Indian Domestic Competition Feedback

[kishorea]

I'm absolutely enjoying being able to play as the Indian state teams. Teams in the Indian FC competition are known for their defensive style thanks to a point system which discourages risk taking, given the huge importance given to first innings leads. The gameplay in CC2015 reflects this very well.

There are a few things that came to my notice that I'd like to point out, and I thought I'll keep posting things over here as I notice them. I hope more fellow Cricket Captains would add to these observations.

1. Regarding Session Timings

Remember cricket is mostly played during winter in India. So we have very early starts over here. In North India, play starts as early as 9.00 am (yes, a full two hours earlier than in England!) so as to finish before the light fades. South India being closer to the Equator doesn't experience much difference between summer and winter daylight hours, but we still start at 9.30 am.

2. Regarding the Weather

I'm still only halfway into my first season, so I must wait to experience more games before I comment on this aspect, but still I thought I'd post my observations about one game.

December is a month with almost 0 rainfall in almost all parts of India, but in my second game as Kerala against Saurashtra, there were three rainy days during the match resulting in over 7 hours of play lost.

I don't know how seriously the CC2015 engine takes actual weather calculations, but it would be nice if the regional variations across India could be reflected in the game. After all India is such a diverse country!

3. Swing during winter matches in North India

I know that subcontinent pitches are known as dust bowls, but given the early starts and the cold weather in North India, there is always some swing available for the bowlers. Some places like Mohali (Punjab) actually offer some help for the seamers. Again I don't know if the CC engine can take in factors other than bounce/wear/cloud cover, but it would be nice to have this variation as well.

More observations to follow later...

[Sureshot]

Hi,

Thanks for the great info. We'll take a look at what we can do here.

What do you think of the balance in OD and 20 over games in Indian domestic?

Sureshot

[kishorea]

Hi,

Thanks for the great info. We'll take a look at what we can do here.

What do you think of the balance in OD and 20 over games in Indian domestic?

Sureshot

I'm yet to begin playing OD and 20 overs in my Himachal Pradesh save. And honestly speaking I haven't been following limited overs domestic cricket really, to be able to comment on this aspect.

[kishorea]

Noticed that all 7 FC knockout matches in my first season had a result.

For comparison, the last three seasons in real life Ranji Trophy had 3, 1 and 4 draws respectively in the knockout stages with the team with first innings lead going through.

The two points for first innings leads in group games are bad enough, but it's taken to a whole new dimension in knockout games, leading to some atrocious cricket sometimes. In the 2014/15 semifinal, Tamil Nadu played out 226.4 overs in their first innings for 549 runs. That's more than half the game! Don't know if teams in CC15 are capable of doing that!

Anyway, I'll update on this aspect after I've played a couple more seasons.

[kishorea]

System incorrectly awarded three points to a team when the match was drawn without the first innings being completed (the second team still had two wickets in hand at stumps on day 4 despite trailing by 50 runs). If I'm not mistaken, a single point is awarded to each team in this scenario.

[kishorea]

The 20 over domestic fixtures get very crowded towards the end of the season, and the player fitness levels just plummet. Several of them went to play in the IPL as well and got injured. Not really a concern for me as I'm not playing the IPL and the players are back to their original fitness levels by next season, but I thought I'd point it out.

I'm sure you guys must have studied the original fixture schedules - the latter stages of the tournament actually cross over into April, and I guess you must have pushed it back to finish by March 31st so as to avoid complications of having a tournament overlapping two seasons.

Don't know whether it's feasible, but you could have the first class season starting in October and going on till Jan - this has been the case in some previous years.

[GrahamB]

The 20 over domestic fixtures get very crowded towards the end of the season, and the player fitness levels just plummet.

Yes - you have to make several line-up changes for almost every game due to this. Makes it too tough.

[kishorea]

Why aren't youth team players promoted mid-season in the Indian career?