For the future?

[Trevfromsussex&Oz]

I play mostly in Tournament Mode so these ideas apply to it. The ability to set the grounds - Most countries have more than 5 Test grounds and some have a reputation - Barbados & Perth for the quicks, Chennai & Headingly (Old Trafford '56) for spin - Lords & Melbourne change in the course of a match. Weather can we have - stable, deteriorating, improving at the moment the forecast is almost never overthrown. Proper First-class tours - 4 matches - 1 Test - 1 match - 1 Test for a total of 8 matches and 5 Tests. This ties in the idea of a Historical tour mode. I've done a 1970 Test database for all countries except Pakistan so why not start in 1970, 1980, 1990 or 2000?

[Rumblah]

Perth is a weak, pathetic drop-in now since CA are more concerned with crowd numbers than atmosphere and wins

[Trevfromsussex&Oz]

Perth in February was always liable to be slow and cracking UNLESS a cyclone ravaged the Carnarvon coast. I agree with your comments about drop-in pitches - They are mostly a blight on the game.

[Trevfromsussex&Oz]

I'm putting this here because Historical-Type PC players are according to Sureshot only a small (very small) minority. These are proposed FC, 5 Test tours of the seven traditional Test countries.
WI - v Jamaica, v President's XI, v Uni of WI, v Windward Is, 1Test (Kingston), v Barbados, 2Test (Bridgetown), v Trinidad, 3Test (Port of Spain), v Guyana, 4Test (Georgetown), v Leeward Is, 5Test (Port of Spain or Antigua).
England - v Worcester, v Surrey, v MCC, v Derby, 1Test (Edgebaston), v Essex, 2Test (Lords), v Notts, 3Test (Old Trafford), v Leicester, 4Test (Headingly or Trent Bridge), v Middlesex, 5Test (Oval).
SA - v North Transvaal, v Transvaal, v Natal, v Orange Free State, 1Test (Centurion), v Griqualand W, 2Test (Johannesburg), v East Province, 3Test (Cape Town), v Border, 4Test (Port Elizabeth), v West Province, 5Test (Durban).
Au - v SA, v Vic, v NSW, v Queensland, 1Test (Brisbane), v Tasmania, 2Test (Melbourne), v PM XI, 3Test (Sydney), v Vic, 4Test (Adelaide), v WA, 5Test (Perth).
NZ - v Auckland, v North Is, v Wellington, v North District, 1Test (Auckland), v Otago, 2Test (Dunedin), v Canterbury, 3Test (Christchurch), v Central District, 4Test (Wellington), v South Is, 5Test (Auckland).
India - v West, v President's XI, v North, v Bombay, 1Test (Bombay), v South, 2Test (Chennai), v East, 3Test (Calcutta), v Central, 4Test (Delhi), v Karnataka, 5Test (Kanpur).
Pakistan - v Lahore, v President's XI, v NWFP, v Punjab, 1Test (Peshawar), v Multan, 2Test (Lahore), v Hyderabad, 3Test (Faisalabad), v Karachi, 4Test (Hyderabad), v Sindh, 5Test (Karachi).
I've stuck to traditional names and tried to make the tours geographical coherent. Feel free to criticise I'd like to read here players thoughts.

[Fitzroy FC]

Perth is a weak, pathetic drop-in now since CA are more concerned with crowd numbers than atmosphere and wins

Pretty sure the BCCI ordered CA to tone down the WACA pitch. Either way, CA is piss weak.

[Wilted]

I would love to see more tour matches in a regular career. And the more of them, the better especially since it's a great challenge for a domestic team to see how they fare against international teams. It seems once the generated series kick in, a lot of tour matches get dropped. OD tour matches would be nice too.

Also speaking of domestic teams on the international stage, it'd be fun to bring back something like the T20 Champions League from several years ago. I know they've been defunct for a long time now but... why not bring them back for the sake of it. Even if it's a historical tournament.

Drop in pitches in Australia suck and it's had a pretty poor effect across the country as they've been introduced at more and more grounds. Might as well call the MCG the MAFLG instead since it's clear who runs things there $$$.

[cde]

The tour matches used to be a Godsend since you ALWAYS receive your international players in appalling form and it gave you a chance you rebuild.

Their disappearance is missed but it is unfortunately true to real life. I can remember going to watch Australia play Glamorgan at a tiny ground, I think in Abergavenny in th 90s. The Aussie players warming up on a strip on the outfield were friendly enough though Merc Hughes was playing it up and warning the "pommy" kids to watch out!

The result was never in doubt but it did a lot to warm people to a team who otherwise came across as needlessly obnoxious on the field and got a few friends of mine who had no interest in cricket getting into the game.

[Lojoda]

It would be really good if the player can have more impact on pitch preparation. If you are an Asian team against SENA then in real life the pitch might have sharp turn from day 1, and if you are a SENA team against Asian then in real life the pitch might have extreme bounce from day 1. Why can't this be replicated in game? To add to this, the AI never opens the bowling with spinners in first class matches, unlike in real life. Can this be changed too?