Story A Tiger's Tale

[Covvy]

Cricket Australia Press Release​

Today, ladies and gentlemen, history will be made. Domestic cricket will change forever how you see it. With the vastly diminishing popularity of the domestic game, bar twenty/20, this is a problem that we must urgently fix. Another problem is the amount of matches the national side partakes and more importantly players don?t feel the same pride for their country as they used to. So we have come up with a solution. How long has it been since you?ve seen Ricky Ponting playing for Tasmania, or Michael Clarke playing for NSW? In fact Mitchell Johnson has yet not played a match for his ?new? state W.A. Well now you?ll be seeing them a lot more playing for their states from now on. This brand new style will, I?m afraid, terminate the Australian National side?s summer of cricket. From now on all Australian International players must play with their respective states. This then will decide the national side for series during April/May/June/July which will become a very big deal indeed. We only have one slight change to the domestic rules, every Sheffield Shield match shall be a 5 day ?test?. Of course Fox Sports will be broadcasting every match, including Sheffield Shield, live and in HD. We look forward to a brand new beginning to Australian Domestic cricket!

​

James Sutherland announces the exciting news
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Down in the Apple Isle of Tasmania, the players had just heard the news about the brand new domestic comp. Immediate thoughts were that it was unfair for them and that NSW will be just too strong, but as they thought about it for longer, the idea seemed to be a good one. George Bailey will be staying captain despite Ricky Ponting coming down, the players voting 100% towards Bailey. But luckily Punter didn?t worry too much about that, he had a lot of other things on his mind such as performing well here to reclaim his spot in the national side. Plenty of the boys were excited how the selectors will choose the best lot of players from that season to play in the national side, so anybody could get in. Coach Tim Coyle said in a press conference that he thinks the new rules will suit his players the best. He also joked that if NSW want to give us any players that he?ll accept them. Actually up in Sydney there was uproar about the new rules, with many players saying they?d walk out on the club because of all the National players coming back and stealing their spots. But things soon died down as the six teams battled through the harsh winter months, and past pre-season. The Tournament was about to begin?

Ricky Ponting's reaction after George Bailey told him he won't be captain​

Editor Note: I'll be playing matches, and simming the neutral matches, on AC09 on my PS3 via my roster. So I'll just do updates.

 

[CG123]

Good idea, and nice start.
Look forward to seeing how the current Aussies go, compared to some of the fringe players.

 

[Roofrom50]

Looking forward to this big fella. Good start to the story and now being able to have time on PC again, will be keeping an eye on this

 

[Covvy]

​

Sheffield Shield Preview​

With the new system recently announced by Cricket Australia to abandon the National side and force them to play in the domestic competition, this is a whole new type of domestic cricket. The decision was at first disapproved by most people but eventually they became fans of the new rules. The new system lets the domestic players have a chance to get into the national side, whilst some of the bigger names may not get through. Despite all this, both these sides are reasonable the same, with only one real international, Ricky Ponting, playing in the match.

Last year was a real disappointment for South Australia, yet again not getting into any finals at all. Tasmanian’s previous season was also a bit of a disappointment, not reaching any finals either. The critics are saying that both these two sides will struggle against the international players but reports say that both camps are ready for the challenge. But it will be hard for the team who loses to try and win some games against the international studded line-ups.

Players to Watch
Ricky Ponting
Tasmania earlier announced that Ponting will not captain the Tigers for the domestic cricket and that they’ll be sticking to George Bailey. So now Ponting doesn’t have to fret about tactics, field settings and coin tosses but now he can fully focus on his batting and re-gaining his spot in the national side. But will he be thinking too much about his batting with his mind of the captaincy?

Callum Ferguson
Ferguson showed much promise during his little stint playing for Australia and there’s only more room for improvement. With only 4 first class centuries to his name, and only 1 List A century, he’ll need to show more on the scoreboard to get his place in the national side

Can Ponting keep the runs flowing for Tasmania?

 

[Griffo]

Covvy use your colours to define teams not just colours for the sake of colours

 

[Covvy]

How do you been by that?

 

[pcfan123]

You should write a story about how I headshot you all the time in mw2

 

[Covvy]

Haha, that made me laugh, good joke man! Actually I went through a round yesterday with a record of 27/5. Take that!

 

[pcfan123]

Nice man, your getting better everytime. What kill streaks do you use?

 

[Covvy]

Well I can't get too many so I use,

Carepackage (Could get something good)
Predator Missile (get one, maybe two kills)
Harrier Strike (It's pretty good)

But I can't really get any more kills than that in a row so I'll just use these until I get better.

 

[pcfan123]

Well if you can get the harrier then that will get you the higher kill streaks. Just have to call in the harrier and wait, 1 kill from the harrier will get you an emergency air drop (4 packages) and the harrier will usually get at least 3-4 kills so that gets you pave low/stealth bomber or even chopper gunner/ ac130.

Hmarka added 0 Minutes and 26 Seconds later...

Get a mic dude so we can do spec ops. I havent even done 50% of them. It would suck to not be able to talk though

 

[Griffo]

Like use green font for tasmania and red font for south australia

 

[Covvy]

​

Day 1, Session 1​

The pitch looked pretty flat and dry, a batsmen?s paradise with it maybe helping the spinners a bit later on. So when South Australia won the toss and put the Tigers in to bat, everybody was shocked. A decent crowd came in for the first day?s play, a pleasing sight for Cricket Australia who was nervously awaiting the crowd. Ed Cowan and Michael Dighton, the two openers for the Tigers, came out of the pavilion to boo of the crowd, it did feel like a test match. Then the home crowd favourites charged out of the changerooms to the loud roar of the home crowd, encouraging one and another and getting their spirits high. Shaun Tait, the quickest bowler in Australia, charged in for the first ball of the match and?..

A leave. A huge anti-climax. But on the third ball Cowan poked at a ball full and just out-side off stump, he gave to a big outside edge to gully?s region. Michael Klinger dives to his left to take an absolute blinder, catching it one handed, one for the vault for years to come. The crowd was going bananas 1/0, it couldn?t get any better than that! Ricky Ponting was the man at the crease now, his experience should guide him through this spell. But just two balls later, Tait bowled the same delivery that got Cowan out, wide out off stump. So Ponting played at it with a bit more confidents, only to edge it exactly like Cowan. Klinger once again dived to his left, and took another absolute blinder! It was an exact replica of the first wicket. Ponting couldn?t believe it, the worlds best batsmen, out for a two ball duck and his side 2/0.

The new man was Travis Birt accompanying Michael Dighton, who witnessed the first over from the other end. They looked to be going on a revival mission, getting the ball to hit the middle of the bat, and controlling George and Tait, the two bowling openers a bit easier. But Birt still couldn?t get off the mark and he was getting frustrated, hitting almost every ball straight to a fielder. The next ball he hit to Dan Christian at a deepish mid off Birt took of like a rocket on a super risky run. Christian threw the ball, and a direct hit! The umpire didn?t even need to go to the third umpire, Birt was well short and Tasmania were 3/8 with three off their better batsmen all getting ducks.

The captain was next in, George Bailey, who gave Birt a quick blast for his run-out. But luckily for Tasmania, Bailey and Dighton both grew in confidence as their partnership grew. Soon Graeme Manou changed the opening bowlers for Christian and Haberfield, but they both couldn?t get the wicket. As their partnership reached past a valuable 50, Bailey began to get a liking to Haberfield. Jake Haberfield was just bowling too short, but so far the Tigers were only pushing them for singles to fine leg but then Bailey had enough in the 22nd over, launching a huge hook shot for six out of the ground! But the very next ball things went disastrous.

Bailey pushed the ball for a quick single, but Dighton didn?t hear the call and didn?t go at all. Bailey then quickly turned back around, but it was too late, the captain got run out for 32 and the Tigers were now in some trouble. Tim Paine was the next man in and he and Dighton batted cautiously through to lunch to be 4/100.

Tasmania 4/100
M.Dighton 43*(108)
G.Bailey 32(49)
T.Paine 9(26)
S.Tait 8-0-29-2



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As the players came off the field, we?re lucky enough too have Brendan Julian down on the ropes with the speedster Shaun Tait, BJ.

BJ: Thanks Blewy, now I have Shaun Tait here who ripped through the Tigers top order, to give the Redbacks a handy advantage. Shaun, was it a surprise to you that your captain, Graeme Manou, elected to bowl on such a flat wicket, or was that always the plan?

ST: Actually I had no idea that he was going to bowl first. When he signalled that we were fielding first, my immediate thoughts was that we actually lost the toss. But hey, it?s working so far isn?t it?

BJ: Now, you guys came out firing with enthusiasm and jumping about, what was that all about?

ST: I think that that?s just the excitement coming out of the boys with by far the biggest crowd we?ve played to, especially for a Sheffield Shield game. The crowds just unbelievable.

BJ: So was that excitement carrying on to your first over?

ST: Well actually, to be honest I thought my first over was pretty ordinary where the balls went. I think it was just the batting not actually my bowling that got them out.

BJ: What?s the plan of attack for after lunch?

ST: Well, hopefully get one of these guys out quickly and expose the tail and get them out before they reach 200. So far I?ve only bowled 12 extras! *Does celebration dance* so I?m feeling great, who knows, maybe I can get under 25 extras for an innings!

BJ: Sorry mate, but I don?t see that happening

Shaun Tait sending down another deliever during his action packed first over​

 

[Gaurav_7]

Nice neat presentation there.Tigers are in somewhat trouble here.Dighton will have to bat through if they are to get a respective total.Tait really bowled quite well there.Will be following this one.Good Luck!

 

[CG123]

Tasmania were in serious trouble, but have done well to recover slightly.
Nice writing, and a good update.