The Layer Cake Draft

[Aislabie]

Welcome all to a new draft, hot on the heels of the first Budget Draft which was my favourite draft since the all-time worst Test and ODI XI drafts threw up some teams full of players who nobody should ever have had any reason to know about (looking at you, Emile McMaster).

Participants
- @Aislabie
- @DalePlaysCricket
- @ahmedleo414
- @CerealKiller
- @Dutch
- @blockerdave
- @Master Bates & @Na Maloom Afraad
- @El Loco
- @Bevab

This draft is a little more complicated than usual, so please bear with me. It has four "layers".

Layer One: Protected Player
Each manager will nominate a protected player. This player will be someone you get to keep in your team regardless, unless someone else goes for the same player.

@ahmedleo414 - Jacques Kallis
@Aislabie - Imran Khan
@Bevab - Sunil Gavaskar
@blockerdave - Clive Rice
@CerealKiller - Shane Warne
@DalePlaysCricket - Steve Harmison
@Dutch - David Gower
@El Loco - Sydney Barnes
@Master Bates - Adam GIlchrist

Layer Two: Rejected Players
Each manager will nominate 20 rejected players. These players then become ineligible for any manager to select in the rest of the draft unless they're nominated for the Lucky Dip.

Spoiler: Australia

Don Bradman - @El Loco / @Master Bates
Marnus Labuschagne - @blockerdave
Justin Langer - @Aislabie / @Bevab
Rob Quiney - @CerealKiller
Victor Trumper - @Master Bates
David Warner - @Dutch
Steve Waugh - @ahmedleo414 / @blockerdave

Allan Border - @Aislabie
Trevor Chappell - @CerealKiller

Richie Benaud - @Dutch / @Master Bates
John Hastings - @CerealKiller
Mitchell Johnson - @blockerdave / @Master Bates

Pat Cummins - @blockerdave
Brett Lee - @DalePlaysCricket
Dennis Lillee - @ahmedleo414 / @Aislabie / @El Loco
Nathan Lyon - @blockerdave
Bryce McGain - @CerealKiller
Glenn McGrath - @Aislabie / @blockerdave / @DalePlaysCricket
Peter Siddle - @blockerdave / @DalePlaysCricket
Mitchell Starc - @blockerdave / @Dutch

Spoiler: Bangladesh

Mushfiqur Rahman - @CerealKiller

Anwar Hossain Monir - @CerealKiller

Spoiler: England

Joe Clarke - @Aislabie
Joe Denly - @Dutch
Graham Gooch - @ahmedleo414
Lord Hawke - @CerealKiller
Jack Hobbs - @Dutch / @El Loco
Len Hutton - @Bevab
Monkey Hornby - @CerealKiller
Kevin Pietersen - @Dutch
Joe Root - @Bevab / @blockerdave / @DalePlaysCricket
Andrew Strauss - @DalePlaysCricket / @Dutch
Herbert Sutcliffe - @Bevab

WG Grace - @Aislabie / @DalePlaysCricket / @Dutch / @Master Bates
Ben Stokes - @DalePlaysCricket / @Dutch / @Master Bates

Alan Knott - @Master Bates
Steve Rhodes - @Aislabie

Emile McMaster - @CerealKiller
Wilfred Rhodes - @Bevab / @Master Bates

Jimmy Anderson - @ahmedleo414 / @Bevab / @DalePlaysCricket / @Dutch / @MasterBates
Jofra Archer - @DalePlaysCricket
Stuart Broad - @DalePlaysCricket
Harold Larwood - @Bevab
Ian Salisbury - @CerealKiller
Fred Trueman - @Dutch
Bob Willis - @Dutch

Spoiler: India

Aakash Chopra - @CerealKiller
Rahul Dravid - @Bevab
Gautam Gambhir - @Bevab
Virat Kohli - @ahmedleo414 / @blockerdave / @Master Bates
Nawab of Pataudi - @CerealKiller
Maharajah of Vizianagram - @CerealKiller

MS Dhoni - @ahmedleo414

Anil Kumble - @ahmedleo414 / @Aislabie / @Master Bates
CS Nayudu - @CerealKiller
Harbhajan Singh - @ahmedleo414

Jasprit Bumrah - @blockerdave / @Master Bates
Zaheer Khan - @Bevab
Nilesh Kulkarni - @CerealKiller
MSK Prasad - @CerealKiller

Spoiler: New Zealand

Murray Chapple - @CerealKiller
Martin Crowe - @El Loco
Kane Williamson - @DalePlaysCricket

Tom Latham - @Bevab
Brendon McCullum - @ahmedleo414 / @DalePlaysCricket

Richard Hadlee - @Dutch / @El Loco / @Master Bates
Daniel Vettori - @Aislabie / @DalePlaysCricket

Shane Bond - @DalePlaysCricket / @El Loco
Neil Wagner - @Master Bates

Spoiler: Pakistan

Saeed Anwar - @Bevab / @El Loco
Babar Azam - @ahmedleo414
Saleem Malik - @blockerdave
Javed Miandad - @blockerdave
Inzamam ul-Haq - @ahmedleo414

Wasim Akram - @Aislabie / @blockerdave / @DalePlaysCricket / @El Loco

Shoaib Akhtar - @Bevab
Abdul Qadir - @Aislabie
Waqar Younis - @El Loco

Spoiler: South Africa

Hashim Amla - @Bevab
Graeme Smith - @Bevab / @Master Bates

Trevor Goddard - @Master Bates

Mark Boucher - @ahmedleo414

Shaun Pollock - @ahmedleo414

Hugh Tayfield - @Aislabie
Lonwabo Tsotsobe - @CerealKiller

Spoiler: Sri Lanka

Kumar Sangakkara - @ahmedleo414 / @El Loco

Spoiler: West Indies

Shiv Chanderpaul - @ahmedleo414
Rajendra Chandrika - @CerealKiller
George Headley - @Bevab / @El Loco
Brian Lara - @Aislabie / @DalePlaysCricket
Viv Richards - @DalePlaysCricket / @Dutch / @El Loco / @Master Bates

Curtly Ambrose - @El Loco
Lance Gibbs - @Aislabie / @Bevab
Michael Holding - @El Loco

Layer Three: Lucky Dip
Each manager will nominate four players to go into the Lucky Dip - essentially a lottery of players. There are no restrictions on who you could nominate here: anyone from Don Bradman to Mike Phythian would be fine.

@ahmedleo414
Paul Stirling
Stuart Law
Andy Flower
Rubel Hossain

@Aislabie
Gordon Greenidge
Younis Khan
Douglas Jardine
Scott Kremerskothen

@Bevab
Ranjitsinjhi
Andy Lloyd
Roston Chase
Phil Tufnell

@blockerdave
Ross Taylor
Keith Miller
Graeme Swann
Muttiah Muralitharan

@CerealKiller
Ian Bell
Jack Ikin
Bill O'Reilly
Dainty Ironmonger

@DalePlaysCricket
Ricky Ponting
Denis Compton
Les Taylor
Benjamin Aislabie

@Dutch
Clyde Walcott
Garry Sobers
Ian Botham
Gavin Hamilton

@El Loco
Alastair Cook
Ken Meuleman
Andrew Flintoff
Monty Panesar

@Master Bates
Sachin Tendulkar
Steve Smith
Fred Grace
Simon Kerrigan

Layer Four: The Recovery Draft
Finally a chance for you all to put back together the broken teams that you've been given. From this point onwards, it will be a normal, ordered draft just like you'd see anywhere else. You will have six or seven rounds (depending on whether or not you got your protected player) to try and recover a balanced team for yourself.

1. @DalePlaysCricket - AB de Villiers
2. @Bevab - Graeme Pollock
3. @CerealKiller - Dale Steyn
4. @ahmedleo414 - Courtney Walsh
5. @El Loco - Malcolm Marshall
6. @Master Bates & @Na Maloom Afraad - Shakib Al Hasan
7. @Aislabie - George Lohmann
8. @Dutch - Busy with real life; just pick as and when
9. @blockerdave - Barry Richards
10. @DalePlaysCricket - Alec Stewart
11. @Bevab - Joel Garner
12. @CerealKiller - Mike Procter
13. @ahmedleo414 - Rangana Herath
14. @El Loco - Kapil Dev
15. @Master Bates & @Na Maloom Afraad - Allan Donald
16. @Aislabie - Geoffrey Boycott
17. @Dutch - Busy with real life; just pick as and when
18. @blockerdave - Andy Roberts
19. @DalePlaysCricket - Quinton de Kock
20. @Bevab - Leslie Ames
21. @CerealKiller - Frank Worrell
22. @ahmedleo414 - Derek Underwood
23. @El Loco - Dudley Nourse
24. @Master Bates & @Na Maloom Afraad - Lance Klusener
25. @Aislabie - Everton Weekes
26. @Dutch - Busy with real life; just pick as and when
27. @blockerdave - Franklyn Stephenson
28. @DalePlaysCricket - Ravichandran Ashwin
29. @Bevab - Aubrey Faulkner
30. @CerealKiller - Hanif Mohammad
31. @ahmedleo414 - Ravi Shastri
32. @El Loco - Greg Chappell
33. @Master Bates & @Na Maloom Afraad - Bart King
34. @Aislabie - Charlie Macartney
35. @Dutch - Busy with real life; just pick as and when
36. @blockerdave - Eddie Barlow
37. @DalePlaysCricket - Michael Clarke
38. @Bevab - Alan Davidson
39. @CerealKiller - Desmond Haynes
40. @ahmedleo414 - John Wright
41. @El Loco - Wally Hammond
42. @Master Bates & @Na Maloom Afraad - Neil Harvey
43. @Aislabie - Hedley Verity
44. @Dutch - Busy with real life; just pick as and when
45. @blockerdave - Peter May
46. @DalePlaysCricket - Simon Jones
47. @Bevab - Frank Tyson
48. @CerealKiller
49. @ahmedleo414
50. @El Loco
51. @Master Bates & @Na Maloom Afraad
52. @Aislabie
53. @Dutch - Busy with real life; just pick as and when
54. @blockerdave

- - - - - - - - - -

So right now, this is probably an accurate representation of you:

Well, that's kind of the point. You can have all kinds of strategies, but there's absolutely no way of knowing what to do.

Do you try to protect a legendary player? Well you could do - but if someone else tries to then you both lose out.

Do you try to reject a legendary player? Well you could do - but if someone else puts him in the Lucky Dip then you lose out.

Do you put the legendary player in the Lucky Dip? Well you could do - but if someone else does, then you both lose out.

Do you ignore the legendary player entirely? Well you could do, but there's every chance that you'd lose out.

There are also some even craftier things you could do here, but I want to see who figures them out.

- - - - - - - - - -

There is no right answer. That's the point.

- - - - - - - - - -

So if that hasn't scared you off, then please do feel free to sign up. And if it's very nearly scared you off, then please sign up anyway because this really will be fun.

You'll also need to send a PM after signing up, but don't worry: I'll PM you first to explain what you need to do.

Spoiler: An example PM

Protected Player
Ian Botham


Rejected Players
(For this example, I've just gone with a list of people who have made English cricket fans feel sad from time to time)

1. Glenn McGrath
2. Shane Warne
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Matthew Hayden
5. Justin Langer
6. Michael Slater
7. Stuart MacGill
8. Michael Clarke
9. Adam Gilchrist
10. Brad Haddin
11. Ian Healy
12. Allan Border
13. Dennis Lillee
14. Mitchell Johnson
15. Graeme Smith
16. Sanath Jayasuriya
17. Upul Tharanga
18. Carlos Brathwaite
19. Hansie Cronje
20. Kevin Pietersen

Lucky Dip Nominations

1. Michael Hussey
2. David Sales
3. Sarfraz Nawaz
4. Alex Wakely

I'm not saying this is the perfect way of doing things. Or even a slightly good way of doing things. But it's one possibility.

Well, I hope that approximately 80% makes sense. This is going to be fun.

 

[Ed Smith]

I might be in. I'll read that another 5 times and try to get my head round it

 

[ahmedleo414]

I'm in as well, but yeah, I'll need to re-read the rules again

 

[Aislabie]

Thank you both! The PM messages should make it make a little bit more sense, but the general idea is that there's no right way to play it so you might just as well have a guess

 

[CerealKiller]

In

 

[Master Bates]

I've just gone with a list of people who have made English cricket fans feel sad from time to time)

1. Glenn McGrath
2. Shane Warne
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Matthew Hayden
5. Justin Langer
6. Michael Slater
7. Stuart MacGill
8. Michael Clarke
9. Adam Gilchrist
10. Brad Haddin
11. Ian Healy
12. Allan Border
13. Dennis Lillee
14. Mitchell Johnson
15. Graeme Smith
16. Sanath Jayasuriya
17. Upul Tharanga
18. Carlos Brathwaite
19. Hansie Cronje
20. Kevin Pietersen

This is hilarious! Where is Steve Smith? And Patto? And why is Pietersen there? I like how Upul Tharanga and Carlos Braithwaite find a place there!

I would love to be a part but I might not be available always as I have my exams ongoing. Is that fine? Plus I would have to re-read the rules for god's sake.

 

[Dutch]

I find it slightly less complicated than ECB selection policy so yeah.....will re-read again and let you know whether I take the plunge.

 

[Dutch]

What the heck: I hereby do solemnly plunge, so help me Keaton Jennings.

 

[blockerdave]

I don’t properly understand, but I’m in

 

[Aislabie]

I might not be available always as I have my exams ongoing. Is that fine?

Absolutely fine. It'll just be a PM and six or seven picks!

 

[Dutch]

How much time do we have to return the PM?

 

[Aislabie]

How much time do we have to return the PM?

Realistically as long as it takes - I'm not in a huge rush. So yeah just when you have a spare 10 minutes over the weekend

 

[Master Bates]

Absolutely fine. It'll just be a PM and six or seven picks!

Count me in then!

 

[El Loco]

Just for the sheer amount of thought gone into this it would be a crime for it not to go ahead. I'm down.

 

[blockerdave]

@Aislabie - what’s the eligibility: test, first class?