How are you doing in ICC 2008?

[aus5892]

I'm up to 2012 now and I got rid of him a while ago. Just have enough talented youngsters at the moment.

[Cyril Washbrook]

Interesting, I could never get Ervine to perform consistently in this game (unlike 2005/06, in which he was great). Carberry is a gun though.

In my first season he wasn't very good in my game - 33 with the bat in both forms of the game and pretty ordinary with the ball. I was flabbergasted at how well he's been doing (as you would have to be). I'm almost done with Season 3 at the moment, and he's on fire now as well - not quite as good as Season 2, but his overall FC average is now getting up around 45 and he's narrowly on track to beat the 1769 championship run mark that he set in the aforementioned season.

[aus5892]

Interesting, I could never get Ervine to perform consistently in this game (unlike 2005/06, in which he was great). Carberry is a gun though.

[Cyril Washbrook]

Season 2 summary...

Tremendously successful season - won the county championship by 38 points, semi-finalists in the Challenge Trophy and promoted to D1 in the Pro-League. Michael Bevan replaced Shane Bond as the international player, and proved to be an outstanding investment, scoring over 2000 runs in first-class and one-day fixtures. I had dropped Sean Ervine for the first five matches of the season because of poor form... but when he came back, he was stunning. Absolutely stunning. In 19 innings, he scored 8 centuries and 10 fifties. He's become pretty much a specialist batsman now - I don't use him with the ball all that often.

Carberry's excellent form continued, once again averaging over 60 in first-class matches and Tremlett avoided being selected for England and did well. Tahir was called up by England but didn't play a match.

Top performers in Season 2:

Ervine:
[B]11 / 20 / 5 / 1769 / 159  / 117.93 / 8 / 10 / 55.42[/B] (blimey!)
8  / 8  / 1 / 348  / 126  / 49.71  / 1 / 1  / 81.10

Carberry:
14 / 27 / 2 / 1571 / 229  / 62.84  / 6 / 5  / 45.73
17 / 17 / 0 / 901  / 131  / 53.00  / 3 / 4  / 79.22

14 / 160 / 471  / 19 / 24.79 / 3-39  / 0 / 0 / 2.94
17 / 78  / 336  / 14 / 24.00 / 4-30  / 0 / 0 / 4.27

Bevan:
16 / 29 / 6 / 1475 / 150  / 64.13  / 7 / 5 / 51.66
18 / 18 / 4 / 606  / 91   / 43.29  / 0 / 5 / 73.27

Crawley:
16 / 24 / 5 / 846  / 153* / 44.53  / 3 / 3  / 54.47
15 / 14 / 6 / 291  / 79*  / 36.37  / 0 / 1  / 98.97

Tremlett:
16 / 707 / 2222 / 86 / 25.84 / 6-93 / 4 / 0 / 3.14
18 / 151 / 685  / 44 / 15.57 / 4-28 / 0 / 0 / 4.53
10 / 39  / 211  / 13 / 16.23 / 4-16 / 0 / 0 / 5.41

[Cyril Washbrook]

Doing better at the moment, but have just torn all my hair out after losing a ridiculous one-dayer. I had Worcs 9-230 after 40 overs chasing 310. Their number 8 and number 11 batsmen then put together 81 runs in 8.2 overs - offering not a single chance in the process - to win the match. *screams*

EDIT: I finished a credible third with Hants in my first season (courtesy of four wins, one loss and eleven draws!), and I've just started the second. I jettisoned Shane Bond (not performing + I need good bowlers who won't spend time on international duty) and picked up Michael Bevan as a batsman. And I managed to snare Naqqash Tahir, who was the leading wicket-taker in the first season with 116 wickets in 16 matches. I've just played my first county championship fixture and he and Tremlett are on fire. Bevan notched up a century, too. Tremlett will probably be picked for England but I'm hoping that Tahir will remain behind.

Top performers in Season 1:

Carberry:
16 / 32 / 7 / 1731 / 232* / 69.24  / 5 / 6  / 43.36
14 / 14 / 0 / 680  / 136  / 48.57  / 1 / 5  / 82.32

16 / 264 / 832  / 26 / 32.00 / 5-80  / 1 / 0 / 3.15
14 / 80  / 434  / 11 / 39.45 / 3-39  / 0 / 0 / 5.38

Crawley (C):
13 / 22 / 3 / 1335 / 140* / 70.26  / 5 / 8  / 53.44
10 / 9  / 1 / 265  / 62   / 33.12  / 0 / 2  / 82.81

Lumb:
16 / 27 / 9 / 1032 / 146* / 57.33  / 3 / 4  / 61.67
16 / 13 / 6 / 251  / 51*  / 35.86  / 0 / 1  / 118.38

Brown:
14 / 25 / 1 / 1028 / 147  / 42.83  / 4 / 4  / 46.29
15 / 15 / 1 / 532  / 94   / 38.00  / 0 / 4  / 75.34

Tremlett:
16 / 728 / 2332 / 79 / 29.52 / 6-62  / 4 / 1 / 3.20
20 / 177 / 781  / 31 / 25.19 / 3-27  / 0 / 0 / 4.41

[Cyril Washbrook]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see how it all goes. I've started another county game from scratch so I'll continue to persist. I've had a lot more success playing for Australia as an international team, so that's keeping me optimistic about my chances in the domestic leagues. :P

Hampshire seems to be good in terms of the batting/bowling ratings (5 stars on batting and 3.5 on bowling), which ostensibly makes it one of the strongest teams, but I guess once you remove Bond, Tremlett and Pietersen from the equation it becomes a whole lot harder!

[Sureshot]

First seasons are awful on 08, very difficult. But it's good, means you have to build a team. Unless you go with one of the better teams, anyway. I went with Essex, who have such a weak bowling unit it is untrue!

[aus5892]

In my first season I struggled a fair bit, it usually takes a bit of time to develop your players and get into the game properly.

As for bowling tactics, you want to play to your opponent's weaknesses - if a batsman is strong on the off side, bowl to middle and leg. If he's good on the back foot, bowl it full. Of course you can mix it up if nothing else is working.

[Cyril Washbrook]

I'm baffled at how many people seem to do so well. I'm playing with Hampshire at the moment and am struggling to win a single game. In my first season, I lost every single 20/20 fixture, won a single Championship match and got knocked out in the first match after the group stage for the Challenge Trophy. I'm constantly conceding around 500 to 600 runs in the Championship, struggling to dismiss tailenders who manage to score centuries (or in one case a double century), and keep getting bowled out for ludicrous totals (like 35 for one 20/20 match). It seems that the only tactic people suggest on this forum is along the lines of "bowl a good length on middle-and-leg and hope for the best", which I've tried with absolutely no success whatsoever.

[Screenwriters CC]

Carrying on from three posts above…

I finished with a clean sweep in the latest season, Winning CC Division One, Pro40 Division One, Challenge Trophy and Twenty20 Cup! First time I've managed to get all four, since 2011! However I was extremely lucky in two of them. Firstly the Twenty20 Cup Final was Middlesex/Surrey for a start. They needed just a few off the last over and one of the last couple of balls to win. However the scores ended up tied with me winning the cup by losing fewer wickets!! Pro40 looked probably lost as well with me 2 points behind Glamorgan (who had only lost once) going in to the final game, although my NRR was a lot higher. I won and they were somehow slaughtered, therefore sealing all four titles.

I've started the next season and the World Cup is on, hence about half my starting team are away, including my three frontline bowlers. On top of this, my first choice replacement bowler is injured as well as one of my remaining top batsman. However I've still managed to win all of my games so far in all comps, quite largely due to a Mr. A Rashid. So far that is just three CC games and maybe four or five CT matches, but things are going well. England find themselves third in the Super 8s after 5 games, hope they can go all the way as the current opening partnership is 100% Middlesex!

With all of my tournament wins, my budget is always ensured to be extremely high and I decided to invest in all of the promising youth players this year. Within my seconds, three of the new batsmen (all aged between 20-22 and playing their first games for the club) are averaging over 55, scoring at least one 100 and two 50s in just a small handful of games.

2019 is a sad time in a way, as KP no longer makes it in to the England team! Neither does Alistair Cook in fact and those two are the only remaining current real England players that are left playing first team cricket domestically. All of the other players have either not been offered contracts and are therefore gone from the game entirely (which is the case for nearly all of them!) or for a luckily few, they have of course retired by now. For those interested, KP is still at Hants and Cook is still at Essex.

[Sureshot]

I finally have gotten out of the group stages of the 20-20! We're doing well this season, though we are waning in the CC slightly.

[bhupabhupa]

First of all I thank to the makers of the game for making a superb game like ICC 2008. I have started India as my International team. All the team members are doing well. Series against Australia was full of surprise. I beat them in all four test matches by an inning. Tendulkar scored four hundreds, Dravid three, Sehwag three and Laxman two.

[Screenwriters CC]

I can understand punishing a team for not picking a genuine keeper but I reckon this is a bit out of control.

- I would love to see both the fan and media reaction to this decision and its outcome!


I'm currently on 2017 (on medium level) and playing as Middlesex (never taking control of England):

2007
CC Division Two: 1st
Pro40 Division Two: 1st
Challenge Trophy: Winner
Twenty20 Cup: Winner

2008
CC Division One: 2nd
Pro40 Div One: 1st
Challenge Trophy: Winner
Twenty20 Cup: SF

2009 - 2016
CC Division One: 1st Every Year!
Pro40 Div One: 1st Every Year apart from 2015 when I slipped to 6th!!
Challenge Trophy: Winner 4 times (Runner Up once, Semi Finalist twice and Group Stage once, again in 2015!!!)
Twenty20 Cup: Winner 4 Times (Quarter Finalist twice and Group Stage twice, although I won this one in 2015 at least!)

2017 is going well and I've reached the first T20 match of the season. I currently top the CC and won the CT South Group, with Somerset, Glamorgan and Hampshire being the other teams in particular good form this season.

[Nuts4Notts]

I've been playing with Notts, first season my side successfully bottled the Pro 40 title, (2nd after losing last 2 games) the FP Trophy (lost in final) and the championship (came 2nd after losing to Hants in last game) which was a bit upsetting.

David Hussey must be the best batsman on the game though, scored 2000+ runs in first season @ 75, with Samit Patel not far behind.

In the off season I signed Michael Munday (spinner) from Somerset, amazingly they didnt play him in the ODIs, he has been excellent for me in all matches so far this season. Also signed Ryan Mclaren who has been a wicket taking machine as well...

Other top batters I have found on a previous game was Ryan Ten Doscherate, who is always up near the top of the averages/runs scored table. Michael Yardy always seems to score runs as well. I desperately need some more aggressive batsman though for the next season, ideally a good opener (I sucked in the 20/20 in me first season).

[Sureshot]

Finally reached a One Day final with Essex. Thanks to Lawson and Kaneria. They are my match winners, though I want Lawson to do better in FC cricket.

I lost to Leics in the final, only scored 180 due to being 30-5! The season finished in a fairly average way. Had a bit more money to spend in the transfer window because of the CT runners-up prize. Released Plunkett and Clare. Signed Danny Ash (RHB, RF) and Chris Behm (LM).