Ultra Cricket is a play by mail game. Each week you have to send in an email containing precise orders for your team. You really need to be able to commit yourself to be able to do this for 3 to 4 months which is the length of a season. Dropping out after a few weeks is not really fair on your opponents who are looking for the challenge of beating another human not a computer.

Ultra Cricket is a game that takes some initial thought to start but once you get a team going it can take as little as 10 minutes a week to play - or as much as you want!

The first thing you need is a Team. There are a number of ways of going about this.

• Design your own team from the basics. The most difficult option, but probably the most rewarding and the best if you are prepared to put a lot of time and thought in. It gives you the most flexibility and control over what your team will look like. However it does take time, and it's easy to make mistakes. If you choose this option, read the beginner's guide to creating a team carefully, and have a look at the predesigned players and teams below to get an idea of the different options. There is a Java Applet which should considerably help you in designing your team.
   
• Use some standard predesigned players to build a squad. This takes some of the hassle out of the first method. By choosing predesigned players you just 'buy them off the shelf' and as long as you don't spend too much you are ok. This is the option for people with less time but still want an individual team.
   
• Choose a preset team. This is the option for people who just want to play but don't want to spend hours designing each player. Some teams desgined with different intentions are offered - all you have to do is rename the players!
   
• Adopt a team whose manager has dropped out. This is the way to get a quick fix. You jump in the deep end and will need to get up to speed quickly. You will never know what the original team plan was and how good your players could become but some people prefer the challenge of turning a team from a bunch of losers to a championship material!

You can combine these approaches if you like - for example, if you are using a predesigned team you are free to make changes using the basic team design rules, or if you are designing a team from scratch you can always pick some players from the list of predesigned ones. If you're using predesigned players and teams you might still like to read the basic design rules, and if you're designing your own team then the predesigned players and teams are a good source of ideas.

So, what you need to do is choose one of the methods above, make a team, name the players, choose a team name and mail it all in to me Tim Astley

Simple? Well here are a few hints:

Naming a Team? I have had hundreds of teams play in the past and to keep the statistics simple I never repeat a team abbreviation. I choose the abbreviation, not you, but I will accept suggestions. You can check to see what team abbreviations have been chosen before.

Naming players? There are any number of ways to name your players. I suggest if you are stuck for an idea to check the names of the players already playing. Some people name their players after friends or colleagues. Some go for real cricket players and some are named after cartoon characters or worse! It is up to you - but remember - while you start with only 24 players each season you'll need to find 3 more names every season so make sure you have a good pool of players to choose from [e.g. the letters of the Alphabet may be a simple initial choice but you'll be int trouble choosing player 27 in your squad come draft time!]. There is now a Player Name Repository set up to give you some ideas for themes.

Sending it to me? Simple - mostly - please be careful of the format. Make sure there are no blanks in Team, Ground or Player names, only use the allowed abbreviations and don't stick in comments or helpful suggestions until the very end of the message. That all makes my life much simpler. If you want to see who well you are going with the format you can send it to cricket@ultra-sports.com with the subject check. This email will be checked by a robot who should reply almost immediately with some cryptic comments about your submission - if it seems to get to the end and doesn't complain then send your submission to me!

I don't process all submissions immediately. Often you have to wait a week for me to find the time to do it. So, please do not panic if you don't hear from me immediately.

If you have problems or are totally confused - please make use of the Helpline.