So I've been adding a bit to this. Here's what's already in there, or at least confirmed in my own mind as going in: Tests Well yeah. Domestic First Class competitions All domestic First Class tournaments will be added. This now includes South Africa's 3 day amateur setup (although this does not mean picking Ruan Petersen is suddenly a great idea - the standard is still poor and that will be reflected). Anything that has a consistent, quantifiable standard and isn't just a one off game will be added. Note that there are some First Class matches don't count - university matches, PM's XI games etc. Associate Matches This mainly refers to the Intercontinental Cup, but if I can find an example of two associates playing each other in a match that lasts at least three days, it's going in there. Even if it doesn't officially have First Class status (as long as it's 11 v 11 and selected at what I'd term full strength). A team "Tests" Strictly means A team v A team - for example, Pakistan A v South Africa A. In there. A team v Full Team games Usually played as tour games, but England XI v Australia A that was played this summer for example is in there. There are lots of examples of "Zimbabwe Select XI" playing against A teams, and for most part that team will count as Zimbabwe's full team (up to my discretion basically) and be counted in this category. Ireland and Scotland have also played some games like this. A team v proper domestic team games Other A team games count as long as they're 11 v 11 and played against a proper domestic side. Games played against invitational XIs, Chairman's XIs, PM's XIs etc don't count because there's no way to quantify how strong those sides are. Domestic tournaments without First Class status If all the games go for at least three days, they're 11 v 11 and there's some sort of consistent standard to them I'm happy to include them, especially if they have a cricketarchive stats page. good examples of this are Ireland's new domestic comp: http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/19/RSA_Inter-Provincial_Championship_2013.html County Second XI cricket: http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/19/Second_Eleven_Championship_2013.html Minor Counties cricket: http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/18/Minor_Counties_Championship_2013.html (which means I believe Luffers is close to actually being in my database ) Futures League cricket: http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/17/Futures_League_2012-13.html Second XI New Zealand domestic cricket: http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/21/National_Provincial_A_Tournament_2013-14.html If you can think of any other examples of this then please do let me know. Before someone suggests the Hawke Cup - I was keen on it, but only the Challenge matches actually go for 3 days and cricket archive does a terrible job of keeping it up to date as well, so I've ruled it out. If you have any questions or suggestions for this then let me know.
http://www.cricket.af/page.aspx?Page=10 Can't find any stats unfortunately. Wonder if it even still actually goes ahead tbh.
I'm sure I'll find more stuff when I go through it properly tbh. Afghanistan's domestic comp meets my criteria but I can't find any stats for it, there are probably others like that too. Would not surprise me if Nepal or PNG had a 3-day comp that cricketarchive cbf with.
I don't really see any of those tournaments having a large effect on the sim or even really the player quality of the associates.
Haha, true. Afghanistan's could if you had a full Second XI comp I reckon. Nepal and PNG domestic cricket unlikely to be tapped into regardless though.. What could have an affect would be finding more tournaments like the county second XI comp. Including the Aus/NZ ones is somewhat important IMO as they have only a handful of FC teams, only one layer of FC cricket and short seasons. South Africa's second tier actually (erroneously ) has First Class status while India and Pakistan just have a shitload of terms playing in their main comp. What's probably the most important is that I pick up all the little A-tour games and try to categorise them all properly. Australia A played Ireland recently for example, which should count like an ICup game for the Aus A players and proper game against Australia A for the Irish blokes. It's important that I go through and find all those games properly.
That actually reminds me that I didn't make a Touring side v proper domestic side category, going to need one of those.
Haha, Rusty to not fall into the "he has a good First Class average and his First Class competition counts" trap this time IMO. Scaling exists. Not saying he wouldn't be reasonable pick towards the end though.
Even if you find the stats how are you going to weigh them against other FC games? Not like anyone here knows even roughly what the standard there is.
Haha nah. As soon as you have common players you can figure it out statistically. The only thing that's arbitrary in the whole thing is the Intercontinental Cup - everything is compared to something, either by comparing how the same players go in different competitions or using a model to plot the quality drop off if you add more teams or add another level etc.
What if there's only a couple of common players, who happened to do worse because they were younger/older/unsuited to conditions/summat?
Yeah the common players thing doesn't always very well (for example, Michael Clarke does not prove that the Sheffield Shield was a stronger competition than Test cricket in 2004); it's only a small part of how it's figured out though. I don't want to give too much away as such but the strength of a domestic competition is primarily figured out by the strength of the Test side and how thin the talent is spread across that domestic competition below that. Ireland and Afghanistan play the ICup, so given the ICup has a value, their domestic structure can be viewed as an extension of how they go in that competition spread across however many teams they have, with direct same player comparisons adding extra weight where available.
