++-----------------------------------------------++ ++-----------------------------------------------++ ++ INTENATIONAL CRICKET CAPTAIN WALKTHROUGH ++ ++ 2001 ASHES EDITION ++ ++-----------------------------------------------++ ++-----------------------------------------------++ Walkthrough for Playstation 1 (tm) game: INTERNATIONAL CRICKET CAPTAIN 2001: ASHES EDITION Written by KooperParakarry (Conor Travers) 2003,(C) All Rights Reserved ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= I. Version History II.Introduction to the game III. Objective IV. Batting V. Bowling VI. Batting : ODI VII. Conclusion Version History ================= v0.5 25/04/2003 22:36 half of the walkthrough completed, should be completed within a few days v0.65 26/04/2003 08:01 Have finished writing the batting details and started on the bowling v1.0 26/04/2003 13:38 First finished version, have wrote the bowling and the batting in one day games Introduction to the game ========================= This game is basically a cricket management game. You are the captain of a cricket team and you must decide your tactics and devise strategies to win matches and become the most successful cricket captain of all time. There are several different modes to this game and the first mode of all that I am going to cover is the Country mode. There are other modes such as the Ashes Mode and the longest one, County/ Country Mode. This game requires a memory card to save the game. Although in real life cricket captains play in the match as well you cannot play in this game, just decide the tactics, that is one of the (many) faults of this game. Objective =========== Well your objective is fairly simple. You pick a team and set your own tactics and strategies to win as many games as possible. You can choose from a whole load of players, a good point of the game. In the ashes mode the objective is to win the Ashes and in the Country mode your objective is to become top of the rankings and be the best team in the world. Your objective in the County/ Country mode is to become the best captain in the english leagues by winning cups/ leagues etc. so you can then be captain of the England national team and lead them to glory as well, quite a bit to do. Ashes Mode ============= If you select the ashes mode you have to be either England or Australia (surprise surprise) and you must battle through five very tough tests to either steal the ashes if you are England (not literally) or retain them if you are Australia. If you are looking for a challenge then you should select England, but if your a beginner and you want it a little bit easier then you should select Australia. One of the very first tasks you have to do is select which players are going to be in your squad for the first test. Have a bit of cricketing knowledge helps here, but if you don't know the slighest thing then look at the averages. The higher the average, the better for the batsmen. The lower the average, the better for the bowler. You can select a minimum of twelve players and a maximum of fifteen. Only eleven per side in the matches in case you don't know. Then you must train the players to make them better and fitter so they (obviously) perform better in matches. Another problem is that when you train the players you can only train eight players at one given time. After that you will then see when you will be playing against your rivals. Now when you get to match day you have to decide your batting order. Openers (The people who bat at the start of the innings) are signaled with an 'O' next to their bat. After the openers then you are advised to pick players with a bat symbol. Next comes the wicket-keeper usually at position number six or seven depending on the batting depth to your side. Before the bowlers/ tailenders/ rabbits come the all-rounders (Players who can bat and bowl with equal or near equal facility). You can maybe switch things around, possibly moving the batsmen around, but it is strongly advised that you keep the tailenders at the end unless you need a 'Nightwatchman'. Then proceed to the toss screen. First look at the weather and the pitch. There is nothing you can do about the weather, but you can try and use it to your advantage. See what effect it has on each type of bowler (Spinners or the Seamers) and decide who to bowl and when. Also take time out to look at the batting and bowling stats of the opposition and decide which players to target. Now its time to decide the toss. Click on either Heads or Tails and the chances are you'll lose. If you lose the toss just see whether the oppositon puts you in or makes you field. If you win decide whether to bat or bowl, decide carefully as it could decide the match. Its all up to you, the man in the middle. ================= IV. BATTING ================= This is for strategies for tests/ first class matches, after I will give you a strategies for limited over/ one day matches. As you have plenty of overs (because its a four/five day game) there is no need to put up your aggression very high. One or two will be fine, nought if your feeling very defensive, three if your feeling attacking. You must select what highlight options you want, you can have: Batting Bowling Both ---------- ----------- -------- Every run Every chance Every Ball Every four/six Every wicket Major team scores Major individual scores After you have selected your highlight options you can select whether you want to play the game after every over or after every ball. If you play it after every ball the game will take very long and it will take even longer if you decide whether to watch every ball. .= No run 1= one run 2= two runs 3= three runs 4= four runs*(boundary) 6= six runs (boundary) x= no ball w= wide l= leg bye b= bye w= wicket Always look and see what scores your batsmen are on and egg them on (to no effect) to make a big score. If your batsmen have eased into their innings you may want to up their aggression as their confidence grows. You can also protect lower order batsmen (tailenders) when they are with a better batsman by making the better batsmen try to keep as much of the strike as possible so that the other batsmen have a less chance of getting out. In first class matches you can earn bonus points, these are determined by how many runs you score in 130 overs of your innings. Instead of test matches the no-ball costs you two runs whereas, in test matches, it is only one. If you decide that you have made a substantial total, and if you feel if keep batiing the game will end in a draw, you may declare (does not apply when batting last) and then the other team will begin batting. Also, it takes roughly two overs for each of teams to switch over. If the other team batted first and made a decent or substantial score and you failed to get within 200* runs of it in reply, the opposition may make you follow-on, this means that you have bat again in succession. That will help the opposition. Also, if you are presented with this opportunity make use of it! * You only need to be 150 runs behind in a first-class match to be asked to follow on. You do not have very much interaction with the batting department and the only main thing you get to decide are to declare and the batsmen's aggression (shouldn't that be up to them). ============== V. BOWLING ============= You are able to decide more things about the bowling, you can tell your bowlers where to bowl and set the field for them and you can also decide how attacking to bowl at each batsmen. You can decide the bowling of the bowlers. You must decide what length to bowl: yorker length, full toss, good length, short of the length and short. The best area to bowl for the seamers is a good length and it is up to you to decide where the spinners want to bowl. You must also decide the line of the bowl, you can bowl: outside off, off stump, middle and off, middle stump, middle and leg, leg stump. You may think that bowling middle stump is the best, but stray to straight and you could be whipped away on the leg side. Bowling around off stump may be a good idea You also need to decide whether to bowl around the wicket or over the wicket, this can depend on whether the bowler is right handed or left handed. It can also depend on whether the batsman is right handed or left handed, look at the table below: !----------!---------------Batsmen---------------------! !Handed -> ! Left ! Right ! !----------!------------------!------------------------! ! Over ! Into ! Away From ! !----------!------------------!------------------------! ! Around ! Away From ! Into ! !----------!------------------!------------------------! That is the table showing what happens when a bowler bowls around/ over the wicket to a left/right handed batsman. When you are playing, left/right hand combinations are difficult to bowl against and could cause you some trouble. Once again you have to decide the highlights options, this time you may only want to see the bowling highlights because you are not batting, but its up to you. Look at the scorecard regularly and see which batsmen are on what score, you may want to restrict your team from getting bonus points by bowling very defensively. You will earn bowling points as well (only first innings) by getting as many wickets as possible in the usual 130 overs, you should be able to get all ten wickets in the 130 overs, but if not you can still pick up a few. Eventually the bowlers will become tired and you will have to select a new bowler. Please note that the faster the bowler, the quicker the will gat tired out and you will have to replace them. That is the main strategy to the bowling and now I will give you the different tactics for batting and bowling in one-day matches ============================== VI. ONE DAY MATCHES: BATTING ============================== I have covered certain tactics for batting in first class and test matches, but there are also one-day matches, or limited overs matches. They only take one-day and you only have a certain amount of overs to construct your total. This means that you will have to up your run rates and therefore have to play more riskier shots. Now the roles are reversed, batsmen attack and bowlers defend as it not necessary to get the opposition all out, but it does help. In one-day international matches you have 50 overs. In county one-day matches you have 45 overs. You either bat first or bowl first. It is probably better to bat first, but if you want to have the best team then you will have to do it both ways. If you bat first then it is best to start each batsmen off with a four or five aggression factor and as you near the close of your innings and you have plenty of wickets left then you can increase the aggression factor for the end-of-innings 'slog'. The slog is to get valuable runs quickly at the end of an innings. As with all matches you have to decide the highlights, the preferred highlights options are wickets and chances + boundaries, but it is up to you. Just like in the four/five day matches you have very little interaction with the batsmen and you have even less in the one day games because there is no option to declare. You can, when a wicket falls, decide which batsman shall come to the crease next. There is a context to the game when you are batting second and it all depends in what the opposition score. 100- = Very defensive strategy 101-150 = Defensive 150-200 = Defensive 200-250 = Average 250-300 = Attacking 300+ = Very Attacking That gives you an idea of how to approach chasing a total made by the opposition, the same rules apply to you as if you batting first. =================== VIII. Conclusion =================== You can use the batting and bowling strategies and the bowling strategy for the one-day games is almost exactly the same so there was no need to right out all the bowling section again. Thanks To: ----------- Me, for writing this FAQ You, for reading it GameFaqs, for posting it on their site Empire, for making this game Legal Stuff ------------- If you want to use this guide on any other website please give me an e-mail and I will almost certainly say yes. You can download this or print this without my permission. If you use this on any other site you MUST NOT alter it in any, whatever the circumstances. Written by Conor Travers (Kooper Parakarry) 2003 (C) E-Mail Addresses: conor.travers@ntlworld.com conortravers@hotmail.com