Story ICC 08 - I dunnow what to name this.

[ZoraxDoom]

Yea, screw a fancy name.


I've got ICC 08, and I'm playing on County and International Mode. I'm managing Essex (Division 2 in both forms) and Bangladesh (If International cricket had a Division 2, they'd be in it), with the goal of taking them both to the top.

I've got loads of experience with ICC 05, but absolutely zilch on this version, so I shall be learning as I go.

Updates will be irregular, pretty much only after I've played the game. And considering I play ICC intensly for a week before not touching it for the next one, I will not be following any strict schedule.

Screenshots....ahhh...maybe. Score updates in between sessions and after matches. Extra features if I can be bothered.

So sit back and enjoy. The next update shall be to announce my lineups and any new signings!

 

[treva]

Can't believe no one has commented yet. Should be good to see if you can take both teams to the top, and I know that you had some serious skills on 05, so I look forward to see if those work on 08.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Essex announce new coach!

To take over immediately for 2008 season!

Essex County Cricket Club have announced the appointment of rookie coach Zorax Doom as the club's Coach/Manager for the 2008 season, stating he shall begin his term straight away this April.

Essex CCC's Chief Executive David East announced that the left-field pick was a result of 'Lazy Recruitement Efforts'.

"Boy, the Human Resources department really dropped the ball on this one, didn't they? When I asked them to go find us the best manager for the job, I was expecting maybe a Dav Whatmore or a John Wright or even a Phil Simmons, but they go ahead and pick a man whose only experience is managing club teams in the West Indies!"

"I walk into the office to ask them what the frick that was all about, and I discovered that they were all too busy playing PES2008 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl to do their jobs!! Naturally they realised that with only a few hours left in their deadline, and so they grabbed the first resume to come to hand, filled in the paperwork, and handed it in. Those lazy bastards."

Zorax's only prior experience is indeed managing club teams in the West Indies, although he did have a pretty successful record - Reaching Division 2 with one side before the club was disbanded due to disagreements with the board, and winning the WI Premier League twice in 3 seasons and reaching the final 16 of the National Cup with another side. However, he has no experience at higher levels of cricket, and this job may prove to be too much for him.

"Unfortunately the contracts have been signed and the paperwork made official, so we can't fire this no-hoper. Well, actually we could, but it would cost a bundle in legal fees. Therefore we will give him a season to prove himself - get us promoted or finish somewhere in the top 5 in both forms, and he stays. Otherwise, cya!"

"On the behalf of the Essex County Cricket Club Board, I wish Zorax the best of luck, he'll need it."

Tough words from the Cheif Executive, especially considering Zorax was sitting right next to him!

Dude! I'm right here!

Guest speaker Andy Flower, former Essex player and new England Team Coach, had no bad things to say about the new appointment. That being said, he didn't have many good things to say either.

"Umm...I haven't seen him coach a lot. He seems to be a nice guy. I guess. He knows his cricket too. He is intent on maintaing discipline and has a lot of ideas, but hasn't been coaching for more than 5 years. I'm not sure what to make of that really. I guess he might do an okay job, but I can't say if he is the best man for the job. We could do a lot worse...I think."

Andy Flower was a guest speaker at the press release, and was eloquent as usual.

It was Zorax's turn to take the stand, and all eyes turned to see what this unknown newcomer had to say...

"First of all, I'd like to thank the Board for backing me and supporting me..."

The crowd started snickering, but Zorax went on.

"And I know that, despite my limited experience, I can do a good job. I think. I mean, I may have never managed egos as big as this before, but I'm sure they'll all be friendly and helpful, or atleast I hope they are. I also don't really know the requirements of teams and cricketers at this level, but surely it isn't that much higher than club cricket, right? No! Wait! Uhh...I mean, it's going to be much higher. Yea, that's right, it will be WAYYYY tougher than that, and I'm going to have to push the players hard. Not too hard though! I'm not a strict disciplinarioan who is going to burn them out, I'll let them have a break. But that doesn't mean that I'll be easy on them either! Uhh...err..."

"And that's all for today folks" chimed in David East, bringing the conference to a close. The media crews left in good humour, the prospects of Essex for the coming season seeming almost comical.​

-Reuters​

ZoraxDoom added 0 Minutes and 53 Seconds later...

Can't believe no one has commented yet. Should be good to see if you can take both teams to the top, and I know that you had some serious skills on 05, so I look forward to see if those work on 08.

Yay, first comment!

I'm hoping they work as well

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Essex Squad Announced!
No new signings, Grant Flower handed captaincy!

The Essex squad for the 2008 season has been announced, without only one notable change being made, and that is Grant Flower being announced as skipper over Jason Gallian.

At the Press Release, Coach/Manager Zorax Doom said that the new appointment was to give the team a 'fresh start'.

'Yea, I felt we need a fresh start to the new season. We're going to be doing things differently under my uhh...leadership, and having Grant as captain is the best way to go forward'.

Although those are encouraging words from the new manager, the fact that the squad that got demoted will remain completely unchanged doesn't bode well to a 'fresh start'. Experts claim that this reveals Zorax's complete inexperience -he doesn't wish to meddle with things lest he do something wrong-, while Zorax's supporters see this as a sign that Zorax feels that it isn't the players that is the problem, but the way they play that is. Which side is correct remains to be seen.

Squad:
Grant Flower (*)
Ravi Bopara
Varun Chopra
Alistair Cook
Jason Gallian
Mark Pettini (+)
Thomas Westley
James Foster (+)
Adam Wheater (+)
James Middlebrook
Graham Napier
Timothy Phillips
Ryan Ten Doeschate
Jahid Ahmed
Maurice Chambers
David Masters
Tony Palladino
Alex Tudor
Mervyn Westfield
Chris Wright
Danish Kaneria (Overseas)

Zorax also stated that Ahmed, Westfield, Wheater, Chambers, Westley, Wright and Chopra would spend a lot of time with the Second XI, and that Alistair Cook and Jason Gallian would share Vice Captain duties.
​

-Reuters​

 

[treva]

My prediction: Essex to be the first side to go bankrupt after Zorax loses club's finances in Horse Racing bet

 

[ZoraxDoom]

My prediction: Essex to be the first side to go bankrupt after Zorax loses club's finances in Horse Racing bet

What's wrong with trying to double our transfer budget??

April 16 : Essex vs. Northamptonshire - County Championship

Right, my first game in charge! And we're at home!

A FC match, and taking a look over my squad, I feel we're a batting side. After all, a lineup consisting of Cook, Bopara, Flower, ten Doeschate, Foster and Gallian will always be a threat. It is also an added bonus that Flower and ten Doeschate can contribute with the ball, while my two strike bowlers Masters and Tudor can weight in with a bat. This fact lets us bat deep and still have several bowling options.

Therefore, after plenty of deliberation, I went in with the following lineup:

Cook, Gallian, Bopara, Flower (*), ten Doeschate, Pettini, Foster (+), Napier, Tudor, Masters, Kaneria.

The two vice-captains to open, and Bopara getting a shot at 3. Grant, Ryan and Mark shoring up the middle order, with Foster, Napier, Tudor and Masters making up a strong lower order. Only one genuine tailender in Kaneria. At the same time, the lineup lets me play 4 seamers and 2 spinners. Good balance overall I felt, although we would struggle if the allrounders failed to fire.

Going by the fact that we bat deep and that there are 4 seamers in the lineup, I choose a seamer-friendly wicket to kick off the season.

After all that was done, it was time for the toss. Out strode Grant to the middle, along with his opposite number, David Sales. The coin was flipped, Grant called heads, and it was tails. We were already off to a losing start. Sales chose to bat first, White and Peters walked out to open the batting, Masters was given the new ball, and we were ready! Unfortunately, our cameraman wasn't. So all I have are the scorecards, and no ingame action. I know, that sucks.

Tudor struck an early blow removing White with a gem of a delivery with the score on 15. Sales walked out at 3, and with Peters played a few handsome looking strokes, till Masters snuck through Peters' defence. 41/2. And it was only 8 overs into the innings, mind. Out comes Lance Klusener, and he gives our bowlers hell. ten Doeschate is first change, and picked up Sales with a bit of luck as the veternan played a later cut into Flower's hand. Grant was winning the battle of the skippers so far! A youngster by the name of Crook walked out, and I had never heard of him before, but I know him well now. He and Zulu launched a full out assault on the bowling, playing their shots with freedom as I sat back and watched. All the bowlers suffered their wrath, and they moved to lunch only 3 down with a hundred twenty odd on the board. Not good.
So we regrouped after lunch, and Alex was tossed the ball again. That did the trick, as Crook nicked a sharp lifter to Cook at slip. Booyah! 189/4. Tudor was bowling with a head of steam, and proceeded to nip out Neil O'Brien and Nicky Boje. Klusener, in the meanwhile, brought up a sizzling century. Tudor and Kaneria -who had been bowling tightly from the other end- were tiring, so Grant decided to give ten Doeschate another spell, while bringing himself on. Klusener decided to slow down at this point, Johan Louw (Yet ANOTHER Saffer - don't Northamptonshire have any Englishmen?) digging in as well. ten Doeschate had other plans though, and got Louw plumb in front. That's when Zulu decided to chance his arm against Grant, and missed a straight ball. Another LBW, skipper did the trick, and it was 261/8, only the tail left. Kaneria returns to the attack, as does Masters. Panesar and Wigley refused to budge though, and bat on till tea. Darn.

After tea, Grant decides to toss the ball back to Napier, who had only bowled 5 overs so far. Seemed like a bad move when he got pasted for 3 fours by Wigley in an over, but he struck by trapping Wigley LBW in the next one. And in between, Kaneria had removed Panesar. All out for 308.



Probably 20 more runs that I would have liked, but I guess it'll do. Not a bad bowling performance for the first innings, time to get a lead.

And since the pic reveals it, there is no point hiding the fact that Grant Flower did get Man of The Match, and that I have finished playing this match. I got excited and couldn't wait to finish it, so sue me.

​

 

[Dr. Pepper]

I'll sue you.

Great start Zorax, very good writing and some typical Zorax humour mixed in with it. This should be a great story if you stick to it. Good bowling by Essex, Tudor was very good.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Sue me and you'll end up being the one who pays.

I should end up sticking with this. I stuck with Derbyshire on ICC05 for 29 years. It'll be the same here, except I'm documenting what I do. Sounds simple enough

 

[OrderDX]

yh good start mate to this and Essex are a team that often underachieve so it will be interesting to see if you can make them successful

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Second innings, and to open the batting were Alistair Cook and Jason Gallian. There were about 20 or so overs to go till the end of the days play, so their instructions were pretty simple - don't get out.
And they did just that. They blocked and nudged their way to 42 runs in 21 overs. Louw had bowled 4 maidens in a row with the new ball!

Day 2, and we wanted to bat long and get a lead. Cook and Gallian kept on going, stringing on a nifty 72 run partnership till Panesar did the unthinkable - he took a wicket . Gallian caught at slip. Ravi walked out at 3, and unfurled some fine shots. In the meanwhile, Cook was looking solid with the odd drive or cut to the fence. We were reaching the end of the session, but Wigley had to be annoying again. First refused to get out, and now removing the well-set Bopara. We went to luch 2 down.

After lunch, it was Flower and Cook batting. Cook kept motoring on in fine form, and crossed 100! Well done lad. Chanceless innings. Northampts were pretty unusual with their use of bowlers though - Panesar and Brown were operating non stop, with odd bursts from Louw. Wigley was hardly to be seen despite getting Bopara out earlier. I think it's because they figured Cook would be weak against spin, but he handled them beautifully. And Flower was able to settle himself in as well. Cook fell shortly after his 100, nicking Brown to slip. ten Doeschate came out as Flower started blooming with his shots, and we went to tea well in control.

After tea, and we lost ten Doeschate for an aggressive 36. We had 287 runs on the board now, and with Pettini, Foster and Napier to come. So I decided screw those guys, and sent Tudor up with the instruction to whack the ball about. That plan failed and we were 290/5. Whoops. I sent Pettini in next, and gave him the right to attack. From the other end, Flower was tucking into the spinners, and Wigley returned for a second spell only to get a pasting. Louw was as tight as usual. Pettini failed to get going, and one bad slog sweep later we were 303/6. At this point I sent if Foster, as we had about an hour left and I wanted to make sure we passed 400. Foster did a great job and keeping out the spinners who were getting in some sort of rhythm now, while Grant went on to score a fine ton. Skippers innings that!

We were reaching the end of the days play with 370ish on the board. We had a lead, two set batsmen, Napier to come to give us the imputus tommorrow. What could go wrong?
I thought too soon. Brown struck to remove Foster with a handful of overs to go. DAMN IT!. So I sent in Napier, with strict instructions to defend now and save the big shots for tommorrow morning. He went 'Naah', strode out to the middle, whacked Brown for a four, and laughed. He then tried again and was trapped LBW. Jackass.

Masters saw off the end of the day. We started the next morning well too, and Flower and Masters put on a 25 run partnership. Flower however, was the man to fall. Trying to up the pace (seeing as how we had crossed 400), he was trapped LBW by Monty who celebrated as though he had never taken a wicket before. Kaneria whacked a four of Louw, which was fun to see, before Masters nicked one to slip leaving us 420 all out. Decent score. We had a 112 run lead, and the best part of 2 days to go.



Bizzare bowling figure there. Boje and Klusener were hardly used, and Wigley surely deserved a few more overs on a pitch where my seamers had managed 8 wickets in the first innings.
​

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Good score from Essex with plenty of time left. Nice batting from Cook and Flower. Hopefully the others will do better next time. Btw, Pettini sucks in 08 (even though he was awesome in previous versions).

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Right, time for the third innings. There was an hour or so left in the first session on Day 3, so I decided we'd go all out attack and try and nip out some early wickets. Tudor and Masters with the new ball, attacking field, Foster with orders to sledge the crap out of the opponents...


And that did the trick! Tudor worked his magic and got rid of White, caught by Bopara at 2nd or 3rd slip fending off a lifter! 3 for 1!. Out walked the skipper David Sales, he would need to do something special.

Sales and Peters fought hard against the ruthless aggressive bowling, even piercing the field a few times, but Tudor struck again as Peters was caught at short leg! Got 'em! 42/2, still trailing and in trouble. Alex was picking up from where he left off and was bowling fire. But then the danger man, Lance Klusener, walked out to the middle againt.

At this point, Tudor and Masters were tiring. It was nearing the end of the session, with like 7 or 8 overs left. So Grant did the sensible thing and got on ten Doeschate and Napier on. However, I managed to send a quick message to him while Lance was getting a change of gloves, and told him to keep on attacking. We had a nice lead, they were 2 down, and there was plenty of time left in the match. If we managed to nip out one of these two, it'll put us firmly in the drivers seat.

So Grant did just that. It seemed to be backfiring - ten Doeschate was getting pounded trying to bowl the short and aggressive line that Tudor was bowling. Napier was bowling at less speed and pitching it up, but was getting disconcerning bounce and seam movement, so he was going well. It was nearing the end of the session, Sales moving into the fourties, when Napier struck. Shortsh delivery, outside offstump from around the wicket, Klusener stayed back to cut but the ball kept low. Inside edge into the stumps. C'mon!!!
And if that wasn't good enough, ten Doeschate slipped one through Crook's defences the next ball. From an aggressive fifty one day to a duck the next. Cricket is such a cruel game. Oh well, 88/4 and we were well in charge by Lunch!!

Coming back, Grant stuck with Napier and ten Doeschate. Sales was in mauraudering mood, and hammered ten Doeschate for two overs before Grant took him off. Napier kept bowling well, but didn't seem to be taking a wicket soon, and Danish was itching for a bowl. So time for a double change. Danish from one end, Masters from the other. Sales, in the meanwhile, biffed his way to a 50, and was looking set for much, much more. Neil O'Brien was playing a bit of a cameo as well, but all that screeched to a halt when Kaneria and Masters hit their straps. Sales was the next man to fall, Masters getting him late-cutting to slip, almost identical to his first dismissal. Boje and Brien hung in till Brien misread a Kaneria googly. This sparked a dramatic collapse as Wigley, Panesar and Boje fell in the space of almost no time. Louw held strong, but it wasn't long till he was out of partners as Brown missed a full and straight ball. All out for 144, and we needed a mere 23 runs to win.



Great bowling effort, especially from Kaneria. He'll be a big man this season he will.​

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Victory!



Easy win in the end. I asked Cook and Gallian to take a few overs to get their eyes in, and then wrap this up before tea. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Cook fell to Wigley (That man again!!!), bowled trying to hit a six. Cook. Hitting a six. It's like asking a Chicken to go skinny dipping.
Bopara walked in next, all smug and everything, so sure he was gonna whack four boundaries and end this. It was the first time I've seen the batsman sledge the slip fielders! But after his first ball we all knew what he was having for tea - a large helping of humble pie. Bowled for a golden duck. Even I couldn't help laughing...and Wigley was on a hattrick!

He didn't get it though. Grant and Jason saw off the two overs till tea, and finished it off shortly after. I win!!! That'll shut Mr. East up...

MOTM went, deservedly, to Grant Flower. 144 runs for once dismissed, and a wicket. Captain's performance that.

In the end, this game was all too easy. Bring on the next one!

​

 

[surendar]

That was a comfortable situation for any manager. You should undergo some pressure tests, Zorax.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Bah, this job will be a cakewalk...


I should really get back to updating this when I get back home...