Telegraph Fantasy Cricket Team Update
Well the Telegraph Fantasy Cricket competition started its point scoring last week, so I thought it time to show who I went for and a brief reason why after my summary of some of the players a week or so back.
Batsman
Chris Rogers and Stuart Law are both excellent Australian batsman who should both score bags of runs pretty easily. Put them both in at 6 points and have a good foundation to the team, although I’ve now heard that Rogers is being replaced for the twenty20 tournament. Usman Afzaal was too cheap at 3 points to miss out on, despite every man and his dog choosing him. Marcus North of Gloucestershire has already shown points scoring ability with bat and ball, so despite not being a household name and 7 points, I chose him and stuck the captaincy on him so I expect big things now!
All Rounder
I was going with Rikki Clarke and ten Doeschate at 5 points each, but seeing the start of the season Boje has had and the fact he has the ability to score big in this game I changed my tactics a bit and stuck him in as a 7 pointer. And his double hundred over the weekend helped justify my decision! The other all rounder i went for is Azaar Mahmood from Kent. He may be 33, but at only 4 points he is a proven performer if he can keep fit.
Wicket Keeper
I went with Luke Sutton from Lancs here - despite a lack of time in the middle already I’ve taken a punt on someone a bit different at 5 points.
Bowlers
This is where i was most uncertain - there were a number of ways I could have played it, and I expect this to be where I’ll have to make changes. Saj Mahmood looked good value at 5, but being my third Lancs player I’m a little bit unsure, and he missed the games over the bank holiday weekend and I’m not sure why. Yasir Arafat always seems to do well in this country, so I stuck him in as a 7 pointer, alongside 6 pointer Kabir Ali. He seems to be a decent county pro and had ability to be talked about for England a few years back, but it’s a bit of a guess, and he has become injured as well! The final spot only came onto my radar whilst making my final changes - Saqlain Mushtaq from Surrey. I did have Pedro Collins from the same county in my team, but the thought of having a name as big as Saqlain at only 4 points was too big a temptation. Yes, being a spinner he may have to wait to get some wickets, and Schofield had such a blinding year last year getting in the team might be a struggle, but he has the potential to take big wickets so I took a bit of a gamble. It looks like Surrey will play him in the four day games and Schofield in the shorter forms of the game, so I might have to rethink my strategy here in a couple of weeks.
So there we have my brilliant title winning team! Well ok, maybe not, but it should do ok and my aim is to win the mini league that I’m in! Only problem is the injuries and lack of playing in the bowling department already! I won’t make any knee jerk reactions though as I was still top of the league when I looked last night!
Telegraph Fantasy Cricket 2008 - Players To Consider
I spent an hour or so yesterday looking at the player lists for Telegraph Fantasy Cricket 2008, so it seems only fair to let you know some of the players I was picking out. Bearing in mind, I still havn’t chosen my final XI, so these won’t necessarily make it into my team. My general strategy though I’ve decided is to go for an all round team, with few high rated players. I’m going to pack the 5 and 6 point players into my team I think, with county proven players who are going to win the LiveCricketUpdates.com mini league for me!
Batsman
After the first week of county games and LV cup games, Ravi Bopara has had a storming time of it. He also bowls, so there could be vital extra points there to be had. Although, being 7 points he isn’t cheap and he could be a risk - if he keeps his form up England will call him up and if he doesn’t, there is little point in having him!
Francois Du Plessis via South Africa to Lancashire is only a 3 point player, but he has a big reputation as a player for the future so things will be expected of him. Hasn’t really had a chance yet to show what he can do, but if you like a risk and need a 3 pointer he could be it.
Another 3 point batsman who has started really well is Usman Afzaal at Surrey. A ton in the county champ game and his experience of the county game make a mockery of his rating, with the only doubt being whether he’ll play every game given the strength of the brown caps batting lineup. Plus, will everyone have him in their team given he is a name people have “heard of” and see his cheap rating?
Mark Pettini has also had a good start to the season, and is only a 4 pointer. I think he plays in all forms of the game so could be someone to put in and forget about for the season! You have to be very careful not just to pick the players scoring tons at this stage of the season though, its tempting but you need to see the bigger picture!
Batsman such as Langer, Tresco, Key, Ramps, Rudoplh are all very much a given in this game. They’ll all score good runs, but you’ll pay in starting rating, and by having to make sacrifices in other areas of the team. Not to mention how similar your starting XI’s wil be!
Wicket Keepers
I tend not to spend too much on a wicket keeper in this form of the game - it seems that as long as you choose a guy who plays regularly and has some decent form with the bat that’s enough for me and I’ll save the points for other parts of the team. With that in mind, Nixon, Batty, Mustard, Foster etc are all out and I’m looking at one of three 5 point keepers; Jones, Sutton or Kieswetter. Jones is the obvious choice again as people have heard of him, but I like my team to be different so I’m looking at one of the other two probably. Kieswetter opened for Somerset yesterday and can hold a bat, whilst I might wait for Lancashire to play a couple of games before I decide on Luke Sutton or not.
All Rounders
Ryan McLaren from Kent could be in with a chance of getting into my team rated at 5 - I saw him bowl pretty sharpish last year, but I can’t remember how good he was with the bat, so I might have to check that out first.
Sean Ervine is only rated as a 5 as well, but I’ve picked him before and he’s infuriated me with his lack of getting involved with a game. He might have to bowl more with Hampshire’s winter troubles with bowlers, so he could be a decent pick for someone though.
The Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate of Essex came close to being in my team - he scored a ton in the opening County champ game and is another one rated at 5, but I don’t know quite enough about him to happily put him in at the moment. Another one worth a look though.
Adil Rashid is a popular choice as well, but I think 6 points is too overrated for him this year. He needs more time in county cricket to deserve those kinds of ratings in my eyes.
Grahame Swann seemed to score a shed load of points last year, and as long as you watch when he gets picked for England in the ODI side he might be worth the 7 points he costs. One you will have to watch as the season goes on though, which isn’t really my style!
Bowlers
I’ve not had much chance to look at the bowlers list and decide where the worthwhile players are - but on early season wickets the seam bowlers are always the ones worth going for. Shreck and Onions are two popular choices, both with a very outside chance of making it into an England squad.
Onions had a poor year by his standards in ‘07 after a brilliant year the year before, and he could do it again. Plunkett is another bowler from Durham who is currently out of favour with the England selectors, but he should get points galore (but he is rated 7). Finally from the North East we have our friend Harmison. If he bowls well he’ll probably be called back into the England team, if he doesn’t then he won’t. Either way, you probably don’t want to pick him despite his decent enough showing in the LV cup yesterday.
Another player who impressed with both bat and ball yesterday was Tim Bresnan from Yorkshire - he is only a 5 pointer and as long as he gets a game every time he will be a popular pick. His bowler partner in crime at the end of the Yorkshire batting innings also showed himself in a good light - Ajmal Shazad. Rated only 3, he had something about him and if he plays regularly he’s a decent shout.
From Somerset Charl Willoughby has caught my eye - with the lack of anything else really standing out from Taunton someone is going to have to take the wickets, and at 6 points I think he could be a decent shout.
Apart from those mentioned i’m struggling to really find the quality in the bowling list - we have other England players in years past in Jones or Mahmood, Hoggard - but my knowledge of the county bowlers is much less than I thought!
The new England Adidas Cricket Shirts Revealed!
Ok, so this is a day early and the ECB/Adidas may not like me for doing this, but who cares.. I can reveal exclusively the new Test, ODI and Twenty20 shirts below. Top line - they look pretty damn nice, and I’ll be buying at least one of them. Pre-order them here
The Test shirt looks pretty smart, with a small red piping - but there is little they can do colour wise so that is about all I can say!
The ODI shirt is a dark blue, and has a real classy look to it. I remember we had a darker blue shirt in the past (I remember Hussain scoring a ton in it), but that also looked a bit messy and this looks so much neater, nicer and classier.
The Twenty20 shirt won’t get an awful lot of use seeing as we don’t play that much Twenty20 cricket compared to the other forms of the game, but again it looks really nice. To be honest i quite liked the red we wore in the Twenty20 world cup anyway, and this actually looks even better! And thank god it has sleeves unlike the Australian version!
So there we have it, the new England Adidas cricket kit, and I like them all. Remember they are being sold from next Friday (25th April), but if you want to pre-order, you can do so from Kitbag!
Telegraph Fantasy Cricket Update - I’m In!
I mentioned about telegraph fantasy cricket the other day and how I wasn’t sure if I would enter or not.. well I’ve caved in after a mate of mine set up a super league and I have to show him my superior knowledge! I’m already hammering him in Fantasy Premier League (football), so why not carry that over to cricket!
I’ve downloaded the player list from here, and this evening I will take a look at the lists and get my winning team together! Without giving too much away, I’m going to go for the approach with players that should be here for all the summer (none of these 3 week overseas players), and play in all forms of the game. This will allow me to effectively forget about my team once it has been setup and not worry about who’s playing for their country, in the IPL/ICL etc. So although I won’t be challenging those at the top of the leaderboard I should do ok. And if you’re really lucky I’ll give you some updates here!
Right, I’m off to choose my winning team… any tips gratefully received in the comments!!
Whilst we wait for the new England Cricket Adidas Kit
I was in a bit of a rush when I posted the other day about being able to pre-order the new England Adidas cricket kit. I didn’t get the chance to pick up on the fact that there are three variants of the kit - Test, ODI and Twenty20. The last variant is a new one for England to have at the beginning of an English summer, although we did have one at the World Cup in SA last year - previously in Twenty2- games we’ve just worn our ODI kit. I just hope that despite being by Adidas it won’t be the same as the Australian one without any sleeves! There isn’t much that can be done with the Test kit looks wise, but it will be interesting to see what design they come up with for the ODI kit.
Enough talk about kit for now, for there is a new online cricket game to play! To help with building up the launch of the new England kit, kitbag have released a little online game in the mould of stick cricket to play. My best after a couple of goes is a pretty decent 113 runs! Click Here to play and let me know your best score in the comments!
Telegraph Fantasy Cricket 2008
With the counties starting pre-season games this week (it seems far, far too early though!), thoughts start to look towards the county season and The Telegraph’s popular fantasy league cricket game. There isn’t much to report at the moment, it looks like they’re waiting for the last few decisions on who is actually going to turn up and not play in India, but you can “pre-register” for the game here, and start signing up from the 7th April.
I’m undecided if at the moment if I’ll sign up - a couple of years ago I enjoyed it but there is so much cricket to try and keep an eye on and not enough time nowadays and last year my team was just ignored once I’d set it up! Anyone else thinking of playing?
