Story International Cricket League [C2005/BLIC2005]

[sohum]

International Cricket League - Cricket has a new face
Welcome to the International Cricket League. This new organization of international cricket attempts to create exciting games between countries of the same calibre, hence providing for good, competitive cricket, and group development for the involved nations. The ICL also sports a new and easy to understand ranking system that simply makes all international tours identical, hence eliminating the need to weight matches between two oppositions of different strength.

25.06.2006 - How did the USA get in?

The PRESSBOX DRAMA section contains links to the drama thread's latest articles

The ICL is divided into two divisions: the Elite Division and the First Division. The Elite Division contains the top teams in international cricket: Australia, England, South Africa, India, Pakistan, and New Zealand. The First Division contains the remaining test nations, Kenya, and the United States of America. The league will be complete when each team in each division has played each other team in an international tour once. The higher seed gets the distinction of being the home team, in every game. The seedings are as follows:

Divisions
Elite Division: (1) Australia, (2) England, (3) South Africa, (4) India, (5) Pakistan and (6) New Zealand
First Division: (1) Sri Lanka, (2) West Indies, (3) Bangladesh, (4) Zimbabwe, (5) Kenya and (6) USA

At the end of the league, the bottom team in the Elite Division will be demoted to the First Division and the top team in the First Division will be promoted to the Elite Division. The bottom team in the First Division will also be demoted to the Second Division, and one more of the ICC Associate teams will come into the top leagues.

Each Elite Division tour will last 5 test matches and 5 ODI matches while each tour in the First Division will last 3 test matches and 5 ODI matches. This homogenouity ensures that a lopsided ranking system does not develop while trying to find one that provides fair ratings. Points will be distributed depending on performance in each match and each series. With the added importance of ODI cricket, a team will have to play good test and ODI cricket to maintain a good rating.

Points System
ODIs: Match - 6, Series - 15
Tests: Match - 10, Draw - 4, Series - 20

A drawn series is equal to a 0.5 series victory, so if a team draws a series, they will get 10 points. Teams are welcome to play other tournaments, such as tri-series, regional cups and even bilateral games, but they shall not qualify to the official ICC standings, which will be used to determine the World Cup seedings. The only games that count towards a teams success in the ICL are those sanctioned by the ICC as ICL-tour games.


Note: The Drama thread can be found here

 

[The Blazer]

Really looking forward to this! Glad to see that you will be using BLIC for some of your games!

 

[treva]

looks wkd
hope it's a another great story like gamerkid's and surendar's!
good luck

 

[sohum]

Seeing that this is a fairly large story, don't expect me to play every game! I will be autoplaying a bunch, but I'll be going into the story for the tense situations--for example the end of the games, the wonderful comebacks, etc. Also, hopefully I'll be getting BLIC soon, so I plan to mix it up a bit.

I'll be using a random bunch of patches, the 4GB bat pack and all sorts of other miscellaneous stuff I've picked up at PC. Watch out for the controversy thread as teams will definitely be hit at some point in the tour, to ensure the vein of uncertainty. This story is not going to be all about the cricket!

 

[surendar]

:happy This is a great system :happy

Also, this improves the skills of teams like USA and other teams of less strength... its a great idea of demotion and promotion at end of season!!!

 

[James_W]

I like a good drama!

 

[sohum]

First Round of Tours [1]

ICL Tour: Australia host New Zealand
Test Series
1st Test Match: Perth
2nd Test Match: Adelaide
3rd Test Match: Sydney
4th Test Match: Brisbane
5th Test Match: Melbourne

ODI Series
1st ODI: Melbourne
2nd ODI: Sydney
3rd ODI: Sydney
4th ODI: to be determined
5th ODI: to be determined

ICL Tour: Sri Lanka host USA
Test Series
1st Test Match: Premadasa, Colombo
2nd Test Match: Dambulla
3rd Test Match: Kandy

ODI Series
1st ODI: Kandy
2nd ODI: Dambulla
3rd ODI: SSC, Colombo
4th ODI: Premadasa, Colombo
5th ODI: SSC, Colombo

 

[w3lshrugby]

this presentation is immense, looking forward to this...

 

[sohum]

Australia vs. New Zealand, 1st Test

Australia vs. New Zealand, 1st Test: PERTH

Hello everybody, and welcome to the first edition of Freshlime in the new International Cricket League that has been ruffling feathers all over the world. Today sees the beginning of New Zealand's tour of World Champions Australia. This should be a great 5 days of Test cricket as we see one of the premier rivalries in international cricket take stage. Let us look at an overview of the match.

The Lemon's Viewpoint
The Lemon believes that this match is actually closer than one may expect. Ricky Ponting's Australian team has not had a great time in the last few months, and almost suffered an embarassing defeat in Bangladesh. New Zealand have not played that much cricket of late, but what they have played has been high quality stuff.

The Captains
"It is a great honor to inaugurate this tournament of awesome proportions that finally has put some sense into cricket. The guys are looking forward to put in a good contest over the next 5 days and hopefully we will emerge victors. The Kiwi's are lacking some experience, but they certainly have the talent to match and even top us. However, we weren't the top side in the world for nothing."
- Ricky Ponting, Australian captain

"The boys have come together very well in a short span as this series has been announced. Although we probably aren't best prepared for this match, we don't think the Australian team has gained any edge on us, in that regard. We will be looking to play some competitive cricket, and on the green pitch of Perth, a bowler from either side could easily swing things away."
- Stephen Fleming, New Zealand captain

The Pitch
"This pitch will heavily assist the bowlers for the most part of the game. The pitch displays more than just a tinge of green, and is bound to trouble batsmen with seam, swing, bounce and pace. I wouldn't be surprised to see the team winning the toss choosing to field first, and then skittling out the opposition quickly. Batsmen will have to play out of their skins and with a lot of patience, as playing away from your body may have devastating consequences."
- Ian Healy, Official ICL Pitch Reporter

The Weather
"Today's weather is bright and sunny and also quite warm. Perhaps that will help the batsmen, in that there are no overcast conditions to put the advantage on the bowlers side even more. Bright and sunny skies are also expected for the remainder of the day."
- ICL Weather Department

The Lemon's Prediction
The Lemon believes the team winning the toss will elect to field first and get a few wickets in the morning session. Australia go into almost any test match as favorites, and there is no difference here. However, if the Kiwi's win the toss, the Lemon believes they may have a few surprises up their sleeves.

 

[duffarama]

LOL freshlime. Good one.
I am going to read through all of this now. Nice to see a premium quality story bearing fruits, or limes in this case.

 

[sohum]

The Toss

STEVE WAUGH Hello, viewers. I'm Steve Waugh, and you've probably not seen me down here. But let's not discuss that and get to the match at hand. Australia vs. New Zealand. First match of the International Cricket League. It may get bigger than this at the World Cup, but I wouldn't count on it. Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, will toss the coin and Stephen Fleming, the Kiwi captain, will call.

Fleming calls Heads and wins the toss

STEVE WAUGH So, you've won the toss, Stephen. Congratulations and what are you going to be doing on this mean, green pitch?
STEPHEN FLEMING Well, I think we'll have a bat on this one.
STEVE WAUGH Really... and why's that?
STEPHEN FLEMING The Australian batting line-up is obviously pretty strong and we wouldn't want to give them an advantage in the case that they manage to negotiate our bowling upfront. This pitch is going to be seaming throughout the game, and we'd rather be setting the target than chasing a medium-sized target.
STEVE WAUGH Hmm... I guess that's an interesting way to look at it. Well, cheers mate. Hope you have a good game.
STEPHEN FLEMING Thanks, mate. Cheers
STEVE WAUGH And now, the Australian captain, Ricky Ponting. Ricky... need me to poke you to wake up from this dream?
RICKY PONTING Haha, Steve. Maybe. Probably a good toss to lose, though we would also have chosen to bowl first, so we're pretty happy to be out their fielding in a few minutes.
STEVE WAUGH Indeed, any thoughts about this pitch?
RICKY PONTING Just the same as everyone else. Can probably find a few monkeys in there, it's so green. We'll need to work hard, though, as the New Zealand team is pretty strong.
STEVE WAUGH Well, good luck, mate. Hope you have a great match.
RICKY PONTING Thanks, Steve.

STEVE WAUGH So there you have it. Stephen Fleming winning the toss and surprisingly, and curiously, electing to bat first on what seems to be a pretty nasty pitch to bat on. That's all the action from here, for now. Back to the studio.

 

[surendar]

Thats strange decision by Fleming!!!
Bw, the presentation is wonderful!!!

 

[Short Leg]

Are you playing as a team or all of them and autoplaying until the good bits? Good start to the story by the way.

 

[kuttakumar]

Nice presentation.

 

[sohum]

Match Preview
You just had a look at both teams on your screen. Australia have called back some of their success stories from the past few seasons and have ended up with a pretty experienced, successful and old line-up. New Zealand, on the other hand, have a few youngsters who will be looking to prove themselves in this tournament of extreme magnitude. Let us just look at the compositions of both teams.

Australia
Australia is going with 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers. They would be hoping that Shane Warne can provide some batting support down the order, along with Brett Lee. Recent member of the double-century club, Jason Gillespie, has been dropped, however. Australia sports a 4-prong pace attack with the speed of Brett Lee and Shaun Tait, the swing of Nathan Bracken, and the sheer presence of Glenn McGrath. Their batting sees Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden, the dangerous duo, up at the top followed by captain courageous, Ricky Ponting. Rounding up the middle order are Michael Clarke, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist.

New Zealand
New Zealand have gone with a slightly more flexible team, with 6 batsmen, a genuine all-rounder and 4 bowlers. Shane Bond has always been a thorn in Australia's flesh, and he'll be the key bowler along with the experienced Daniel Vettori. Daryl Tuffey and James Franklin will provide pace support. Jacob Oram is playing as an all-rounder and the familiar names of McCullum, Astle and Fleming are scattered around the batting line-up. Matthew Sinclair is making a comeback to the national team and Craig Cumming seems to have been drawn up as a last-moment choice. Hamish Marshall rears up the middle order.

So, both teams going for a bowling combination full of pace bowlers. There are 7 pace bowlers and 2 spinners on show in this match. A few tearaway bowlers, a few workhorses, and a few genuine swing-bowlers. Should be great stuff on this green Perth pitch. That's all the action we have from the studio, let's head to the center to catch the action live on ICCTV.