[D] Ultra Cricket Orders

Each week, managers need to send a set of orders to the mail daemon (cricket) (see section [B 1.1]). These orders will contain all the information pertaining to the three games the club will play that week. This includes batting, bowling and training orders.

Each week you send orders to cricket regarding your choice of team and tactics for each of the forthcoming matches and a set of training orders. In weeks 1-14 of the season the first set of match orders will be test orders, the second and third will be ODI orders. In weeks 15 and 16 you will need to send three sets of ODI orders. There are several things which must be in each of the match orders and there also numerous others which can be included. Some team managers get by with a basic set of match orders while others use the full range of options. If you do use options, they must be included in a particular format. We will start with the basic set of test and ODI orders and then consider the options.

[D 1] Basic test orders

The basic set of test orders consists of the Team abbreviation, followed by the players listed in batting order and a set of bowling instructions. Finally, the end of each set of orders must be demarked by a row of dashes (at least 12 "-").

Here is an example:

ABL
Smith
Jones
Bloggs
Doe (C)
Russell
James (K)
Green
Brown
Black
Silver (N)
Gold
 
open with Gold and Silver
 
Silver 3 5 4.5 0
Gold   3 5 4.5 0
Black  3 7 4 0
Brown  2 7 4 10
Green  2 5 3.5 15
 
90
 
----------------------------------------

The first item is the team abbreviation. Each team is given an abbreviation by the Commissioner. This should be used in all communications with the Commissioner. It is preferred that you also put this in the message header and any message you mail.

The batting line-up consists of a list of 11 players, one per line. The player you want to face the first ball should be listed first. You will also need to signify which players you want to be the Captain and Wicket Keeper.

To signify a Captain, place a (C) after the player name (see section [A 2.2.12.1]) and for a Wicket Keeper use a (K) (see section [A 2.2.12.2]). There must be one space between the name and this designation. A single player may be both a Captain and a Wicket Keeper (CK).

You can optionally add a Night Watchman. See section [A 2.2.12.3]. To designate this put a (N) after the player's name in the batting line-up.

NOTE: There are some restrictions on choosing playersósee section [A 4.2].

The line open with Gold and Silver indicates the two bowlers who will bowl at the start of the innings and each time a new ball is taken (by default after 80 overs have been bowled, see section [A 2.2.12.4]). This line does not let you control who bowls at the beginning of each day, just who takes the new ball. After this line is a set of instructions about how each bowler is going to be used. Each line in these instructions is in the format:

bowlername minspell maxspell expense weighting

Where minspell and maxspell are integers; expense and weighting are real numbers; and bowlername is the bowler's name.

• minspell is the minimum number of overs you want the player to bowl in a spell. [NOTE: Under some circumstances this may be overruled.]
• maxspell is the maximum number of overs you want the bowler to bowl in one spell. [NOTE: Can be overruled if the bowler took (or nearly took) a wicket in their last over.]
• expense is a control to stop the bowler continuing on if they are expensive. Once the bowler has completed minspell overs, every over after that the present spell is checked to see how expensive it is. If it is more expensive than expense runs per over then s/he is replaced.
• weighting is a bonus which helps decide which bowler to choose. The larger the value you give to the bowler's weighting, the more frequently they'll be called on to bowl. A negative number can be used to prevent them as often. The code chooses which bowler to use based on a range of factors, the most influential being skill. The weighting is effectively added to the player's skill when deciding who to bowl next. Thus to make a skill 70 bowler bowl as often as a skill 90 bowler, use a weighting of 20.

The bowling is organised as follows. When a bowler comes to the end of their spell, the code uses a combination of the player's bowlskill, tiredness, effectiveness and the weighting to choose the best bowler to bowl. The program will choose the highest ranked bowler on this list that is "free" to bowl and it will bowl them for this spell-unless they prove to be too expensive as outlined above. The only time this will not occur is when you override it by saying you want certain people to bowl with the new ball, or by tactical bowling changes (see [D 2.11]).

The code will not bowl the opening two bowlers if that will prevent them from taking the new ball later. If you do not designate two opening bowlers it chooses the two highest ranked bowlers as your opening bowlers. These bowlers will bowl whenever you take a new ball.

After you have listed all the bowlers that you want to bowl, put a blank line and then a number. This number is the over at which you wish to take the new ball and must be >= 80. Your opening two bowlers will bowl at this juncture. If you do not put a number in it defaults to 80.

[D 2] Extended test orders

Once you have understood the basic set of test orders, you will be ready to move on to the more sophisticated subtleties of the extended set. There are a large range of subtle and not so subtle variations. You are not required to send in any more than the basic set as all the other variations have default values. i.e. values which are used unless you say otherwise. However, if you do use the optional orders then you must put them in a specific order. Between each of the following instructions (except where specified below) there must be a single blank line. The full set of possible test match instructions in order are:

team abbreviation
batting line-up
alternative batting line-up (optional)
toss decision (optional)
pitch controls (optional)
slogging controls (optional)
declaration controls (optional)
follow on control (optional)
fielding tactic controls (optional)
bowling instructions
bowling instructions for other days (optional)
tactical bowling instructions (optional)
remove the tail-enders with certain bowler (optional)
altering captains (optional)
resting instructions (optional)

Each game must be separated by a line of dashes ("-"). This line is called the game delimiter and must have at least 12 dashes in it. If you want to leave a line in your orders but want it to be ignored (say you want to set up a basic template and then decide which orders you actually want to use each week without reading through this rules document every time) then you can put a # as the first character of the line and it will be ignored.

[D 2.1] Team Abbreviation

See section [D 1].

[D 2.2] Batting Line-up

See section [D 1].

[D 2.3] Alternative Batting Line-up

If your team is batting last, you may wish to change the batting line-up based on the number of runs per hour you are chasing. To do this, place on one line either of the following statements:

if target>n1 k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 k7 k8 k9 k10 k11
    or
if target<n1 k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 k7 k8 k9 k10 k11

Where n1 (an integer) is the target rate and k1 through k11 (integers) are the player numbers based on the order you have set out in the batting line-up.

target is a number such that if your opponent sets a scoring rate greater than or equal to that number (or in the second case, less than or equal to), then change the line-up. You will never alter your batting line-up if chasing > 100 runs per hour.

Examples:

target>80 1 2 3 6 7 8 4 5 9 10 11

Will see this batting order if you need > 80 runs per hour but if you need > 100 it will not be used as you are deemed uninterested in trying for a win.

target<30 1 2 5 6 3 4 10 7 8 9 11

Will see you use more "defensive" players to ensure a comfortable win. The default is to use the same batting line-up as you sent in for all circumstances.

[D 2.4] Toss Decision

To see which team bats first, there is the need for a toss. Here, the manager must place his decision as to what he wants to be done if his team wins the toss. There are two options: bat or bowl. Bat means that your team will bat first if your captain wins the toss and bowl means that the other team will bat first (you can also use ëfieldí instead of bowl). The word bat or bowl should appear by itself on the line. The default is randomly assigned.

[D 2.4.1] Pitch controls

If you are the home team you can alter the pitch conditions prior to the game by asking the curator to do some extra work (at a substantial cost to you in TPs). Also, both teams have some control over the rate of pitch deterioation during a game by judicial use of the roller. The commands you need to use here are:

hardness n1
grass n1
inns2 roller string
inns3 roller string
inns4 roller string

where n1 can be a real number between -2 and +2 and the string for use with the roller command is one of {heavy,light or none}.

The hardness and grass values directly effect your pitch's parameters as set up by you when you designed your team [See A 8]. So, if you want a harder pitch you'd go hardness 1 for example. For a less grassy pitch you could go grass -1.4. The cost of this is calculated as n1*n1/4 TPs. These are taken away from your gate receipts and thus are taken away from your next season balance. Thus a hardness 2 will cost you 1 TP which is a heafty price to pay. A reminder - only the home team will get any affect from using the hardness and grass commands.

The effect of the roller is to close up the cracks and harden the pitch. The default is to use the light roller. By using a heavy roller you will make the pitch behave like it should a session closer to the start of the game and by not using a roller the pitch will behave like it normally would in a sessions time (towards the final day). Thus you can decelerate the pitch decay using a heavy roller or accelerate it using no roller. The effect of using the roller is permanent and lasts to the end of the game. The roller is used by the team about to start batting between each innings of the test. A roller is not available prior to the start of the match. That is why there is no inns1 roller instruction.

[D 2.5] Slogging controls

The slogging command is as follows:

slog num1 num2 num3 num4

• num1 is wickets down controlled (must be an integer between 4 and 9 (default is 8).
• num2 is tied to the declarations and must be a real number between 0.6 and 1.0 with the default being 0.8.
• num3 is tied to wickets left in last innings and must be an integer between 5 and 10; with the default being 7.
• num4 is the maximum you want to have to chase. If you get to less than this to win you start evaluating whether or not to chase. This number must be an integer and defaults to 1000.

If you want to change just one number away from the default you must send in all 4 numbers I am afraid. That is, slog 6 will not work-you must have 4 numbers in the order given above.

• num1 means that after num1 wickets have fallen a good batsmen will slog when a tail-ender joins him. This only applies in the first 3 innings of a game (this will not happen if you are batting last!).
• num2 means once you have got to num2*declaration total you will slog. It will always wait until you have a first innings lead before slogging, so really is only important in the first and third innings of games. It just means you can "push" for a victory a little more. The more conservative people can go for 1.0 and the rasher people for 0.6. It is not controlled by wickets left so you may self-destruct with this command!
• num3 allows you some control over when you chase in the fourth innings. This command may be improved at a later stage. At the moment you will chase if the runs needed for victory are < wicketsleft^2*num3. e.g. if num3 = 7(default) you will chase < 700. If you are 5 down and need more than 5*5*7=175 more runs to win, you will not chase them. If you keep losing wickets near the threshold you can defend/chase/defend/chase depending on the score. The wickets squared bit may not be to everyone's satisfaction but it is simple and works at the moment. You will automatically give up the chase once it is over 100 runs per hour. Please keep this in mind when making declarations (described in [D 2.6]). Going declare3 time 5 100 200 will ensure the opposition won't win-but they will shut up shop and probably stop you from winning! declare3 time 5 80 200 could ensure a closer finish!

[D 2.6] Declaration controls

You can order your team to declare its innings closed at certain stages of the match. These orders are optional and you need only put as many as you want. There are 6 declaration controls, corresponding to each of the first three innings of the match. The format of the orders are shown below.

NOTE: the order they appear does not matter anymoreóas long as there is no blank line in them!

declare1 tot1
declare2 tot2 minimumscore
declare3 tot3
declare1 time inn1
declare2 time inn2 hourtot2 minimumtot2
declare3 time inn3 hourtot3 minimumtot3

Where inn1, inn2, inn3, tot1, tot2, tot3, minimumtot2 and minimumtot3 are integers; hourtot2 and hourtot3 can be real numbers.

• declare1 is for declaring the first innings closed
• declare2 is for declaring the second innings closed
• declare3 is for declaring the third innings closed
• tot1 is the first innings total you wish to declare at
• tot2 & tot3 are the lead you wish to declare at minimumscore is the minimum innings total you want to have scored

Thus:

declare1 400

Means you will declare when you get to 400.

declare2 1 400

Means you will declare when you have the first innings lead and you have scored more than 400 (means you can take advantage of dismissing the opposition for a small total but still declare at a decent time if they score a lot!).

The second set of three controls allow you to declare after a certain time.

declare1 time inn1

Means you will declare your first innings closed after inn1 hours.

declare2 time inn2 hourtot2 minimumtot2
declare3 time inn3 hourtot3 minimumtot3

These statements allow you to declare with inn2 (or inn3) hours left as long as:

• your lead is greater than hourtot2 (or 3) * hours left and
• the target is > minimumtot2 (or 3)

Examples:

                                               Hours Left
Control                     1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12 13
declare3 time 10 60 240    240 240 240 240 300 360 420 480 540 600  -   -  -
declare3 time 5 70 210     210 210 210 280 350  -   -   -   -   -   -   -  -
declare3 time 12 50 250    250 250 250 250 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 -
declare3 time 8 80 200     200 200 240 320 400 480 560 640  -   -   -   -  -

The numbers in the above table represent the lead with which a declaration would be made, a '-' represents that the side would not declare, and thus continue to build their lead by continuing to bat.

NOTE: If the declare3 control was used, then parts of your declare3 time control can become redundant. A declaration occurs when either the declare3 or the declare3 time variable says it is time to declare, not when both conditions are satisfied.

Example:

                                               Hours Left
Controls                    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13
declare3 400
declare3 time 10 60 240    240 240 240 240 300 360 400 400 400 400 400 400 400

NOTE: A declaration will be stalled until a session break or for 20 minutes (whichever comes first); if a player is nearing a century; or a partnership is nearing a significant milestone.

[D 2.7] Follow on Controls

Simply-the default is yes. You will make the opposition follow on. You can only make a team follow on if you lead them by over 200 runs on the first innings. The idea being that the game is obviously uneven and it should help the game be over quicker. You can override this using:

follow on no

This is case sensitive and the spaces must be where they are shown!

[D 2.8] Fielding Tactic Controls

You can control where your fielders are in a general sense. The fielders are deemed to be in 3 positions; "catching", "inside the circle" or "on the boundary." (NOTE: the "circle" is a ring drawn 30m from the wicket.) Players in catching positions will increase your chance of a wicket and will cut down some singles. Players inside the circle will cut down on 1s and 2s and players on the boundary will stop 3s and 4s to some extent.

Now, what you have control over is the style of fielding imposed by your captain. There are 5 default tactics, as listed below:

Tactic	Description	Catchers	Circle	Boundary
A	Aggressive	7	2	0
G	Pressurising	5	3	1
N	Normal	3	4	2
T	Cautious	2	4	3
Z	Defensive	1	4	4

When a ball is bowled, one player is the wicket keeper (as for every ball in the innings), and one player is the bowler. The remaining nine fielders are then distributed according to the above table, in descending order of field skill. For example, if you have a field setting of A, your best seven fielders will be in close catching positions, and the two weakest will be in the circle.

You can alter where the weakest, or for that matter the strongest, fielders are positioned, by redefining the default fields, or defining your own fielding types (you can use any letter of the alphabet). The command for this is

set fieldtactic ? cccooobbb

Example:

set fieldtactic P ccccccboo

This field setting would see the best six fielders in close, the next best on the boundary, and the two weakest fielders in the circle.

Example:

set fieldtactic R bocbocboc

This field setting would have the 1st, 4th and 7th best fielders on the boundary, the 2nd, 5th and 8th in the circle, and the 3rd, 6th and 9th in catching spots. This example demonstrates that you can vary the order of positions depending on the field skill of your team, the commands are fairly flexible.

The other effects of fielding are rather complicated but the gist is that at the end of the game report you'll get a list of the number of runs given away by "bad fielding positions". This means the shot went past a close in fielder and thus a player had to run quite a distance to stop it. Run saving basically only occurs if a good shot gets stopped on the boundary. Don't try to make the runs given away get down to 0 as I don't think it is possible!

Specifying which tactics to use

After you have defined tactics (or have opted to use the defaults), how do you choose which ones to use? Well, in your orders put the line:

fielding tactics

The commands must be one of the following:

teamscore<x1 t1
teamscore>x2 t1
over<x3 t1
over>x4 t1
wicketsleft>x5 t1
wicketsleft<x6 t1
partnership>x7 t1
partnership<x8 t1
batscore<x9 t1
batscore>x10 t1
bowler is n1 t1
reqrate>x11 t1
reqrate<x12 t1
required>x13 t1
required<x14 t1
innings is x15 t1
day is x16 t1

Where x1 to x12 are all real and x13 to x16 are integers; and where t1 is the tactic (e.g. A, G, N, T, Z, + or -). The '+' alters the fielding tactic to the next available preceding letter, and the '-' alters the fielding tactic to the next available subsequent letter. Available letters are those which have been defined by you; if you have defined only defined an 'E' field tactic in addition to the default tactics, then using '-' would change this to G, and using '+' would change it to A.

Note: any changes caused by lines with ‘+’ or ‘-’ are applied after all of the other fielding tactics have been computed.

• x1 and x2 are the number of runs the opposition have scored in that innings
• x3 and x4 are the over number since taking the last new ball
• x5 and x6 are the number of wickets left
• x7 and x8 are the number of runs in the partnership so far
• x9 and x10 are the number of runs the batsman facing has scored
• x11 and x12 are the number of runs per hour your opponent needs in the final innings to win (you don't need to put innings is 4 with this command)
• x13 and x14 are the number of runs your opponent needs in the final innings to win (again, you don't need innings is 4)
• x15 is the innings of the match (1 to 4)
• x16 is the day of the match (1 to 5)
• n1 is one of your bowlers' names

You can have combined conditionals. Thus 'bowler is Warne & over>40 A' is legitimate. You may only have two conditions on the one line and please be very careful to put one and only one blank space after the '&'.

Example:

fielding tactics	Tells code to expect fielding tactics
over<15 N	Use a normal fielding tactic in the first 15 overs
over>14 Z	After the 14th over go on the defensive
partnership<10 A	Attack the batsmen after a wicket falls
bowler is Lee T	Protect Lee a little
innings is 2 & bowler is Lee -	In the second innings of the match use a more defensive field setting than usual. If the other commands gave 'G' then for Lee we'd have 'N' (unless another tactic in-between has been defined)

[D 2.9] Bowling Instructions

See section [D 1]. You can specify at which over the newball should be taken and which bowler you would like to target at the tailenders using the remove tail command mentioned below.

[D 2.10] Bowling Instructions for other days

If you want to use different bowling instructions on different days of the test, you can. Just type:

bowling instructions for day #num

Where #num is a number: 2, 3, 4 or 5. Then repeat section [D 2.9].

If you do not put bowling orders in for a particular day it will default to your "basic" bowling orders. It does not default to the previous day. That is, if you put bowling instructions in for day 3, these will not be used for day 4. You must put separate instructions in for this.

[D 2.11] Tactical Bowling Instructions

You may determine that certain opposition batsmen have a weakness against certain types of bowling. Thus when they bat you can ensure the correct bowler will bowl as soon as possible. The format for this instruction is:

if bat name1 bowl name2

Where name1 is the name of the opposition batsmen and name2 is your bowler's name. The bowler will be brought back on as soon as is possible while that batsman is in. Thus, whenever there is a bowling change the code will try to bring on that bowler. So you can open the bowling with fast bowlers and if the openers are still in and you think they have a weakness against spin, the spinners will come on. Thus using lots of tactical bowling instructions could render your original bowling instructions almost useless!

You can add one extra line here to direct which bowler you wish to see attack the tail-enders.

Remove tail num1 with name1

Where num1 (an integer) is after which wicket you want to "define" the tail as starting and name1 is the name of one of your bowlers. If placed here it will countermand any previous remove tail instructions and will be used all 5 days of the game.

Example:

Remove tail 8 with Warne

Meaning that Warne will come on as soon as the 8th wicket falls in any innings (if he is not already bowling or too tired) to bowl a spell with length as defined in your bowling orders. This command will override the "wait for the new ball" scenario for your opening bowlers. This may lead to unusual occurences when bowlers are chosen when the new ball does arrive.

[D 2.12] Altering Captains

To change which players are captains, use the following line:

captain n1 n2

This will swap your captaincy between players n1 and n2 at a cost of 5 TPs. n1 must be a captain before the swap. The swap takes place before the match so that you can have your new captain lead the team in the event that the two captains that existed before the swap are unable to play. If you do not need to swap the captains for any of the current week's matches, then refer to section [D 5.3.2].

NOTE: If you want to use the new captain in the following ODIs for that week, then the order checker will not recognise the new captain and an error will be produced. To overcome this, repeat the swap command for each of the following matches. Make sure that you keep the names in the same order as before so that the captains don't get swapped a second time. Repeating the command will not cost you any extra money (because the swap will have already occurred).

[D 2.13] Resting Instructions

When a player is sick or recuperating from an injury, they will need to be rested. To do this, add the following line:

rest player1

Where player1 is the name of the player to be rested. If you want to rest multiple players put them on different lines. Refer also to section [A 7.2] on injuries.

[D 3] Basic ODI orders

The basic set of ODI orders is similar to the basic test orders. It consists of the Team abbreviation, followed by the team listed in batting order and a set of bowling instructions. Finally, the end each set of orders must be demarked by a row dashes (at least 12 ë-í). Here is an example:

ABL
Smith
Jones
Bloggs
Doe (C)
Russell
James (K)
Green
Brown
Black
Silver
Gold
 
Silver & Gold 5
Black & Brown 5
Green & Gold 5
Silver & Brown 5
Green & Black 5
 
----------------------------------------

NOTE: There are some restrictions on choosing playersósee section [A 4.2].

The bowling instructions are set out such that you define which bowlers are to bowl and when. The bowlers will bowl in pairs. There will be a separate line for each pair of bowlers. The line will include the names of the bowlers with an "&" in between. The number at the end of the line gives the number of times that the two bowlers will bowl together. (Twice this number gives the number of over bowled by the pair.)

Each line of the bowling instructions should look like the following:

bowler1 & bowler2 n1

Where bowler1 and bowler2 are the two bowlers and n1 is the number of overs each bowler bowls. If n1=5, then 10 overs would be bowled before the next bowlers are used.

A very simple example would be:

Smith & Jones 5
Smith & Weston 5
Brown & White 5
Brown & Weston 5
White & Jones 5

You can see that the numbers add up to 25. 25 overs are bowled from each end giving a total of 50 overs. If you do not use all 25 overs from each end then the code will try its best to bowl out your best bowlers but does not plan ahead and often can need a sixth bowler to bowl one or two overs at the very end.

No bowler can bowl more than 10 overs in total and no bowler can bowl two consecutive overs. A common mistake (which can cost a match) is to go:

Smith & Jones 5
Jones & Brown 5

This would require Jones to bowl consecutive overs-which is not allowed.

NOTE: It is possible to give ODI bowling orders that are accepted by the order checker but have inconsistencies such as shown above. In these cases, the code will automatically choose another bowler that is able to bowl. This may disrupt the rest of your bowling orders. Also, if you have only 5 bowlers in the team, a non-bowler can be chosen to bowlóso be very careful!

[D 4] Extended ODI orders

The instructions are in a similar format to Test Matches. In order they are:

team abbreviation
batting line-up
alternative batting line-up (optional)
pinch hitter (optional)
toss decision (optional)
first innings targets (optional)
tactic controls (optional)
slogging controls (optional)
fielding tactic controls (optional)
bowling instructions
alternative bowling instructions (optional)
reserve bowlers (optional)
restructuring bowling instructions (optional)
altering captains (optional)
resting instructions (optional)

All of the lines from team abbreviation to resting instructions will need to be repeated for each one day match. Each game must be separated by a line of dashes ('-'). This line is called the game delimiter and must have at least 12 dashes in it.

[D 4.1] Team Abbreviation

As for tests, see [D 1].

[D 4.2] Batting Line-up

As for tests (see [D 1]), except you don't have Night Watchman in ODIs, as there is no night to watch!.

[D 4.3] Alternative Batting Line-up

If your team is batting second, you may wish to change the batting line-up based on the number of runs you are chasing. To do this, place on one line either of the following statements:

if target>n1 k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 k7 k8 k9 k10 k11
    or
if target<n1 k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 k7 k8 k9 k10 k11

Where n1 is the target number and k1 through k11 (all integers) are the player numbers based on the order you have set out in the batting line-up. The target number is such that if your opponent scores a total greater than or equal to that number (or in the second case, less than or equal to) then change the line-up.

Example:

if target>240 1 2 3 5 6 9 8 4 7 10 11

This will send in sloggers from the lower order earlier if your team needs to score total of at least 240. Batsman 4 (who may be a slow scorer) is not used until later.

[D 4.4] Pinch Hitters

You may employ a pinch hitter in either innings. A pinch hitter is a designated player who will come in at a certain stage of the innings to speed up the scoring of the runs. This player must exist in your original batting line-up. There can only be one pinch hitter used in each match. To use a pinch hitter, place on one line the following statement:

pinch n1 at n2 from n3

Where n1 and n3 are integers and n2 is a real number.

• n1 is the number of the player to come in, based on the original batting line-up.
• if the required run rate is > n2 then you need a pinch hitter.
• n3 is the number of overs your side has already faced.

Example:

pinch 9 at 7 from 40

This means that the player listed at 9 would come in next after the 40th over if the required run rate is more than 7.

[D 4.5] Toss Decision

As for tests, see section [D 2.4].

[D 4.6] First Innings Targets

You can determine what target you want to set yourself in the first innings should you bat first, and that which you would like to see your opponents limited to. The batting target is not a fixed target but a rough guide for your team. If it is set too low they will bat slowly but if it is set too high they may lose wickets trying to reach the score. Alternatively, they may decide that the target is unrealistic and bat slowly in order to preserve wickets.

Start by picking a number between 200 and 250 and see how you go. Also be warned, some pitches are bad for batting, so 250 may be excessive. On other pitches a score of 220 may be quite conservative.

The "desired run rate" used is based on the biggest of the following:

• rate required to reach the target (as set by this command when you bat first, or by the opposition's score when you bat second)
• a rate equal to 13 minus wickets lost in the closing few overs

So, if you set a low bat target it will be ignored once you get close to it.

The fielding target only controls your fielding tactics and bowl last commands (see [D 4.13]). This is a "fixed" target and is not altered throughout the game. Thus if you set the target to 180 and the opposition pass that, then the run rate for determining if your fielding controls will be used will start being negative. Please keep that in mind!

The defaults are bat target 220 and field target 230.

The syntax is:

bat target t1
field target t1

Where t1 is your target total and must be an integer. This is an important variable to get right! Both are purely optional and you can use one and not the other (the default is used if you don't choose one). Many teams use neither!

[D 4.7] Tactics for aggression

There are two tactics you can choose when you bat. One relates to the overs bowled and the other to the wickets left. The syntax is:

inns1 tactic1 char
inns1 tactic2 char
inns2 tactic1 char
inns2 tactic2 char

Where for tactic1, char may be one of A, F, L, N, S and for tactic2 you choose from B, F, L and N. inns1 is for you batting first and inns2 is for you batting second. The order these commands are put in does not matter as long as there are no blank lines among them.

• tactic1 controls when in the innings you go aggressive. The "normal" method (or default) is 'N'. This slowly accelerates your scoring as the innings progresses. 'A' means you accelerate more to start with but lose out at the end. 'F' means you accelerate the same regardless of where you are in the innings-do not expect any flourish in the final overs but you might catch the opposition napping in the early overs. 'L' means a basically linear increaseómore aggression in the middle overs than 'N' but less at the end. 'S' means you go quietly along until about over 42 and then slog awayóif you can keep wickets in hand this could cause absolute mayhem and at least 12-15 runs an over at the end (but things could be out of control by then!). The graph below shows overs gone along the x axis and the aggression multiplication system on the y axis.

  
  TACTIC 1

• tactic2: again the default is 'N' which starts making you slow down once you are 5 or 6 wickets down. 'L' is a linear decrease...means your middle order will be more defensive but you late order players will attack more. 'B' means you start with a lower aggression but it won't drop any further until you are about 8 wickets down. 'F' means you don't care how many wickets are down...the same aggression at all times. The graph below shows wickets down along the x axis and the aggression multiplication system on the y axis.

  
  TACTIC 2

[D 4.8] Slogging controls

The slogging command is as follows:

slog num1 num2

Where both num1 and num2 may be real numbers.

• num1 relates to run rate and must be between 8 and 12.
• num2 relates to wickets left and must be between 2 and 4.

You must give both variables on this line. Giving only one will result in the order checker rejecting your orders.

If your player's "modified" aggression is less than (required runrate * num1), and the number of overs left is < (wickets left * num2), and the player has batskill > 45 then they will trade some batskill for aggression in an attempt to increase the scoring rate. If you are very conservative go for slog 8 2 and if you are rash then slog 12 4. The default is slog 10 3.

Example:

slog 10 3

If a players "modified" aggression is 70 and the required run rate is 6 and there are any number of overs left, he will not slog. (Because rate required (6) * num1 (10) is < 70). If the run rate required was > 7 and the number of overs left was less than wickets left * num2 (3) then he would slog.

[D 4.9] Fielding Tactic Controls

The orders for fielding tactics in ODIs are quite similar to those for tests. The differences are in the default definitions - plus the inclusion of standard ODI fielding restrictions.

The default tactics are listed below:

Tactic	Description	Catchers	Circle	Boundary
A	Aggressive	4	5	0
G	Pressurising	3	5	1
N	Normal	2	5	2
T	Cautious	0	6	3
Z	Defensive	0	4	5

NOTE: The total number of fielders given is 9 = 11 - keeper - bowler.

When a ball is bowled, one player is the wicket keeper (as for every ball in the innings), and one player is the bowler. The remaining nine fielders are then distributed according to the above table, in descending order of field skill. For example, if you have a field setting of A, your best four fielders will be in close catching positions, and the five weakest will be not so close positions but still within the circle.

You can alter where the weakest, or for that matter the strongest, fielders are positioned, by redefining the default fields, or defining your own fielding types (you can use any letter of the alphabet). The command for this is

set fieldtactic ? cccooobbb

Example:

set fieldtactic P cbboooooo

This field setting would see the best fielder in close, the next two best on the boundary, and the rest in the circle.

Example:

set fieldtactic J bocbocboc

This field setting would have the 1st, 4th and 7th best fielders on the boundary, the 2nd, 5th and 8th in the circle, and the 3rd, 6th and 9th in catching spots. This example demonstrates that you can vary the order of positions depending on the field skill of your team, the commands are fairly flexible.

ODI Fielding Restrictions

For those people not familiar with real life cricket - in One Day International games there are various fielding restrictions imposed on teams to make the game more exciting.

In the first 15 overs you must have at least 2 fielders in "catching" positions (the keeper does not count) and no more than 2 outside a "circle" drawn around the pitch - in UC terms no more than 2 b and at least 2 c. After the completion of the 15th over you need not have any fielders in catching positions but must have 4 inside the circle (or in other words, a maximum of 5 on the boundary).

The UC code will look at the tactics you have defined and work out which ones are valid for the first 15 overs. Then when you select a tactic in the first 15 overs it checks if it is valid. If not, it will then successively select a preceding tactic (i.e. towards the start of the alphabet) until it finds a more aggressive setting (i.e. has 2 catchers and no more than 2 on the boundary). In case the default settings have been redefined and no tactic is suitable for the first 15 overs, the code will reset the A tactic back to the default setting.

Specifying which tactics to use

After you have defined tactics (or have opted to use the defaults), how do you choose which ones to use? Well, in your orders put the line:

fielding tactics

The commands must be one of the following:

required>x1 t1
required<x2 t1
over>x3 t1
over<x4 t1
wicketsleft>x5 t1
wicketsleft<x6 t1
partnership>x7 t1
partnership<x8 t1
batscore>x9 t1
batscore<x10 t1
batrate>x11 t1
batrate<x12 t1
bowler is n1 t1
innings is x13 t1

Where x1 to x12 are all real and x13 is an integer. t1 is the tactic (e.g. A, G, N, T, Z, + or -). The '+' alters the fielding tactic to the next available preceding letter, and the '-' alters the fielding tactic to the next available subsequent letter. Available letters are those which have been defined by you; if you have defined only defined an 'E' field tactic in addition to the default tactics, then using '-' would change this to G, and using '+' would change it to A.

Note: any changes caused by lines with ‘+’ or ‘-’ are applied after all of the other fielding tactics have been computed.

• x1 and x2 are the required run rate (in the first innings this is controlled by your field target, and in the second innings controlled by your actual total)
• x3 and x4 are the over number
• x5 and x6 are the number of wickets left
• x7 and x8 is the number of runs in the partnership so far
• x9 and x10 are the number of runs the batsman facing has scored
• x11 and x12 are the number of runs per 100 balls any opposition player is scoring at
• x13 is either 1 or 2
• n1 is one of your bowler's names

You can have combined conditionals. Thus 'bowler is Warne & over>40 A' is legitimate. You may only have two conditions on the one line and please be very careful to put one and only one blank space after the '&'.

Example:

fielding tactics	Tells code to expect fielding tactics
over<15 N	Use a normal fielding tactic in the first 15 overs
over>14 Z	After the 14th over go on the defensive
partnership<10 A	Attack the batsmen after a wicket falls
bowler is Lee T	Protect Lee a little
over>45 & required>10 Z	Unlike above, if they need lots just go defensive if we are in the last 5 overs!

[D 4.10] Bowling Instructions

See section [D 3].

[D 4.11] Alternative Bowling Instructions

When bowling in the second innings, you may want to have a different bowling line-up, depending on the total you have to defend. To do this, you must include a lineating the total which triggers the use of the alternative line-up. If you score less than this amount in the first innings, then you will use the alternative bowling orders listed after that line. So, in the orders you will have:

bowler1 & bowler2 (n1)
n2
bowler3 & bowler4 (n3)

Where bowler1, bowler2 and n1 are as described earlier in [D 3] and belong to the bowling instructions. If your team sets a total less than n2 then you will use the alternative bowling order. There must be a blank line next. bowler3, bowler4 and n3 are the players and number of overs for the first line of bowlers in the alternative bowling line-up.

Example:

If batting first, your team scores less than 180 then use a different set of bowling orders.

McDermott & McGrath 5
Reiffel & Waugh_S 5
Warne & Waugh_S 5
Warne & McGrath 5
Reiffel & McDermott 5
 
180
 
McDermott & Reiffel 5
McGrath & Warne 5
Waugh_S & Warne 5
McDermott & McGrath 5
Waugh_S & Reiffel 5

[D 4.12] Reserve Bowlers

If you feel that a bowler may not perform to your wishes, you may replace him at the end of an over. Another bowler, as prescribed, would bowl the rest of the overs for that spell. To do this, you state:

bowler2 reserve for bowler1 at n1 from n2
    or
bowler2 reserve for bowler1 after n1 from n2

Where bowler2 is the reserve bowler you want to bring in if bowler1 gets hit for more than or equal to n1 runs from n2 overs. It is possible to have many reserve bowlers and have reserves for reserve bowlers. The reserve orders work on both your standard bowling orders and any alternative ones given in [D 4.11]. Each bowler may only have one reserve bowler.

Thus, in the following example only bowler3 will be reserve for bowler1:

bowler2 reserve for bowler1 at ...
bowler3 reserve for bowler1 at ...

The code does not plan ahead for you! So if you use reserve orders make sure you have a good sixth bowler or else face a humiliation as a skill 0 bowler bowls in over 49! You may have a reserve for a reserve but be careful with this.

[D 4.13] Restructuring Bowling Orders

You can restructure your bowling orders by bringing on your final pair of bowlers earlier. This allows you to either press an advantage or have one last fling at winning the game. What happens is that the last x overs are bowled once a certain condition (that you specify) has been met. The remaining overs in your bowling orders are then completed. The syntax is as follows:

bowl last n1 after n2 >n3 <n4 n5down

Where n1 is the number of overs you want to take from the end of your orders. If n1 = 6 then the last 6 overs will be bowled. n2 is the over number before which this will not happen. n3 and n4 are the opposition's required run rate. Thus if the opposition need > n3 to win you can push the advantage. If the oppositon need < n4 to win, then you can go for broke to win. n5 is the number of wickets down. i.e. finish off the tail if you like.

Example:

McDermott & McGrath 5
Reiffel & Waugh_S 5
Warne & Waugh_S 5
Warne & McGrath 5
Reiffel & McDermott 5
 
bowl last 6 after 30 >8 <3 8down

This would lead to Reiffel & McDermott bowling 3 overs each as earlyas the 30th over if the opposition was 8 wickets down, or required eithermore than 8 runs per over or less than 3 runs per over to win.

[D 4.14] Altering Captains

As for tests (see section [D 2.12]). Carefullyread the note at the bottom of that section.

[D 4.15] Resting Instructions

As for tests (see section [D 2.13]).

[D 5] Training, Clinic and Other Orders

[D 5.1] Training Orders

During each week of matches, the manager has the option to train a number of players. Each training order is placed on a separate line. The order for this is:

player1 attribute1 raise1 attribute2 raise2 ...
    or
player1 attribute1 attribute2 attribute3 ...

Where player1 is the player to be trained; attribute1, attribute2,... are the attributes being improved; and raise1, raise2,... are the amounts the attributes are to be raised, and must be given as integers. In the second form, a raise of 1 is assumed in each attribute. These attributes must be legal. A non-bowler cannot work on his bowling attributes. There are six allowable attributes, these being: fieldskill, batskill, aggression, calmness, bowlskill and economy. There are shorthand ways of writing these:

fieldskill, field  or F
batskill, batting, bat or B
aggression, aggr or A
calmness, calm or C
bowlskill, bowling, bowl or W
economy, econ or E

Calm has been included to allow you to stop the effects of experience makingyour star batsmen become reckless. It simply works the same as aggression exceptit takes away experience instead of adding it.

There are also eight allowable clinic attributes (see next section).

No single player may be trained/cliniced more than 8 points in one week, or more than 5 points on one attribute. 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/clinic is not affected).

[D 5.2] Clinics

You can spend your TPs on altering some other attributes of players (batting abilities, batting form, bowlform and health). It is not advised that you spend too much in clinics and many teams will be able to play many seasons without spending much in clinics.

The major use of clinics is to improve the form of a key player. Only a player in negative form may be have their form improved, and then they may only be increased up to 0 (or average) form. To increase a player's form by 1.3 it will cost 1 TP. Since you do not know the exact form for any player, any excess you allocate is not spent. For example, if a player has batting form of -2.6 and you spend 3 TP on their batform, then it will rise to 0 but it will only cost you 2 TPs.

Clinics have an immediate effect but remember that clinics happen after all 3 games. So they are a planning ahead move, NOT a quick fix. A player in -- form may get to + form before your clinic occurs. It is a "I need Smith ready for next week, better make sure his form is OK after this week's games."

Bowling speed can also be increased by 0.5% for every TP spent. No one can have a bowling speed greater than 100. (There is a possibility that this facility to increase bowl speed may have to be stopped in the future.)

Health can also be restored. By spending TPs on health, a player who is not fully fit will heal quicker. A player noted with a ? or ! in the formguide can recover very quickly with a trip to the club doctor!

You can also help players learn how to bat against certain types of bowler. The effect is not great, but it is helpful. When trying to change a batter's ability against a bowler type from - to =, it only happens when a player crosses the 0.4 threshold. So nothing will happen whilst they climb from 0.2 to 0.4 and then all of a sudden a visible change will occur. On average, it costs ~20 TPs to improve a batter's skill by one visual level (i.e. from - to =). However, with every TP spent there is a slight improvement, just that usually it will not be visible on the form guide.

There are some restrictions on clinics:

• You may not spend more than 8 TPs a week on any player in training & clinics
• You may not spend more than 5 TPs on any player in any single skill or clinic
• An injured player may not have full use of a clinic (same as for training)
• Clinics can only occur in weeks that training can occur

[D 5.2.1] Syntax for Clinic Orders

Since the clinic orders are to be put amongst your training orders, the syntax is similar to that used for training:

Name attr TPs

Where Name is your player's name; attr is the attribute you want altered; and TPs is the amount of money you wish to spend on this player.

The attributes (attr) are:

Description	attr	Abbrev.
Batting form	batform, batfm	T
Bowling/keeping form	bowlform, bowlfm	L
Bowling speed increase	bowlspeed, bowlsp	S
Bowling of seam increase	bowlseam, bowlsm	R
Bowling of swing increase	bowlswing, bowlsw	Q
Better batting against seam	seam, spin	M
Better batting against swing	swing	N
Better batting against speed	speed, fast	P

If you want to increase a player's batting form and bowlform in that priority, use the following:

Player T 5
Player L 5

If there is any money left over after improving batting form, it will be used on bowlform. The order you type the commands in is the order they will be done.

[D 5.2.2] Syntax for Health Clinic Orders

To help an injured player's health improve use:

health name TPs

Where name is your player's name and TPs is the amount of money you wish to spend on this player. Every TP causes the player injury rating to drop 3%. Thus the maximum 8 TPs would possibly see a $ drop to % and a ? or fitter would get to full fitness. A player can only be health cliniced using TPs disallowed due to being injured or rested. For example, a player rested for two matches can be cliniced in health by up to 6 TPs.

In order to make sure that a health clinic is performed, you can put the health line before the other training in your orders.

[D 5.3] Special orders

There are several special orders that you can give. Though they are not really training orders, they are grouped with those orders for simplicity's sake.

[D 5.3.1] Instructions for Ground Staff

Unlike the real world, you can order the ground staff to "fix" the pitch to suit your team. Firstly, you must pick a general pitch type. Each pitch has 2 parameters: defining how hard it is and how much grass it has. A hard pitch assists bounce (and hence fast bowlers) whilst a soft pitch helps movement off the pitch from seam or spin bowlers. The amount of grass determines how quickly the pitch deteriorates from hard to soft.

Each week you can order your curator (ground staff) to change the pitch. Changes, however, are only slight. So it would take many seasons to turn a dry crumbly pitch into a hard grassy one. However, you can relay the pitch at the end of the season. To order changes, use the following format:

pitch a1 a2

Where a1 is hard or grass; and a2 is an integer between -5 and +5. The absolute value of a2 is the amount spent in TPs. A + amount spent makes the pitch either harder or have more grass, and a - amount will make the pitch softer or remove some grass. For each TP spent, the effect is to add or subtract 0.005 to either the hardness or the grassiness of the pitch.

If you make a change to the pitch you'll get a ground condition report. For a free report, order a pitch change and use 0 TPs. If you get no comment after the line informing you of how much you have spent on altering the pitch conditions, then you can assume the pitch has an average behaviour, otherwise you will get some comment about your pitch. There is no limit to the amount you can spend on pitch changes, but it is not recommended that you do that over a long period of time.

[D 5.3.2] Changing your Captain

In your training and clinic orders you can put a command to sack one captain and replace them with another one. This will cost you 5 TPs from the current week's training budget. Unlike the commands listed in your match orders ([D 2.12] & [D 4.14]), this will happen after all three games. i.e. at the same time as the training and clinics are done. If you need to change your captains due to injury before the three games are run, then you'll need to use the appropriate command in the match orders before which you wish the captaincy to swap.

The syntax for changing captains is:

capt name1 name2
    or
captain name1 name2

Where name1 and name2 are names of players in your squad and one of which must have been a captain before. Be warned, leaving this command in for two week running will see the players swap back over (thus effectively wasting you 10 TPs!!).

[D 5.3.3] Removing Bowling Ability

Some players late in their career start becoming useless bowlers. To help prevent them getting injured (or just to clear up your weekly formguide) you may wish to remove their bowlskill. This can be done simply by putting the following line in your training orders:

nobowl name

The player's bowlskill will disappear for ever. NOTE: This will cost nothing.

[D 5.3.4] Making a Keeper

To convert someone into a Wicket Keeper you just go:

makekeep name

The fieldskill will drop to present_skill/2+15. Thus a fieldskill 80 player will become fieldskill 55. There is a cost incurred of 18 TPs for this action (from the current week's training budget). Also, please note that an age 0 player cannot be converted to a wicket keeper.

[D 5.3.5] Retiring a Player

To remove someone from your squad go:

retire name
    or
sack name

and they've gone! Never to return! NOTE: This will cost nothing.

[D 5.4] Comments

If the manager wishes to make a comment to the Commissioner, then here is the place to do it. NOTE: there must be a game delimiter (at least 12 '-') after the training orders so that anything like your signature can go here without being made part of your training orders.

It is highly encouraged that you state your Team name in your comments to help the Commissioner fathom which team you are referring to (since all the comments get stuck in one huge file).

[D 5.5] Example of Orders

The following is an example of a set of orders. Note where the blank lines and game delimiters are situated.

TOL
Friary
Boddington (C)
Summerfield
Junior
Donkin
Forest
Sharkey
Barrie (N)
Golk
Grahamed (K)
Smitington

#if target>60 2 3 4 6 1 7 5 8 9 10 11
#if target<40 1 2 3 4 7 6 5 8 10 9 11

bat

slog 10 1 6 400

declare1 555
declare1 time 12
declare2 1 450
declare3 550
declare3 time 10 50 275

set fieldtactic A ccccccooo
set fieldtactic D cccccoooo
set fieldtactic G ccccoooob
set fieldtactic J cccoooobb
set fieldtactic N ccooooobb
set fieldtactic Q ccooooobb
set fieldtactic T cooooobbb
set fieldtactic W coooobbbb
set fieldtactic Z ooooobbbb

fielding tactics
wicketsleft<4 D
bowler is Smitington & day is 5 +
bowler is Smitington & day is 4 +
bowler is Golk & day is 1 +
bowler is Golk & day is 2 +
batscore<25 +
batscore<15 A
batscore>70 -
batscore>95 & batscore<110 D
required<50 & wicketsleft>4 W

open with Smitington and Sharkey

Sharkey 2 5 3.6 1
Smitington 2 5 3.6 2
Forest 3 6 3.5 0
Golk 4 8 3.3 0
Barrie 3 10 3.3 0

80

bowling instructions for day 2

open with Smitington and Sharkey

Smitington 2 5 3.5 1
Sharkey 2 5 3.5 1
Forest 3 6 3.5 5
Golk 4 9 3.3 0
Barrie 4 9 3.3 0

84

bowling instructions for day 3

open with Sharkey and Smitington

Smitington 2 5 3.4 0
Sharkey 2 5 3.4 0
Forest 3 6 3.25 0
Golk 3 9 3.8 3
Barrie 3 10 3.8 5

88

bowling instructions for day 4

open with Sharkey and Smitington

Smitington 1 3 3.0 -5
Sharkey 2 5 3.3 0
Forest 3 6 3.3 0
Golk 4 10 3.8 0
Barrie 3 11 3.8 8

92

bowling instructions for day 5

open with Sharkey and Smitington

Smitington 1 3 3.0 -8
Sharkey 2 5 3.3 0
Forest 3 6 3.3 0
Golk 4 10 3.8 4
Barrie 3 11 3.8 11

100

if bat Smith bowl Golk

remove tail 7 with Barrie

---------------------------------------------
TOL
Summerfield
Boddington (C)
Meadly
Junior (K)
Lillith
Dibb
Sharkey
Forest
Jones
Abeson
Barrie

#if target>245 3 2 5 4 1 6 7 8 9 10 11
#if target<200 8 2 3 4 5 6 1 7 9 10 11

pinch 5 at 0 from 20

bowl

bat target 245
bowl target 230

inns1 tactic1 S
inns1 tactic2 F
inns2 tactic1 S
inns2 tactic2 L

slog 11 3.5

set fieldtactic A ccccooooo
set fieldtactic D ccccoooob
set fieldtactic G cccooooob
set fieldtactic J ccoooooob
set fieldtactic N ccooooobb
set fieldtactic Q coooooobb
set fieldtactic T oooooobbb
set fieldtactic W ooooobbbb
set fieldtactic Z oooobbbbb

fielding tactics
partnership<15 +
batrate<66 & over<41 +
over>40 Z
wicketsleft<4 & required<6 D
batrate>100 Z
bowler is Abeson -

Forest & Sharkey (5)
Barrie & Jones (7)
Forest & Abeson (5)
Sharkey & Abeson (5)
Jones & Barrie (3)

Dibb reserve for Sharkey after 22 from 5
Dibb reserve for Forest after 22 from 5

------------------------------------------------------------
TOL
Lillith
Summerfield
Meadly
Junior (K)
Boddington (C)
Sharkey
Forest
Jones
Abeson
Barrie
Sana

if target>245 6 1 4 3 2 5 7 8 9 10 11
if target<200 1 10 3 4 5 2 6 7 8 9 11

pinch 6 at 0 from 25

bowl

bat target 250
bowl target 230

inns1 tactic1 N
inns1 tactic2 F
inns2 tactic1 N
inns2 tactic2 B

slog 11 3.5

set fieldtactic A ccccooooo
set fieldtactic D ccccoooob
set fieldtactic G cccooooob
set fieldtactic J ccoooooob
set fieldtactic N ccooooobb
set fieldtactic Q coooooobb
set fieldtactic T oooooobbb
set fieldtactic W ooooobbbb
set fieldtactic Z oooobbbbb

fielding tactics
partnership<15 +
batrate<66 & over<41 +
over>40 Z
wicketsleft<4 & required<6 D
batrate>100 Z
bowler is Abeson -

Sharkey & Forest (5)
Barrie & Abeson (5)
Sharkey & Jones (5)
Barrie & Abeson (2)
Forest & Jones (5)
Barrie & Abeson (3)

rest Tyke

--------------------------------------------------------

Barrie W 5 E 1 F 1
Meadly A 1
Abeson E 2
Golk W 5
Jones E 1
Johnson B 2 W 5 F 1
Friary B 1 F 1
Forest B 1 E 1
Jeal B 3 F 2
Donkin B 5 F 3
Lillith B 1 A 2
Grahamed B 1 F 5
Junior B 1
Dooddle B 1 W 2 F 1
Summerfield B 5 F 1
Smitington B 1 W 5 F 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is TOL here.  This looks like another three losses.  Wish I could
play against IOS :-)

[D 6] What happens between seasons?

Each season lasts for 16 sessions. At the end of this everyone takes a breather! During this break you will notice that all of your players will have had a birthday (their age will have incremented by 1). For fast bowlers passing their fourth or even fifth birthday this can be the sign of pending retirement-depressing hey? Well no-bring on the new blood! The draft. After a week or so lull, the Commissioner will send out a list of teams and their draft point allocation and their weekly TP allowance for next season.

[D 6.1] Draft points

Draft points (DPs) are used to contract young (age 0) players to your club. Before each season starts you must use your DP allocation to draft three such players.

Draft points are allocated to clubs in accordance with their status as both a one-day team and a test team. Usually a team will get between 34 and 40 draft points. Teams in the SuperLeague or Division 1 in either form of the game will get 34DPs. The lower down you are in your 'best' game style the more DPs you are allocated.

[D 6.2] The drafting process

You select you draftees by constructing a template according to the following set of rules. Draftees are divided into 5 classes, batsmen, bowlers, keepers, allrounders and batting keepers (or allkeeps). You allocate their skill levels on an abstract scale of "bad", "poor", "mediocre", "average", "good", "great", and "superb". Then you select their bat and bowl abilities.

For each draftee perform steps 1-5, then proceed to step 6. Remember, you must select 3 draftees.

Step 1:

Select a class and basic template and record the associated cost. The template lists starting skill levels as bat/aggression/bowl/economy/field:

Class	Template	Cost
bat	poor/poor/bad/bad/poor	2
bowl	bad/bad/poor/poor/poor	3
allround	poor/poor/poor/poor/poor	5
keep	bad/bad/../../poor	2
allkeep	poor/poor/../../poor	4

Step 2:

Apply the skill increases you require to one skill at a time, accumulating the cost as you go.

Current	New	Cost	Allowed
bad	poor	1	always
poor	mediocre	1	always
mediocre	average	1	always
average	good	1	if no other skill is superb
good	great	3	if no other skill is >=great and no 2 other skills >=good
great	superb	3	if no other skill is >=good

You must apply at least 4 changes and you may not apply more than 9 changes. There are two exceptions to this: batsmen may not have more than 4 shifts on their bowling skills; and allrounders can have up to 11 changes.

Step 3:

For each player, select a batting ability profile (as found in your formguide). The columns represent your player's ability against the three bowltypes: speed, seam and swing.

A '*' means excellent, '+' means good, '=' means average, '-' means poor and '.' means awful. There is a cost though. For each improvement above '=' costs DPs but a drop below '=' saves DPs. However if your player has an overall deficit in batting abilities, this cannot be transferred to improving a basic skill, it is just lost. So usually it isn't advisable. i.e. a '*' costs 4, '+' costs 1, '=' costs 0, '-' saves 1 and '.' saves 4.

You can choose any pattern you like, as long as it does not cost more than 3 Draft points. Thus +++ is allowable but *== is not (unless you designate the batsman as an openerósee step 4).

Thus:

===	is the basic template
.=*	is a more adventurous one and costs nothing since there are 4 decreases and 4 improvements
-+-	looks like is should cost -1 but will cost 0 since you can't move your DP to another area
-=*	costs 3 DP since the * costs 4 and the - saves one

It should be noted that going for "===" for everything will probably end up not being a good idea. Someone you plan on using as an opener would probably be better off being "*=." (costing 0 DP) or "*--" (costing 2 DPs). A middle order batsmen may be better off being "-+=" or "-=+".

If you have chosen any class (except the keeping classes) your player can bowl, so you need to choose what sort of bowler they are. Each bowler is placed in a 3D space, with the axes being their ability to beat batsmen with "speed", "seam/spin" or "swing/flight" [the distinction in the last two categories is to account for a bowler's speed-the categories are really "movement off the pitch" and "movement in the air" and in cricket there is a difference between how a "quick" bowler does it and how a "slow" bowler does it-the distinction is hidden in UC]. Now, rather than allow you to try to design the perfect bowler with numbers, you get to choose your bowler with two words! The first describes their "speed" and you have the options of fast, mediumfast, medium and slow. These categories have a declining ability to beat a batsmen for pace. To balance this, they get more ability in the other two areas. You can control which one with the second word; the choices for which are: swing, seam, both, swingmaj and seammaj. A "swing" bowler will have a ratio of swing to seam ability of ~10:1 and a "seam" bowler will be ~1:10. A "both" will mean roughly equal ability to both-neither will be great but they will be able to bowl under all conditions. A "seammaj" or "swingmaj" have ratios of 3:1.

Now, for extra DPs you can increase the amount of swing or seam a bowler has. Using swing+ will cost an extra DP and mean that your bowler will be a better swing bowler than usual. swing++ will add even more to swing (and cost 2 extra DPs). swingmaj+ will make them better at swing whilst keeping the same ability with seam as before. both+ will not do anything. The maximum number of "+" you can add is four (e.g. swing++++).

Since batsmen do not bowl very often they may not be given a speed faster than medium paced and it is worthless to spend extra DPs on their bowling type.

Step 4:

Decide whether a player is left handed in either batting, bowling or fielding or is an opening batter. An opener costs an extra 4 DPs and is given a "*==" ability profile (regardless of what you specify) and will only bat at 90% of skill if not batting in one of the opening positions.

The codes are as follows:

Code	Batting	Bowling/Fielding
..	right	right
M	left	right
S	right	left
L	left	left
O	opener	-

NOTE: You could draft a left handed opener by using "OL".

Step 5:

Decide on the player's age. Most managers will make the player age 0. In the past this was the only option. Now, for the ADDED EXTRA COST of 8TPs (not DPs!) you can age the player ONE year. Thus if you want your new player to be age 1 it will cost you the normal DPs as well as 8TPs. If you wanted an age 3 player it will cost you 24TPs on top of the normal DP cost.

What do you get for these TPs? Well, the player will get 'allocated' training based on the template you drafted the player with. The details are not given here (yet) but safe to say a batsmen will get their training in batting, aggression and fielding; a bowler in bowling, economy and fielding and an allrounder in whatever you drafted them to be good at. They will NOT be as good as an age 0 who spends a season under a careful managerial eye. And they are not supposed to be. The reason for allowing you to 'age' the draftee/rookie is to allow you to quickly plug a gap you have - but at a cost. You can not go overboard with this however. You MUST have at least 40TPs a week for the new season - so be wise with your spending.

Note: If you have recently adopted a side or had a period of enforced absence as manager rather than 'fixing' your team by aging players in the draft you should contact the sub-commissioner for your conference about doing some 'catch up training' and 'back dated drafts'. The commissioner(s) will look favourably on assisting you out of the 'hole' your team is in (within the rules of the game) so that you can make a 'normal' draft.

Step 6:

Name and summarise your players in the form:

name  class  bat  agg    btsp  bwl  eco  blspeed bltype  fld  age code

NOTE: for all age 0 draftees, the age field is 0. Remember you must draft three legal players.

[D 6.2.1] Approved abbreviations for draft

The allowed abbreviations for the draft are as follows:

bad
poor
med, mediocre
av, avg, average
good
great
sup, superb
mf, mediumfast, medfast
med, medium
pace, fast

NOTE: seamaj is wrong, use seammaj.

When you need to use ë..í (such as for a keeper's bowl skill) make sure you do not use ë...í or ë.í - and especially not a blank!

Do not put any extra numbers on the end of the line - the code which tries to decipher things will crash.

Do not put ë(K)í or ë(C)í after the player's names either.  Keepers are noted by the fact they are classed as keepers and your captains are nominated in your new season orders (see section [D 6.6]).

To draft a throwaway player (costing the minimum 6 DP), use "dummy" as a draft line.

[D 6.3] Example draft

The Krushed Pineapples (KP) have earned 39 DPs. KP decides they are in real need of an opening batsman, so they choose a batsman template and record this and the cost of 2 DPs.

poor/poor/bad/bad/poor 2

They increase the batskill to "superb" which costs 9 DPs (1 for poor to mediocre, 1 for mediocre to average, 1 for average to good, 3 for good to great, and 3 for great to superb) bringing the cost up to 11 DPs and using 5 changes.

superb/poor/bad/bad/poor 11

They are now allowed to raise the aggression and fielding no higher than average, which they do at a cost of 4 DPs, bringing the total cost to 15 DPs and using up the maximum 9 skill changes.

superb/average/bad/bad/average 15

Since they require an opening bat they select a batspeed of "*--". This costs a further 2 DP bringing the total cost to 17. They name the player Boycott and record his final template. They decide that when he bowls he'll be a medium pacer and that he'll be right handed.

Boycott bat superb average *-- bad bad medium seam average 0 ..

That leaves 22 points. They next decide that they need a one day keeper. They choose a keeper's template for a cost of 2 DPs.

bad/bad/../../poor 2

Being a one day keeper they decide that aggression should be his forte, so they give him mediocre batting and average aggression as well as good fielding at a cost of 8 DPs, giving a total of 10 DPs.

mediocre/average/../../good 10

Since he will bat down the order they give him an average ability template of "===", make him right handed, and name him Marsh.

Marsh keep mediocre average === .. .. .. .. good 0 ..

Finally they decide that they need a stock bowler who is a useful tail-ender. They select a bowler's template for 3 DPs.

bad/bad/poor/poor/poor 3

To make him a useful tail-ender they increase batting and aggression to mediocre average at a cost of 4 DPs.

mediocre/mediocre/poor/poor/poor 7

That leaves up to 5 changes (and 5 DPs), just enough to push bowling up to average, economy to average and fielding to mediocre.

mediocre/mediocre/average/average/mediocre 12

They name him Walker and choose to make him a left arm medium swing bowler.

Walker bowl mediocre mediocre -=+ average average medium swing mediocre 0 L

In summary, the (KP) draft file looks like:

Boycott bat superb average *-- bad bad medium seam average 0 ..
Marsh keep mediocre average === .. .. .. .. good 0 ..
Walker bowl mediocre mediocre -=+ average average medium swing mediocre 0 L

After KP submitted their draft orders the Commissioner added the new players to their club roster. They eventually looked like:

Boycott         46.7 29.1 *--  6.9  6.9 30.2 64 12 28 0 - - -  =   =    (.)
Marsh           26.0 32.8 ===    0    0 36.1 00 00 00 0 - - -  =   =    (K)
Walker          24.3 23.6 -=+ 29.1 30.6 22.7 64 25 79 0 - - -  =   =    (L)

If the need for an opening batsmen was greater they could have drafted

Boycott bat superb average *-- bad bad medium seam average 1 ..

which would also have taken 8TPs away from their weekly allowance next season.

[D 6.4] Draft and New Season orders

Draft orders are sent at the beginning of each new season (except when your team is playing its first season). These orders should be sent to cricket with the subject line containing the word "draft". Unlike weekly orders, draft orders have no optional lines-the format is fixed:

{Team abbreviation}
captains {captainname1} {captainname2}
pitch {hard} {grass}
weather {humid} {temp} {wind}
retire {playername}  [line repeated for other players]
 
{Draft lines as given above}

An explanation of the above:

• Team abbreviation is as for the normal orders.
• All captains in your squad will resign and you MUST reinstate them or choose new captains-you MUST select 2 players from your squad.
• You can relay your pitch - just put two numbers after the pitch to set it the way you want it.
• You can relocate your ground - you just need to select 3 numbers and put them after the word weather to make it the way you like it.
• Each sack command must simply be "sack" followed by a single player name. That player will be removed from your squad when the draft is processed successfully. A blank line MUST follow the sacking commands. Blank lines MUST NOT be put elsewhere in the draft orders.
• The maximum squad size is 30 players. So you may need to sack a player in order to draft additional players.
• The minimum squad size is 20 players. So if you have only 20 players left, you will not be allowed to sack anyone.
• The word "sack" can be used instead of "retire".
• Your standard draft lines follow after the blank line.

Your draft file will stop being checked as soon as a problem is found. Please keep sending in draft requests until it completes to your satisfaction.

[D 6.4.1] Example New Season orders

KP
capt Cartwright Grant_Kenny
pitch 8 3
weather 4 7 6
sack Hervey_Bay
sack Kawana
 
Boycott bat superb average *-- bad bad medium seam average 0 ..
Marsh keep mediocre average === .. .. .. .. good 0 ..
Walker bowl mediocre mediocre -=+ average average medium swing mediocre 0 L