How are you doing in ICC? (any version)

[CG123]

Wow, in my save as Victoria (I don't coach an international team) Matthew Wade has played 100 tests and has not scored a century. He's not even my first choice keeper anymore lmao, but keeps playing for AUS.

Meanwhile Aaron Finch has played 132 FC matches and averages 61 with the bat, batting at 3 for most of his career and has only played 1 test.

Typically ICC, that happens all the time with me.
From what I've heard the international teams are picked on player ratings, and not performances.

In my England county games when I get a few seasons in, sometimes regens get picked for England after playing a handful FC games without doing anything special, while I have other regular FC players dominating the FC scene, but never even get a look in.

 

[Biggy]

How does Finch become that good.. any other players who become superstars? How does Steven Smith go

He goes well with the bat.

I'm Victoria in 2024 I think and here's how players went for me:

You get the usual Chris Rogers, Dussey, White, Hodge, Siddle (he is doing freakishly well), McKay, Nannes who do very well. The players who surprised me were Michael Hill (scored big tons), J Pattinson, McDonald (was inconsistent but would pull off amazing bowling spells and the odd big score), Ben Cutting, Hastings (He finished up as my number 6 averaging 22 with the ball and 37 with the bat, including 9 tons). Bryce McGain did well. As did Quiney. Cleary/D Wright/ D Pattinson were all consistent without being great

Wade has always been pretty average, but now he's about 35 and is a bit more consistent/better. Jon Holland was a fail. Keath is rubbish. Maxwell and Sheridan very average although Maxwell did bowl well on occasion.

----------

Here's Smith's record in Nov 2024.

You'd think 36 is not good at all but I rarely find anyone who averages close to 40. Out of the remaining real life batsmen (not in my side) Hughes is probs the best with an average of 40.5, Khawaja only avgs about 34, and Ferguson 33.

 

[Griffo]

How did he not play more... surely there wasnt a better spinner

 

[6ry4nj]

I just picked a South African team for the first game of the 2009 World Twenty20 (ICC09) and compared it to the one they had in real life. I wasn't trying to handicap myself, I went purely on T20/T20I record. On that basis, Kallis, Gibbs, de Villiers, A Morkel and Boucher don't make the team. The only four points of agreement between the two selections are Steyn, Smith, Duminy and Botha (so Parnell and van der Merwe didn't make it either)! On the other hand, I did select Morne Morkel and Robin Peterson (who were both in the real-life squad although not the team). My other selections were: Dean Elgar, Thami Tsolekile, Loots Bosman, Neil McKenzie, and Jandre Coetzee.

I'll let you know how they went. I'm sure the game will give me hell for selecting players on their record rather than based on how good the game thinks they are. Maybe smarter selectors do pick based on reputation, or trust one-day performance to translate to T20.

What do you think?

 

[6ry4nj]

Okay, I'll try and make this interesting yeah, and maintain a bit of suspense...

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat. Graeme Smith on strike, Craig Wright to bowl. Smith and Elgar put on 35 for the first wicket, before Wright bowled Elgar for 10, in the 5th over. Tsolekile was also bowled later that over, having scored one off 2 balls. South Africa 2/37 after 5. Enter the Duminy!

Duminy and Smith put on 71 in 9.1 overs. For such a dominant partnership, their scoring rate of 7.74 per over leaves a little to be desired. That's despite their taking 17 off Blain (2 4 2 4 1 4) in the 14th. In the 15th over, Majid Haq gets Duminy lbw, and South Africa are 3/108. Loots Bosman is the new batsman. In the ensuing 5.4 overs, no further wickets fall, but only 38 runs are scored at 6.7 per over (13 dots, 6 fours, 0 sixes). Smith is not out on 82, from 65 balls at an SR of 126.1 Wright is the best of the bowlers with 2-25, but only Blain (0-39) and Dewald Nel (0-41) go for more than 7 an over.

Watts and Coetzer come out to face Coetzee. 7 off the first over. Steyn to bowl. 20 off the 2nd over! Admittedly including one false shot for 4, but still! 16 off Coetzee next over, before Steyn gets Watts lbw for 29 off 11, and Scotland are 1/47. New batsman Neil McCallum gets a single, and Coetzer's gone too, bowled by Steyn in the same (4th) over.

Morne Morkel comes on to bowl, partnered by Johann Botha. They only go for 5 each off their first overs. Then Morkel bowls Ryan Watson, and Scotland are 3/63 after 7. McCallum takes 12 off Botha next over, but Morkel only goes for 1 in the 9th. Craig Wright gets his first boundary as Botha's next over goes for 10, but Wright loses his wicket to Botha's next ball, caught at mid-off by Bosman.

McCallum takes 20 off Morkel's next, and Scotland are 4-106 after 11. They've never dropped behind the required rate, and now they only need 41 off 54 balls. Thanks to continued lusty hitting by McCallum, who is the main contributor to the ensuing unbeaten partnership of 62, they make it easy, with 3.1 overs to spare. Botha is the only bowler to go for less than the required run rate, and Steyn is the only one to take 2 wickets - at an economy rate of over 11.5!

So that's what generally happens to me when I pick the team with the best relevant stats and form. The computer rated my team 3 stars, and Scotland's less than 1. Don't ask me why domestic-standard players like Watts and McCallum are able to hit Steyn and Morkel for 20 an over, while Smith and Duminy can't take their low-domestic-standard attack for more than 8! I don't know!

 

[hedger_14]

Smith is in the team for his batting (looking at his rating) as his bowling isn't that great, which explains only 10 test wickets in that many games.

I know Hauritz is better than him and I think White is as well. I don't think many of the Aussie spinners are that great though.

 

[6ry4nj]

ICC09: 2009 World Twenty20, South Africa's 2nd Group Game vs. New Zealand

Well, rather than keep you in suspense this time, I must say that my unorthodox selection came up with the goods for once. I replaced Elgar with Boucher and moved McKenzie up to opener. So the team now is:
N McKenzie, G Smith, T Tsolekile(w), L Bosman, M Boucher(c), J Botha, JP Duminy(vc), R Peterson, M Morkel, J Coetzee, D Steyn.

We batted first. McKenzie and Smith got 70 in under 8 overs for the first wicket, which set the stage for a defendable 153 for 7. McKenzie took the first over of the innings (from Oram) for 19. Smith top-scored with 68 off 44. New Zealand quickly fell behind the required rate, and were 3 down for 34 after 5. To cut a long story short, despite being only 5 down until the 5th ball of the 15th, they were all out for 120 in 17.1, with Botha taking the last three (Styris, Mills, Vettori) as a hat-trick!

The 'courageous' batting selections still aren't being vindicated - Tsolekile only got 18 off 28 and Bosman 15 albeit off only 6. But it's not like they were the only ones to fail (Boucher, Botha and Peterson also did). With the ball, Coetzee went pretty well opening, with 2-18 off 3.

EDIT: Epilogue: Well, I suppose South Africa might have been expected to get at least to the semis. But...we didn't. In the Super 8s facing Bangladesh, Pakistan and Australia in that order, we made rather a hash of it. Embarrassed Bangladesh easily enough, but Pakistan had a much stronger side, and we were never in it. With Australia we were well competitive, but unluckily we lost by 3 runs, failing to make 9 off the last with 3 wickets in hand.

Coetzee and Bosman never got dropped, though, so it looks like they've a place in the T20 team going forward. Indeed, Coetzee continued to open the bowling, and Bosman kept Ashwell Prince out of the team. Louw never got a game - maybe next time - and Tsolekile and Elgar are going back to the drawing board for now.

 

[Biggy]

Smith is in the team for his batting (looking at his rating) as his bowling isn't that great, which explains only 10 test wickets in that many games.

I know Hauritz is better than him and I think White is as well. I don't think many of the Aussie spinners are that great though.

No, White > Smith > Lyon > Hauritz.

 

[1iram1]

Playing ICC 06 as Bangladesh in the year 2016. Currently ranked 4th in tests and 3rd in ODIs after a dissapointing series against Sri Lanka. Lost to India in the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2015 and lost to them before in the finals of the 2011 World Cup. I also lost to Pakistan in the semi-finals of the 2007 World Cup.
My best batsmen right now in tests:
Shahriar Nafees (7448 runs at an average of 59)
Tamim Iqbal (5789 runs at an average of 51)
Naeem Islam (4998 runs at an average of 48)
Rajin Saleh (5067 runs at an average of 44)
Mushfiqur Rahim (6002 runs at an average of 56)

My best bowlers in tests:
Shahadat Hossain (228 wickets at an average of 28)
Ahsanullah Hasan (374 wickets at an average of 22)
Arafat Sunny (373 wickets at an average of 18)
Manjarul Islam(renamed him Shakib Al Hasan) 280 wickets at an average of 26)
Rubel Hossain (68 wickets at an average of 21)
Shafiul Islam (22 wickets at an average of 25)
W Anjum(r) (66 wickets at an average of 26)
Elias Sunny (77 wickets at an average of only 13)

 

[6ry4nj]

Playing ICC 06 as Bangladesh in the year 2016. Currently ranked 4th in tests and 3rd in ODIs after a dissapointing series against Sri Lanka. Lost to India in the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2015 and lost to them before in the finals of the 2011 World Cup. I also lost to Pakistan in the semi-finals of the 2007 World Cup.
My best batsmen right now in tests:
Shahriar Nafees (7448 runs at an average of 59)
Tamim Iqbal (5789 runs at an average of 51)
Naeem Islam (4998 runs at an average of 48)
Rajin Saleh (5067 runs at an average of 44)
Mushfiqur Rahim (6002 runs at an average of 56)

My best bowlers in tests:
Shahadat Hossain (228 wickets at an average of 28)
Ahsanullah Hasan (374 wickets at an average of 22)
Arafat Sunny (373 wickets at an average of 18)
Manjarul Islam(renamed him Shakib Al Hasan) 280 wickets at an average of 26)
Rubel Hossain (68 wickets at an average of 21)
Shafiul Islam (22 wickets at an average of 25)
W Anjum(r) (66 wickets at an average of 26)
Elias Sunny (77 wickets at an average of only 13)

Did you rename Manjural because he died irl?
Did you pick Tamim on merit originally, or because he was in the real-life team? I only played one-off ODIs with Bangla in ICC06, but I remember he was a bit of a left-field selection. I think I only picked him because I saw he was getting picked irl.

Whatever happened to all those bowlers (irl) I wonder? Also, don't you get any regens at all? What are you going to do when these guys retire?

 

[1iram1]

Did you rename Manjural because he died irl?
Did you pick Tamim on merit originally, or because he was in the real-life team? I only played one-off ODIs with Bangla in ICC06, but I remember he was a bit of a left-field selection. I think I only picked him because I saw he was getting picked irl.

Whatever happened to all those bowlers (irl) I wonder? Also, don't you get any regens at all? What are you going to do when these guys retire?

I renamed Manjural on purpose since Shakib is actually a pace bowling allrounder in this game.

I picked Tamim because he was the best domestic batsman with an average of around 55 when I picked him. He was 17. He burst onto the scene and ended the first season with an average of 84 in tests but his average has since been dropping.

I have only 2 regen bowlers in my current squad. Rest of the regens suck. The oldest guy in my team is Ahsanullah Hasan who is 36 but I have backups for him in Enamul Haque jnr, Suhrawadi Shuvo, W Jamil(r) and Abdur Razzak.
The second oldest player is Manjural Islam who is 32 so my squad is pretty young.

I do hope that some good regens come through.

 

[hedger_14]

No, White > Smith > Lyon > Hauritz.

What, here are the bowling ratings (lowest is best). And yeah, actually, White is the best spinner but only slightly better than Hauritz.

Steven Smith - 1086
Cameron White - 846
Nathan Hauritz - 871
And Nathan Lyon isn't in the game

Or does the latest patch update it?

 

[Griffo]

Nathan Lyon in ICC.. lol

Im about to start an Australian save and my squads for each form of the game are as follows

Test
Simon Katich
Shane Watson
Ricky Ponting
Michael Clarke
Michael Hussey
Usman Khawaja
Brad Haddin
Steven Smith
Clint McKay
Peter Siddle
Doug Bollinger

Phil Hughes
Tim Paine
Mitchell Johnson
Nathan Hauritz

ODI
Brad Haddin
Shane Watson
Ricky Ponting
Michael Clarke
Michael Hussey
Cameron White
Steven Smith
John Hastings
Clint McKay
Peter Siddle
Doug Bollinger

Phil Hughes
Tim Paine
Mitchell Johnson
Nathan Hauritz

T20
Brad Haddin
Shane Watson
Michael Clarke
Michael Hussey
Cameron White
Callum Ferguson
Steven Smith
John Hastings
Clint McKay
Peter Siddle
Doug Bollinger

Phil Hughes
Tim Paine
Mitchell Johnson
Nathan Hauritz

 

[hedger_14]

You're really wasting Steven Smith down at 8 for Tests. He's got a great batting rating but his bowling rating isn't that great (see previous post). And haha, Hughes not in the squad even with his unbelievable rating.

 

[Biggy]

Heading into 2026 as Victoria and just lost my captain (Andrew Hunter, regen), best batsmen (Aaron Finch), first choice keeper (Matthew Wade), best quick (James Pattinson), AND best spinner (Anthony Wingfield, regen).......... All retired.