I don't want to be too spoilery but CPL has always been pretty kind to South African franchise cricket. Strong Test team + strong domestic competition with few teams and not many absolutely dominant players at the top of its charts = win. In recent times the standard of the Test team has dipped and some of the transformation policies and Kolpak defections have diluted the standard of it a bit, so it's not as strong as it was (both in reality in CPL), but it's a very good port of call after Tests and A-cricket, really. Especially if you actually follow it as you do and aren't just stats whoring without the context the broader algorithm has. If I were to have any minor criticism it'd be that while all your blokes have good franchise averages, some of them haven't played that many games at that level, so the database has ended up doing things like taking their franchise record as 85% of their record and then filling the rest in with their three day stuff, which doesn't scale as well, or even just "noobowning" (ie. nerfing his final standardised average based on limited amounts of standardised innings) them. There is one player in particular I can remember this happening to. On the plus side, I think this competition is *still going* in January unlike the Aus and NZ equivalents, so they could rectify this to an extent with the extra games before the Jan 31 cut off. I think you've got a solid side though. Australians not having heard of van Tonder, Smith, Second or Linde doesn't mean they're worse than Bancroft, Green, Paine or Swespon necessarily. I'm more worried about Nabi's long-form batting skills in your side than your South Africans tbh. He should bowl fine but I think dinosaurs walked the earth the last time he played more than a useful cameo in FC or ODI cricket.
Cribb doing halfway breakdowns of where he thinks coaches should be focused on picking for the second half would be gun
I guessed that the youngsters without a long record would get hammered. But was always going to pick Rabada, Hamza and van Tonder no matter what given the opportunity. Not gonna have fun if I don't actually like the team...
"Hammered" isn't how I'd put it. A couple of them were taken a round or two early at most. You didn't make any shockers. Team balance looks off to me but probably just because I don't rate Nabi's FC batting.
I actually picked Nabi for his right arm spin... I agree my batting is a little suspect but I have plans!
Yeah Nabi's bowling should be fine, I just think he's probably a spot too high and you don't need six bowling options. Smith/Nabi/Linde all competing for two places at 7-8 depending on form/pitches with an extra bat in the side would make it look a lot better IMO.
Your F1 knowledge is weak, why use Williams as the benchmark for ineptitude. Coloni, EuroBrun, Osella, Simtek, Pacific, Forti, Life, Andrea Moda, Mastercard Lola and Super Aguri all would have worked better. Or Minardi, easily the most iconic team of all time
minardi better describes the cult favourite teams tbh like yours and mine '2010s ferrari end of season race strategy' would be a good terrible team category name.
Yeah, the most iconic team in F1 history, success be damned. I'm decided now, going to call my team Minardi Cricket Club.
