[C 1] Setting Up A New Team

[C 1.1] Team Name

Make up a team name. The commissioner will then work out a two or three letter abbreviation which will identify your team. The abbreviation may not be obvious due to other teams having already pinched similar abbreviations.

For a list of current teams, look here.

[C 1.2] Ground Name

Make up a name for your home ground. For information on the ground characteristics, see [A 8].

[C 1.3] Draft your squad

You will start your Ultra Cricket club with 24 players and you will have 255 draft (or recruit) points to spend.

You design your recruits by constructing a template according to the following set of rules. Recruits are divided into 5 classes, batsmen, bowlers, keepers, allrounders and keeping allrounders.

The classes bat, bowl, and keep are (hopefully) self explanatory. All-rounders are players who can both bat and bowl to a reasonable level. Keeping all-rounders are keepers with good batting skills.

You construct their skill levels on an abstract scale of bad, poor, mediocre, average, good, great and superb. Then you select their bowl speeds from the scale of slow, medium, mediumfast and fast.

You must recruit 24 players, with the following break-down of player classes:

• 7 batsmen
• 9 bowlers
• 2 keepers
• 5 all-rounders
• 1 keeping all-rounder

Also, you must have 4 players from each age group, 0 through to 5. There is an added restriction that you must spend at least 36 DPs and at most 55 DPs in each age group. This is to prevent you from stacking your team with young or old players to start with.

To choose your recruits follow the steps in [D 6.2]. The only difference being that you will be selecting 24 players using 255 Draft Points (DPs) and you can set age to a number between 0 and 5 (as long as you have 4 players from each age group).

The 255 DPs only gives you an average of 7 DPs to spend on advancing the skills of each recruit. Since you must spend at least 4, there is not much to spare to spend on acquiring great or superb class players.

The design of the younger age groups is very important for the long term viability of the club. You'll have to think long and hard about what sort of team you want in a couple of seasons.

[C 1.4] Nominate your 2 captains

Nominate your two captains by placing C for the code in step 4 of the drafting process.

[C 1.5] Send it in!

Now send a single email message following the layout below to the Commissioner.

Krushed_Pineapples       |  Team Name - No blanks please
The_Plantation           |  Ground Name - No blanks please
8.2 6.5 8.0 9.0 3.0      |  Pitch parameters - hard, grass, humid, temp, wind
email@address            |  The email address you want me to mail you on
John Smith               |  Your real name

Hervey_Bay bat great good === bad bad slow seam avg 0 ..
Bli_Bli keep poor bad === .. .. .. .. good 0 ..
Montville allround avg poor === superb avg slow seam avg 0 ..
Cartwright bowl bad bad === poor good medium swing med 0 ..
Fraser bat great good === bad bad slow swing avg 1 ..
Caboolture allround av med === avg great medium both avg 1 ..
Sands bowl bad bad === good poor fast seam med 1 ..
Grant_Kenny bowl bad bad === poor good fast seam med 1 ..
Surf_Air allround poor poor === great good fast swing med 2 ..
Buderim bowl bad bad === good poor fast swing med 2 ..
Mooloolaba -Hardy allkeep good good === .. .. .. .. good 2 L
Maroochydore bat great good === bad bad slow seam avg 2 L
Nambour bat great good === bad bad slow seam avg 3 C
Yandina bat med good === bad bad slow swing poor 3 ..
Caloundra -Hart bat good med === bad bad slow seam poor 3 ..
Kawana allround med med === great good slow swing avg 3 C
Maleny bat superb avg === bad bad slow swing avg 4 ..
Dicky bowl bad bad === good poor slow seam med 4 ..
Kings bowl bad bad === good poor slow swing med 4 ..
Alexander bowl bad bad === poor good slow seam med 4 ..
Sunshine bowl bad bad === good poor slow swing med 5 ..
Noosa bowl bad bad === poor good slow swing med 5 ..
Bribey allround good avg === avg good slow both med 5 ..
Tewantin keep poor poor === .. .. .. .. good 5 ..

[C 1.6] Advice and Help for New Managers

The designing of your squad can be one of the most critical elements in Ultra Cricket, and it is therefore very important that you avoid certain pit-falls. Here are some general points that should be considered when you create your side:

• The age of the players is initially about the most important factor affecting their starting skill. Different types of players "peak" at different times, and it is important that you get this balance right.

  For example; a fast bowler usually peaks towards the end of age 2, and therefore creating an age 4 fast bowler will not be much use to you. Batsmen, wicketkeepers and slow bowlers peak much later, and therefore will be most useful by being age 4. However, you must allow for your squad to be successful in future seasons, and therefore it is important that you maintain a stream of good quality youngsters.

  Age 0 players are also important. They represent the future of your team, and although they will not be suitable to be used in your first few games, they will rapidly improve with training. Make sure that you don't ignore them.

  In general an age 1 superb player will not be as good as an age 4 average one (assuming it is a skill like batting). Be careful not to pin all your hopes on a youngster like this. They will obviously mature to become excellent players in the future, but they will be of limited immediate use.
   

• Don't create too many of the same type of player. You will be playing both test matches and one day games, and it is important that you have players that can do both. Aggression can be something of a handicap in test matches, but it is absolutely vital in one day games. Likewise, fielding can be very important in both forms of cricket. Remember the saying: "Catches win matches".
   
• It is quite likely that you will suffer injuries to key players through the season, so be cautious about creating 11 super players, and having nobody who can stand in. These "reserves" don't have to be as good as your regular first team players, but they should be competent. Many teams opt to have a squad of 14 or so quality players that play test matches and one day games between them. The rest of the squad will comprise youngsters and players that have been "written off".
   
• The influence of your captain on the game can be very important, especially in the one day internationals. Make sure that your senior captain is aged 3,4 or 5, since this will be beneficial to your side.
   
• The batting and bowling abilities can be very useful, but be very careful as well. Potentially they cost a lot of your initial points, and by mis-spending them this can be a great waste. Don't spend too many points in this way (probably only a handful is best). You are far better off raising a players skill from average to good rather than giving them +== batting. The same is true for bowling.

Good luck with your first Ultra Cricket season, and even if you feel you've made a real mess of your team, the beauty of the game is that you can improve very quickly.

[C 2] Adopting An Existing Team

Rather than starting a new team from scratch, you can adopt an existing team that does not have a manager any more. Look here for a list of teams up for adoption. Just email the Commissioner with your request.

These teams sometimes need a bit of special attention from the Commissioner to get them into some sort of shape.

• If there has been a bad mistake and the old manager was unfairly treated by having their team given away, then they may be given their team back and you will be given another team almost immediately. However, the chances of this happening are slim.
   
• You can NOT change your team abbreviation. You may however change the team name as long as the initials still mean something to do with the name.
   
• You can NOT change any player names UNLESS they have not played a First XI game and thus do not appear in the stats yet. Draftees of course can have any names you like when time to do the draft comes round. To check if a player has played an official game consult the Teams page and look at the stats available on it.
   
• You may freely alter the Ground Name before the season starts and the pitch conditions if you like.