is a number between 10 and 110 and basically controls how likely a player is to get out. The higher the number, the less likely they are to get out. A skill above 70 is required to perform at a reasonable level in Ultra Cricket. To get to skill 100 or higher is quite an achievement.
[A 2.2.3] Aggression
No, the players do not have a boxing ability-this is their ability to score runs quickly. This aggression will lead them to get out quicker. Thus, two players with the same skill but different aggressions should average the same score but the more aggressive player will score it quicker. High aggression is an advantage in ODIs where fast scoring is imperative. An aggression in the 80s and 90s is very good in Ultra Cricket and a sign of a big hitter and quick runner-someone who can turn ones into twos. However, aggression can be a liability in Test matches where staying at the crease is very important. As players get older, maturity enables them to handle their aggression better in Tests, but an age 1 high-aggression batsman will end up getting out very fast! All players will play aggressively in ODIs (if the circumstance warrants it), but at a considerable loss to their underlying skill. Thus high aggression is essential to maintain fast scoring over a long time.
[A 2.2.4] Batting Abilities
In an attempt to mimic the fact that even certain highly skilled batsmen have their weaknesses, each batsman is given three "abilities" -against speed, seam and swing. These will be explained more when describing the bowling attributes. Now, rather than display these attributes as numbers (we've had enough of them already) I display these with one of five characters (* + = - .) This set of characters is used a few times in Ultra Cricket so it is useful to get familiar with them. '*' means very good, '=' means average and '.' means very bad. Thus if you have "*--" as a player's abilities it means they are '*' (very good) against speed bowling and '-' (bad) against both seam and swing. Another example: "=+." would signify an average ability against speed, good ability against seam and bad ability against swing. More on what this affects later on.
[A 2.2.5] Bowling Skill
Basically the nemesis to batskill. This is the ability of a bowler to get wickets (or in other words get the batsmen out). The numbers follow the same basic pattern as for batskill-the higher the better. Not a lot more to it than that.
[A 2.2.6] Economy
No, we are not delving into the world of high finance. Each bowler has an ability to bowl balls that the batsmen will have trouble scoring runs off. This means their "runs per over conceded" will be lower and hence they will be deemed to be more economical! Thus economy is the arch-enemy of aggression and is more important in ODIs than in Tests.
[A 2.2.7] Fielding Skill
While most people will get a bat in a Test, it is not a certainty in an ODI. Also, bowling is usually restricted to between 4 and 6 players per team (not squad-don't get the terms confused!). Fielding is the domain of all. Everyone has to stand around in the sun or rain waiting for that dreaded skied shot or that long chase to the boundary to retrieve a blistering cover drive. Again, fielding skill is in the range from 20 to 110 but few people get much above 80 apart from Wicket Keepers (more on these unusual creatures later).
[A 2.2.8] Bowling Abilities
Each of the following three categories match up with the three batting abilities. A bowler with a high speed ability will cause many problems for a batsman with a poor speed ability and likewise for speed and seam.
[A 2.2.8.1] Bowling Speed
Each player who can bowl will possess a "speed" of delivery. This indicates how fast they bowl the ball-pretty obvious huh-and you don't need to be a Nuclear Physicist for me to tell you that the faster you bowl the ball, the harder some batsmen find it to hit. There is a down side to bowling fast however. Fast bowlers tend to suffer more injuries as they put so much back breaking effort into bowling and they take longer to bowl an over. This may not be good news in the last session of a Test Match when you need wickets, but with a brand new ball they can be devastating.
[A 2.2.8.2] Movement off the Seam
Without going into detail, for those that don't know how a cricket ball is made, it has a seam running around its equator-this is "raised" above the surface of the ball and if the ball should bounce on this seam it will come off at an angle. This is called seam bowling and is usually associated with medium-fast bowlers. I also (to reduce the number of columns needed) have included a spin bowler's ability to get "turn" off the wicket here-so seam is really movement off the pitch in Ultra Cricket. The higher the number in the column the better they are at it if (and this is important) the conditions favour this. More on this later.
[A 2.2.8.3] Movement in the Air-or Swing
If one has a ball and makes one side smooth and the other rough, then when the ball is thrown, it will curve in the air according to the laws of aerodynamics. This skill is used by cricketers with great effect (especially by fast-medium bowlers). Also, a spin bowler's ability to flight the ball is given by this-hence movement in the Air.
[A 2.2.9] Age
This is pretty simple. Each player has an age, starting at age 0 and aging by a year after each season. (When you set up your team you start with players aged 0 to 4.) Age is thus a reflection of how long a player has been in Ultra Cricket and nothing else. It plays a vital role in deciding the chance of injuries and the rate at which a player's skills go up or down. Ageing is actually continuous but the formguide will only ever show the integer part of the age.
[A 2.2.10] Health
The next three columns show the players forecast health before each of next week's games. This will be explained later.
[A 2.2.11] Form
The next two columns of + and - are the player's batting and bowling form. The batskill or bowlskill of a player will go up and down depending on their recent performances. The more + signs, the larger the improvement in their skill. The more - signs, the larger the decrease in their skills. Some players do not have any bowlskill and thus have no bowlform and this is signified by "..." Also, keepers, who do not have bowlskill do however have bowlform. This is in fact keeping form and modifies that player's fieldskill. Keepers are the only players whose fieldskill is thus modified.
[A 2.2.12] Special Characteristics
The final column shows if your player has any special characteristics worth remembering. At the moment there are six: C, K, O, L, M and S. C stands for captain and K for keeper. O is for an opener - an opener has a "*==" batting ability profile but will only bat at 90% of skill if not batting in one of the opening positions. L, M and S indicate left-handedness, M as a batter, S as a bowler and L as both.
[A 2.2.12.1] The Captain
The Captain is the player who runs the team on the field. When the team is playing, there must be at least one Captain on the field. Captains gain experience from playing games. Thus the more games played by a player the better a captain they are. To prevent managers just using the oldest player in the squad each week, the manager is asked to nominate two captains for the whole of each season. One of these two players must play in every game and they must both be at least age 2. If you decide to change your captain, the manager must nominate a player to become a captain for the remainder of the season (one player will lose their captaincy)-they will also be charged 5 TPs for the changeover. If both your regular captains are seriously injured, you may nominate another player as captain on a stand-in basis. At the beginning of each season you get the chance to change your captains for free.
[A 2.2.12.2] The Wicket Keeper
The Wicket Keeper is the player who stands behind the wicket to catch the ball as it goes past the batsman and wicket. He must be agile. Hence, his fieldskill should be good. A Wicket Keeper may also be a Captain, though his keeping ability will be lower when playing as both captain and keeper. He may not bowl. He has a "bowlform" which affects his fielding skill instead.
[A 2.2.12.3] A Night Watchman
This is not so much a special characteristic, as anyone can do it-but it is the best place to explain it. In a Test Match it can be seen as favourable to send in a lower skilled player to bat instead of the usual batsman due to bat in the last half an hour before "stumps" (the end of a day's play). The logic here is to protect your better batsman from having to face the bowling for just a few overs before the end of play with little to gain and a lot to lose (their wicket mainly!). How you implement this explained in section [D 1].
[A 2.2.12.4] Opening Bowlers
Again this is not a special characteristic-more a term used often in the rules-so I thought I'd explain it now. It is quite simple: in a Test Match the two bowlers you use first to start bowling are called your opening bowlers. These guys like using a "new" ball and thus usually are your fastest bowlers. Each time you take a "new ball" (happens about every 80 overs in a test match-and again you can control this) these guys will bowl with it first. This is seen as such an important role that they often will not bowl for a considerable time so as to be fresh and ready to bowl when the new ball is taken.
[A 2.3] Introducing the Club
Once you are familiar with the players you just need to get to know the infrastructure of the club. Unlike many sports simulations there is little financial management in Ultra Cricket. Money is basically hidden in what we call Training Points or TPs. This is the basic unit of currency. Another part of your club are the ground staff-they are pretty easy going and do what you tell them (and you don't need to worry where their pay comes from). So let's have a quick guided tour around your "club" or team.
[A 2.3.1] The Ground
When a team is set up they get to choose a name for their home ground. You only have the one home ground and you can name it anything you like, provided there are no blanks in the name anywhere.
[A 2.3.1.1] The Weather
You get to choose the "climate" at your home ground. This is controlled by 3 variables-humidity, temperature and wind. They are all on a scale from 0 to 10 with ten being very humid, very hot and very humid respectively. So, you choose the three variables. Each day of a game the weather is "chosen" by randomly choosing a number near your choice. Thus, if you choose 2 for humidity (wanting a quite dry atmosphere most of the time) the weather would be somewhere between 0 and 5 with most days being around 2. If, however, you choose 5 the humidity could come out anywhere-but on average it would be 5. Thus by choosing a value near the extremities of the range the result will be more predictable-both for you and your opponents. The weather affects the games in what, hopefully, are relatively obvious ways. Hot and humid weather makes players tire quicker. Windy and humid conditions help bowlers who try to get movement in the air. Windy conditions makes catching harder.
[A 2.3.1.2] The Pitch
The pitch is defined by just 2 variables-the hardness and the amount of grass in it. Again both parameters are rated from 0 to 10. The hardness controls how much the ball bounces and will determine the assistance given to pace bowlers. The amount of grass in the pitch will control the rate of "decay" of the pitch. i.e. how quickly it crumbles and takes spin. A pitch with a high grass content will decay very slowly while a pitch with low grass content will decay very rapidly and take spin.
[A 2.3.2] Training Points
The mechanics of this and how exactly it helps your players will be explained later but there is no time like now to stress the absolute importance of training. If you do not train your players you will not have a decent team in a few seasons time. Each week you will have a budget of TPs available for training. For example, a team may have 80 TPs available each week. In addition to this, any unused TPs from previous weeks (or seasons) can be carried over and used up. As you go through the season, you will accumulate TPs for use as your budget next season. These accumulated TPs are gained in much the same way as money would be gained (if we had it) - by good crowds, win bonuses and player prizes and any other bonus the Commissioner chooses to hand out from time to time.
[A 2.3.3] Draft Points
When you start a team, you have no draft points-you have done the draft by setting up your team. Each season after that you get to recruit new players by spending "draft points" while designing new players for your squad. Draft point allocation is explained in section [D 6.1].
[A 3] The Season
When you start in Ultra Cricket you will be given a series of warm up matches against teams who have also been submitted in the past few weeks. The idea of these games is to get you used to the orders format, how the automatic mail handler works, how to decode the results file and to let you have a look at the game before making a commitment to playing. After a while a new season will start and you'll get assigned a division to play in.
Ultra Cricket runs a combined league in conferences UC1, UC2 & UC3 (in the future, UC4 will be a ODI only conference and UC5 will be a test only conference). In the combined league, divisions each have 8 teams. The season follows a regular pattern. Each week you get to play a "session". A session is a set of 3 games, orders for which are required for each individual game in advance. The pattern is consistent for all 14 weeks of the season. The first game is a Test Match and this is followed by two ODIs. Games are played home and away against each opponent (once home & away for Tests and twice for ODIs).
The points earned in the Test and ODI competitions are combined in a special way in order to produce a combined ladder (see section [3.3]). Your position in the combined ladder at the end of the season is used to determine whether you are promoted or relegated between division (see section [3.4]).
[A 3.1] The Test Competition
Each season you will play 14 Test Matches. You'll start by playing the other 11 teams in your division once each. Half of them you'll play at home and the other half away-some teams will end up with one extra home game (count yourself lucky!). Once you have played these 11 games your position in the divisional ladder will determine who you play in the "playoffs" to decide promotion/relegation (5 matches).
The points system used to make the ladder is:
- 9 points for a win
- 7 points for a tie
- 4 points for a draw
- 0 points for a loss
Teams on the same points will be ordered according to their Quotient, which is calculated for each team (for the season so far) as:
( Total runs scored / Total wickets lost )
Divided By
( Total runs scored by opponents / Total number of wickets taken )
It is more or less a team's batting average divided by its bowling average.
[A 3.2] The One Day International Competition
You get to play the other eleven teams in your division both home and away here-making a total of 22 matches. Again the final position gained is used to decide who you play in the three promotion/relegation playoff matches.
The points system used is:
- 2 points for a win
- 1 point for a tie
- 0 points for a loss
And the tie-breaker used is the Run Rate Differential (RRD)-explained in section [B 2.5].
[A 3.3] The Combined Ladder
The combined ladder is formed by combining points from the Test and ODI ladders with a statistical method referred to as z-scores. This method is used to correct for the fact that twice as many ODIs are played as Tests and also for the fact that you can earn points for drawing tests. It also removes the possibility of improving your combined position by deliberately losing matches in one form of the game at the end of the season. In other words, the z-score method fairly balances Test and ODI points.
The z-score system has another advantage. It should mean there are fewer dead games. For example, with two weeks left to play in the season, XYZ has won the Test match league but is only average in the ODI league. It is still in their interest to win the remaining two Test matches because that will still increase their Test rating (even though they casn't increase their table position).
The method of calculating z-scores is a little bit complex, but you don't really need to worry about it too much because each week the league tables and ratings are worked out for you. All you really need to know is that a high rating is a good thing, winning matches will increase your rating, and losing matches will decrease your rating.
The details are given later, but put simply it works like this. In the Test ladder each team is given a standardised score (z-score) which is a comparison of the number of points your team has scored with the points the other seven teams have scored. This z-score is converted into a rating between 0 and 100, with 100 being a bit more than perfect, 50 is average, and 0 is as bad as it can ever get. Likewise in the ODI table a standardised score (Z-score) is calculated in the same way and converted into a rating. The fact both the Z-scores and ratings have been standardised means that we can take the average of the two ratings to give a fair measure of each team's performance across both formats of cricket.
Q: It has been suggested that winning at Test matches is better than winning ODI matches, is this true?
No. What is true is that a draw in a Test match is slightly worse than one win and one loss in ODIs. This can lead to an indirect advantage to a team that wins a Test when all the other matches are draws. However this is because a win in a Test match is deemed to be better than 2 Test draws and nothing to do with the value of wins in ODIs.
[A 3.3.1] Calculating the z-score
If the number of points each of the 8 teams has are x1, x2, x3, x4, ..., x8 then:
mean(x) = average
= (x1 + x2 + ... x8)/8
sd(x) = standard deviation
= square root of [(x1^2 + x2^2 + x3^2 + ... + x8^2 - 8* mean(x)^2) / 7]
The z-score is calculated for each team using the formula [x - mean(x)] / sd(x).
So we can see that:
z1 = [x1 - mean(x)] / sd(x)
z2 = [x2 - mean(x)] / sd(x)
|
z8 = [x8 - mean(x)] / sd(x)
We need to divide by standard deviation because the Test match ladder has a much bigger spread of points. If we didn't divide by the standard deviation then the good Test teams would be unfairly advantaged.
The Z-score for each team is computed in the Test ladder and another Z-score in the ODI ladder. Once the Z-scores have been computed they are transformed to ratings using (Z + 2.5)*20. The combined rating is the average of the Test and ODI ratings. i.e. Test rating/2 + ODI rating/2 which is exactly the same as (ZTest + ZODI + 5)*10.
The ratings are rounded to 1 decimal place for the tables, but are actually computed to more precision.
[A 3.4] Division Structure (Combined Leagues)
The divisions will be organised in a diamond structure. There will be 1 SuperLeague, 2 Division Ones, 4 Division Twos, 8 Division Threes, 4 Division Fours, 2 Division Fives and a Flying Eagles Division (numbers permitting). That gives us 22 divisions of 8 teams or 176 team maximum per conference. Newbie teams go straight into Division Three.
SL
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
1A 1B
/ \ / \
/ \ / \
2A 2B 2C 2D
/ \ / \ / \ / \
3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F 3G 3H
\ / \ / \ / \ /
4A 4B 4C 4D
\ / \ /
\ / \ /
5A 5B
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
FE
Promotion and relegation is automatic based on the combined ladder at the end of the season. In the top half (i.e SL, D1 and D2) it will be 2 Up and 4 Down. It will be the mirror in the lower divisions with the bottom 2 down and the top 4 coming up. There will be no playoffs.
[A 4] The ethos of Ultra Cricket
[A 4.1] Timing of Orders
Check the conference dates on the right hand side of the home page to see which day of the week each conference round is to be run on. The deadline is usually set at 8am on the day the games are run. It is the right of the Commissioner, to change the date and time for the final lodgement of orders for a given week (see section [A 4.2]).
[A 4.1.1] No Orders Received
Any orders that are not received by the set time, without prior arrangement with the commisioner will result in that team being auto-selected. The auto-selector, which will be used for teams that cannot get orders in, will continue to use previous training orders but makes up its own team line-ups based purely on skill ratings - it is brutal and somewhat efficient, but does seem to struggle in Tests.
[A 4.1.2] Losing your team due to inactivity
A counter is incremented every week orders are not sent in. The submission of orders resets this counter to 0. If the counter should ever reach 4 then an automatic reminder is sent to you and the team is placed in jeopardy of being handed over to new management.
[A 4.1.3] Going on Vacation
You can not send orders for future weeks to cricket (the auto-mail handler) in advance. Instead you can send them to the Sub-Commissioner and hope he remembers to use them. The Sub-Commissioner will sometimes make alterations to line-ups to cover injuries and change some long term training orders - but remember that this can be unreliable and any mistakes will not be rectified. Having the Sub-Commissioner reuse orders for numerous weeks can be preferable to using the auto-selector.
[A 4.2] Spirit of the Game
It is appropriate that the game be played in the right spirit and that managers not play their weakest side to gain advantage in a future game. This includes playing low skilled age 0 players in an attempt to resurrect a team's fortunes - sorry, but fielding a weak team is unsporting.
In order to prevent this, a player is not allowed in the team if they do not have any skill greater than 60. Note that this is based on raw skill and is not affected by form. It is, however, affected by injury (see [A 7.2]). A player that is not allowed to play will have an 'X' in the last column of their formguide. Also, the minimum squad size allowed is 20. This stops people from sacking all their old players and not having enough players with skills > 60 to field a side!
If a manager loses badly and is found by the UCB to have played bad players with the intention of not doing well (i.e. losing), then at the power of discretion of the UCB, that team will be fined.
[A 4.3] How to treat the Commissioner
This is a short list from the Commissioner to remind managers of a few facts.
You do not pay to play this game, I run it to:
- Provide entertainment for lots of people
- Spread the "word" about Cricket around the world
- Test code changes to try to develop a better Cricket Game
This means:
- It is only fun, I have other things to do and UC is not first priority for me, please remember that. I'll run the games as soon after the deadline as I can, but don't expect instantaneous results; there are 500+ teams playing!
- I am human, I make mistakes, but the Commissioner's decisions are final; when I make a mistake, I'll try to fix mistakes and recompense teams that suffer from them, but I can make no promises.
Other information you may like to know:
- The code has taken 15 years to develop to its present state.
- I have a full time job. This obviously gets precedence over UC.
- I am studying part time. This obviously gets precedence over UC.
- I am happily married with a two young children - my family gets precedence over all the above!
- I have taught myself C - I am a Chemist not a Computer Programmer and thus sometimes things don't quite work the way I thought they should.
Thus there are a few points to note:
- Sending the Commissioner mail asking where the results are will not make them come any sooner-in fact they will delay them since I have to read more mail!
- Read the RULES! If you cannot understand a particular point then mail one of the Ultra Cricket help members, whose addresses are available on the web site
- If you don't understand the wording of the Rules rewrite the section in question and I'll gladly replace it with yours (presuming it is correct).
- If you see a loophole (like the famous send multiple orders in to see the form of various players!) let the Commissioner know and do not exploit it!
- Let me know if you are going away, quitting, changing address etc.
[A 5] Training points and money
Each new team is given a budget of 85 TPs to be used each week of their first season. Throughout the season, TPs are accumulated for use as next season's budget. In your weekly formguide this will be expressed as:
You have accumulated XX.XX training points for use each week next season.
TPs are the "money" of Ultra Cricket. They are gained by:
- Crowd receipts for test and ODI games
- Cup prize money
- Winning tests and ODIs
- Man of the Match awards
- End of season awards
- Press awards in for well written press in Weekly Wickets (the electronic magazine devoted to Ultra Cricket)
- Special awards of TPs may be given in exceptional circumstances for helping the commisioner improve UC by such services as finding bugs in the code etc.
NOTE: You can lose TPs by being fined by the Commissioner for committing various heinous crimes (like submitting orders with errors in them).
[A 5.1] Crowds and Gate receipts
The crowd will be dependent on the standard of the players involved. The crowd will mean money. A division 1 side should see Test gates of about 130,000 and ODI gates of 50,000. A low division side will be getting 50,000 and 30,000 respectively. These get converted to TPs at 40,000 to 1 TP.
[A 5.2] Void
[A 5.3] Match awards
| 0.05 TP | for a Man-of the Match Award (Tests) | | 0.025 TP | for a Man-of the Match Award (ODI) | | 0.15 TP | for winning a Test | | 0.075 TP | for winning an ODI |
[A 5.4] End of season awards
At the end of each conference's season, the players who are the top of the categories listed below will receive an award of 0.5 TP for their team (season statistics are used rather than career statistics). In the event of a tie, the 0.5 TP gets divided equally between the players.
| Tests | ODIs | | Batting Average* | Strike Rate* | | Number of Runs Scored | Number of Runs Scored | | Bowling Average* | Bowling Economy* | | Number of Wickets | Number of Wickets | | Number of Catches | Number of Catches | | Number of Stumpings | >Number of Runouts |
* Batsmen must score more than 400 runs and bowlers take more than 20 wickets to qualify in these categories.
The tables of the top 50 players in each of the above categories are updated every week and can be found on the Ultra Cricket web site at http://www.ultra-sports.com/Cricket/stats.php. So check it out if you think you have a player in the running!
There are also two awards (worth 1 TP each) to be voted on by the managers during the Cup finals:
- Player of the season
- Manager of the season
[A 6] Player Development and Ageing
As a player gets older two things happen:
- s/he ages which leads to a decrease in skill
- s/he gains in experience which leads to an increase in skill
These gains in experience essentially come in two forms: playing Ultra Cricket and training. At first, with a young player, the positive effects of gaining experience outweigh the negative effects of aging, but as time goes on the negative aspects of ageing take their toll and eventually even with intensive training, skills will drop.
[A 6.1] Training
Training is performed at the end of each week's matches for the first 15 weeks of a season. There is no training in the last week of the season. TPs from your weekly budget are spent to improve a player's batting skill, aggression, bowling skill, economy, or fielding skill. You could think of it as each TP used on a player as representing a certain amount of attention from a coach. TPs can also be spent on clinics (see below).
A player can be trained a maximum of 8 TPs. These can be spread among any of the 5 skills but they must be trained in integer amounts, and not more than 5 in any one skill. If, however, a player is injured or rests during the three games then the maximum amount of TPs they may use is decreased by 3 for every game they miss-thus resting for 1 game makes the maximum 5 and resting for 2 makes it 2. (The maximum allowed in one skill is not affected). Note that players who do not play in the first eleven will play in a club match and so are still eligible for training (unless they are ordered to rest or injured with severity "I").
As your player progresses in skill, it takes more and more effort to improve that skill. Thus the effect of each allocated training point becomes less and less with increased skill. For example, just 1 training point may be enough to lift a player from skill 20 to skill 23, whilst fully 5 training points may be required to lift that same player from skill 67 to 68. To get from skill 79 to 80 may take up to 6 training points! As you can see, turning your good players into star players will require a good deal of expensive training.
[A 6.2] Clinics
Every week there will be a chance to hold special training clinics. At these clinics you can spend TPs from your weekly budget on specialist training. Clinics are used for the following:
- improving batting or bowling form
- improving batting abilities against speed, swing or seam bowling
- improving ability to bowl fast, swing or seam
- improving health
- converting a non-keeper to a keeper
- changing captains
To make a new wicket keeper will cost 18 TPs from the current week's training budget. This means this player will now be known as a keeper but their fieldskill will be halved and then have 15 added to it due to the clinic's training. Thus a player with fieldskill 80 will convert to a keeper with fieldskill 55. (NOTE: This can not be done to age 0 players.)
It will cost 1 TP to raise a player's form by 1.3 (no player may have their form raised above 0). 1 TP spent on a batting or bowling ability will result in an increase of 0.5% in that ability. 1 TP will improve health by 3%.
There are maximums set on clinics, as described in the previous section except that injured players can be cliniced in health using the TPs that were disallowed when injured/rested. For example, a player rested for two matches can be cliniced in health by up to 6 TPs.
[A 6.3] Experience and Skill
The skill system in Ultra Cricket operates on a hidden experience score from which the visible skill levels of all your players are calculated. For each of their skills, your players have an experience total which may be increased through training and through batting, bowling and fielding in the game itself. Experience is gained as follows:
Training: for each training point allocated to a skill, your player receives 5 experience points.
Club games: 1 experience point per game per skill, unless that skill was drafted as 'bad', in which case the skill gains 0.25 experience points. If your player has an excellent club match, an additional experience point is gained, regardless of draft level (an excellent game is indicated by a '++' in the club game output, see section [B 2.1.1]).
NOTE: Experience is gained in real numbers and there are minimums that you assured of for every game played.
[A 6.3.1] Experience and Skill in ODIs
| Bat Skill: | Points< | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 | - | | For actually batting | 2 | - | | For every 25 balls faced | 1 | 7 | | For scoring 50 or more | 1 | - | | For scoring 100 or more | 1 | - |
| Aggression: | Points | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 | - | | For facing 10 balls | 1 | - | | For facing 40 balls | 1 | - | | For every 5 more than a strike rate of 50 | 1 | 9 | | For scoring at more than a strike rate of 100 | 2 | - |
| Bowling Skill: | Points | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 | - | | For every 18 balls bowled | 1 | - | | "For every odd wicket taken (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th)" | 1 | 1 |
| Economy: | Points | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 | - | | For every 10 less than an economy rate of 90 | 1 | 9 | | For bowling 3 or more overs | 1 | - | | For each maiden over bowled | 0.5 | - |
| Fielding: | Points | Maximum | | Being in team | 2* | - | | Being Wicket Keeper | 2 | - | | Each catch | 1 | - | | Each run out | 1 | - | | Each stumping | 1 | - |
*(extra point if rated great or superb)
[A 6.3.2] Experience and Skill in Tests
| Bat Skill: | Points | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 per innings | - | | For actually batting | 1 per innings | - | | For every 30 balls faced | 1 | 8 per innings | | For scoring 50 or more | 2 | - | For scoring 100 or more | 2 | - |
| Aggression: | Points | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 per innings | - | | For actually batting | 1 per innings | - | | For every 15 above a scoring rate of 30 runs per 100 balls | 1 | 4 per innings |
| Bowling Skill: | Points | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 | - | | For every 6-10 overs bowled | 1* | - | | For every wicket taken | 1.3 | 8 per innings |
*number of overs depends on bowl speed: 10 - (bowlspeed*10-4)/1.8
| Economy: | Points | Maximum | | For being in the team | 1 | - | | For every 15 less than an economy rate of 70 | 1 | 4 per innings | | For every sixth maiden | 1 | - |
| Fielding: | Points | Maximum | | Being in team | 2 per innings | - | | Being Wicket Keeper | 2 per innings | - | | Each catch | 1 | - | | Each run out | 1 | - | | Each stumping | 1 | - |
[A 6.4] Ageing and the Experience Constant
Each player's skill level is calculated from their experience according to the equation:
skill = ln((experience_points + EC)/EC)*EC
Where ln is the natural logarithm.
As players age their EC is slowly reduced, making it harder and harder to get to very high skill levels. The initial EC and the rate at which it deteriorates with age are carefully chosen to reflect the normal career path of players in each category. The following table demonstrates roughly what these equations look like:
| Batting and aggression | EC = ECo - 1.5*age | ECo ~ 26 | | Slow Bowler's bowling and economy | EC = ECo - 0.5*age | ECo ~ 21 | | Medium Bowler's bowling and economy | EC = ECo - 1.5*age | ECo ~ 26 | | Medium Fast Bowler's bowling and economy | EC = ECo - 1.75*age | ECo ~ 27 | | Fast Bowler's bowling and economy | EC = ECo - 2.0*age | ECo ~ 28 | | Fielding | EC = ECo - 1.5*age | ECo ~ 26 |
Values for ECo vary between players according to type and according to underlying quality as indicated by their draft level. So a batsman drafted with "good" batting skill will have a considerably higher EC for bat skill than a bowler of the same age with "bad" drafted batting skill (and vice versa for bowling skills).
So as a player ages his/her experience constant reduces and it becomes harder to maintain their skill levels (their mind and body becoming less able to stand up to the rigours of Ultra Cricket). Each week your players will lose some small amount of skill, almost unnoticeable when they are young and vital, but increasingly important as they enter into and pass their cricketing primes. Batsmen, keepers, and medium pacers should, with proper training and care, be in their primes from ages 4 to 6. Spinners take much longer to learn their trade, not reaching a peak till age 6 and beyond, whilst fast bowlers will be in their prime from ages 2 to 4.
It is an important and interesting part of the game planning, training and playing schedules so as to maximise the playing skills of your first XI, whilst still retaining a strong pool of replacements and up and coming juniors. Early in their career, a player will make great strides with every training session and every game in the bigtime. However, as they reach their prime it will become more and more difficult to keep them improving. Eventually it will become impossible even to maintain them at their current standard. Those who can best juggle the nurturing of young talent with the retention of established stars will have the strongest squads and have the advantage on the playing field.
At any time during the season you may "retire" a player you no longer need. If you do retire them they may never be recalled (see section [D 5.3.5]). Further, any player whose maximum skill is less than 20 will automatically retire.
You can also decide a player has decided never to bowl again, see [D 5.3.3]. This can be handy to stop old all-rounders getting injured all the time.
[A 7] Skill adjustments: Form and Health
The raw skill values that you find on your formguide are only a rough guide to how well your player is playing at the moment. How they play "on the day" will be affected by many other factors, two of the most important of which are form and health.
[A 7.1] Form
Even the best sports stars have bad runs of form, when nothing seems to go right and so it is with Ultra cricketers. Form in Ultra Cricket is an amount which is deducted from or added to your players skill, according to how well they have played (with that skill).
The form data appears in your form guide (see section [B 2.1.4]) in two columns of symbols. One (which affects bat skill) and one for bowling form (which affects bowl skill-except for keepers for whom the bowlform represents fielding form).
The meaning of the symbols is as follows:
| Symbol | Meaning | Value | | +++ | excellent | 15 or more points added to skill | | ++ | very good | 9-15 points added to skill | | + | good | 3-9 points added to skill | | = | average | 3 points deducted to 3 points added | | - | poor | 3-9 points deducted from skill | | -- | bad | 9-15 points deducted from skill | | --- | terrible | 15 or more points deducted from skill | | . | N/A | player doesn't bowl and isn't a keeper |
Example:
Name Bat Aggr Abl Bowl Econ Fld Sp Sm Sw A Fit Btfm Bwfm
Lillith 80.8 86.5 *=- 0 0 64.2 0 0 0 3 - - - ++ ... (.)
Sana 55.0 45.0 === 0 0 89.8 0 0 0 5 - - - -- + (KL)
Lillith is in good batting form and can expect a modified bat skill of 90+ . The keeper, Sana, is in bad form with the bat but has been doing well with the gloves (as indicated by the + in the bowlform column).
[A 7.1.1] How form gets calculated
A player's form fluctuates from match to match depending on how well they have done relative to their skill level.
[A 7.1.1.1] Batting form
Form is based on the runs scored. In a One Day Game you must face a few balls for your score to affect your form. It can not fluctuate too widely from innings to innings, and previous scores have an exponential decay built into them so that one good/bad score can have a diminishing effect for a few games. A player's form is calculated by looking at the score they got, see what % of the score they "should" get and then using a polynomial of order 5 fitting it to a curve which means any score close to your expected will mean form of 0. A low score could result in a drop in form of 6 and a good score could raise your form by 10.
[A 7.1.1.2] Bowling or Fielding form
In One Day Games, form is gauged on how expensive the bowler is and how many wickets they take. In a test match, the wickets are of primary importance, though being economical is a help. For a keeper, their "bowlform" affects their fielding in a similar way.
[A 7.1.1.3] Form in Club games
All players not in the first XI play "club" matches unless rested or injured. In these you get an idea of their change in form for both batting, bowling (or fielding if a keeper). On average it is easier to do well in a club match than a first team match and therefore often it pays to drop an out of form player for a match or two, have them play a club match and bat or bowl themselves back into form. The form guide tells you how well players have done in club matches in terms of how it affects their form (see section [B 2.1.1] for more detail).
[A 7.2] Health
Health in Ultra Cricket is an indicator of whether a player is injured, unwell, or completely fit. This is indicated in the form guide by three columns of symbols headed by the word "Fit". Injuries are denoted by an "I". Unwellness is indicated by any of the symbols: '$', '%', '!', '?' or '.', full fitness is indicated by a dash: '-'. The three columns correspond to each of next week's games. In the example:
Name Bat Aggr Abl Bowl Econ Fld Sp Sm Sw A Fit Btfm Bwfm
Lillith 80.8 86.5 *=- 0 0 64.2 0 0 0 3 - - - + ... (.)
Forest 81.2 69.8 === 77.9 81.4 50.2 71 56 67 3 I I ? = - (.)
Forest has an Injury before the first game , which keeps him out for two matches. He can play in game 3, when he is merely very ill. Lillith is fully fit for the entire week-this is the norm-all players are fit most of the time.
A player that is injured cannot play. A player who is unwell may play. However, an unwell player will:
- suffer a decrement in all skills
- be more likely to pick up an injury
- will recover more slowly than a player who plays in club matches or, better still, rests altogether
The decrement depends on level of unwellness-remember all five skills are affected!
| Symbol | Meaning | % of form modified skill | | I | injured | cannot play | | $ | very ill | 42.1-92.7% | % | ill | 92.7-99.1% | | ? | moderately unwell | 99.1-99.9% | | ! | mildly unwell | 99.9% | | . | slightly unwell | 99.99% | | - | fit | 100.0% |
Injured players are forced to rest. You can order an uninjured player to rest for a game and this is advisable if they are ill (%) or very ill ($) and preferable if they are unwell (?,!,.). If a player is injured or resting then they cannot train or attend clinics (apart from health clinics!).
Factors affecting whether a player picks up an injury are:
- whether they are already ill/unwell
- whether they have played in the team, in club matches or have been rested
- the player's aggression
- the player's fieldskill
- the player's bowl speed (if bowl skill > 40)
- the player's age
[A 7.2.1] Classes of Injury
There are a number of classes of injury. These are shown below with their approximate recovery rate using the symbols found in your formguide. This table is not to be relied on-each injury could differ from this recovery pattern for a number of reasons, especially if you do not rest a player. In fact, all injuries will hang around for much longer if you persist in playing an injured player.
| Class | Recovery | Description | | 1 | ? | Concussion, food poisoning, black eye | | 2 | ? | Gastro, broken nose, diahorrea | | 3 | %? | Vomiting, split webbing | | 4 | $%%?? | Split webbing, influenza | | 5 | I?... | Split webbing, hernia | | 6 | I%? | Hamstring, muscle strain | | 7 | I$$% | Fractured ribs, broken finger, dislocated finger, simple fracture of the jaw, dislocated shoulder | | 8 | II$ | Hyphema, fractured cheekbone, severe influenza, badly broken jaw, badly strained muscles |
The most severe injuries are shown in the following table:
| Description | Weeks Injured | Weeks Rest Until Fully Fit | | Severe muscle strain | 3 | 4 to 5 | | Broken jaw | 3 to 8 | quite a few | | Broken wrist | 6 to 10 | quite a few | | Broken leg | 8 to 23 | quite a few |
[A 8] Ground conditions: the weather and the pitch
When you draft a new team you get to decide on the sort of pitch and the weather that you can expect on an average day. The weather is defined by three variables: temperature, humidity and wind speed. The pitch is defined by two variables: hardness and amount of grass.
[A 8.1] The Pitch
Unlike the real world, you can order the ground staff to "fix" the pitch to suit your team. When you set up your team, you choose a general pitch type. Each pitch has 2 parameters defining how it plays. Each parameter is a number between 0 and 10.
The hardness of a pitch shows how much it will bounce. A hard pitch will favour fast bowlers and a soft pitch will favour bowlers with "off the pitch movement" (seam and spin bowlers).
The second parameter is grass - this determines how long the pitch takes to dry out. A pitch with a lot of grass will not change much from its initial behaviour throughout a test match, but a lack of grass will see it "crumble" and become soft. In an ODI the pitch will not change, so grass only really affects Test conditions.
[A 8.2] Weather
In the wonderful world of Ultra Cricket there is no rain, though weather can play some role in the game. You can determine the usual weather characteristics for your home ground. There are three parameters: humidity, temperature and wind.
For each game the weather will be based on your original settings but be variable (as weather always is). Each parameter takes on a number between 0 and 10. The randomness is + or - 2, but the number cannot exceed 10 or be less than 0. Thus if you want a very cold home ground, setting temp = 0, then the maximum it can reach is 2 and half of the time it will be 0. Thus having an extreme pitch allows you to have a "peculiar" ground but also makes it more predictable.
The effects of the weather basically affect the pitch. They are only marginal effects but can tilt the balance sometimes. For instance, wind helps bowlers with movement in the air but it also makes fielding harder, heat tires players out quicker-especially fast bowlers.
[A 8.3] Summary of pitch and weather effects
Soft pitch (Hardness 0-5):
- Favours spin and seam bowlers, works against fast bowlers
Hard pitch (Hardness 5-10):
- Favours fast bowlers, works against spinners and seam bowlers
Dry pitch (Grass 0-5):
- Causes a pitch to break up quickly thus favouring spinners for more of the match than fast bowlers
Grassy pitch (Grass 5-10):
- Causes pitch to hold together, thus favouring fast bowlers for more of the match than slow bowlers
Dry weather (humidity 0-5):
- Makes swing bowling more difficult
- Helps everyone tire less quickly
- Causes pitch to dry out more quickly, thus favouring spinners and seamers for more of the match
Humid weather (humidity 5-10):
- Helps swing bowlers
- Hinders fielders by causing them to tire faster
Cold weather (temperature 0-5):
- Helps everyone tire less quickly
- Helps hold pitch together
Hot weather (Temperature 5-10):
- Assists batting, causes a pitch to dry out which helps spinners more thanfast bowlers
- Generally causes everyone to tire sooner, especially fast bowlers
Still weather (wind 0-5):
- Helps fielders (makes catching easier)
- Makes swing bowling more difficult
Windy weather (wind 5-10):
- Helps swing bowlers to swing the ball
- Hinders fielders (more dropped catches)
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