Phantom Draft

[Jemisi]

Interesting picks guys, here's an initial analysis of who went where:

picks.JPG

Each row indicates who each team has picked from the franchises currently being represented by the players, and each column indicated how many of each franchise got picked up at the end of the auction.

Us and the Eagles have retained as many as 7 of our current team, it is a no-branier in our case as we had brilliant performers all through the season. We could not pick any of our own after midway point though, suffered badly with poaching

14 Mountaineers getting picked, max of all franchises, with Eagles and Rocks (surprisingly) coming close with 13 each. Just 9 Tuskers getting picked, probably an indication of lack of quality this season. A little disappointed that only 11 Rhinos got picked. Eagles picking Mountaineers is the only column where there is a zero

You guys can analyse further...

The high number of Rocks' players is really astonishing given their poor performances lately. The have a few promising players and a couple of bits and pieces players, but I never thought anyone would spend 3.000 $ on Garwe.

I think I picked up good Rocks players with my four picks. Chisoro is scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit but so is everyones pick XV. Garwe was expensive but by that stage I was choosing him vs Chamu or Utseya. Utseya would have given the same depth at No 8 to the batting, and his bowling would have done something, but I already had so many spin options in the XI I felt that I didn't want a guy in the team who so often looks like he doesn't want to win. The morale cost was too high. Chamu was a possibility, especially for his T20 experience, but I think his SR convinced me not to pick him. It has been too low for a long time and with the depth in batting I had secured, felt that I could pass on him. Seamers are the most likely to break down, so Garwe added depth there as well.

I was surprised that so many picks got spent on players with very little experience and often one or two good performances in this season when the national players were away.

[Jemisi]

Interesting picks guys, here's an initial analysis of who went where:

picks.JPG

Each row indicates who each team has picked from the franchises currently being represented by the players, and each column indicated how many of each franchise got picked up at the end of the auction.

Us and the Eagles have retained as many as 7 of our current team, it is a no-branier in our case as we had brilliant performers all through the season. We could not pick any of our own after midway point though, suffered badly with poaching

14 Mountaineers getting picked, max of all franchises, with Eagles and Rocks (surprisingly) coming close with 13 each. Just 9 Tuskers getting picked, probably an indication of lack of quality this season. A little disappointed that only 11 Rhinos got picked. Eagles picking Mountaineers is the only column where there is a zero

You guys can analyse further...

Rhinos went very close to three from each franchise. Sharing the love.

[zimfan1]

The Tuskers had the problem of experience, therfore tried to get as many players with the ability to work with younger players to act as mentors, however this strategy did have its short falls as ended up missing out on Godwill

[Jemisi]

Looking at all the squads, I reckon Jemisi has probably put together the best batting line-up with Mawoyo, Williams, Chakabva, and Waller. That looks really solid, but I'm not overly concerned by the Rhinos' bowling, Vitori apart. Tiripano has done well in Shingi's and Chatara's wake, it will be interesting to see how he fares as Vitori's new ball partner.

Eagles and Mountaineers rely heavily on Taylor/Raza and Hami/Mutumbami and need the other batsmen to chip in and bat around them. Tuskers have a dangerous batting line-up, both for them and the opposition, I would say: Vusi, Chigs, Moor are all explosive but prone to blowing hot and cold.

Overall the squads are much more balanced than the current franchises. Bring on the Phantom League.

Goats' four frontline bowlers are ahead of ours, but Vitori, Tiripano, Madziva, Mufudza, Garwe/Muzhange, Williams, Kaia, Waller, will be a four pronged seam combined with four pronged spin in the same XI that will overwhelm opposition batting line-ups by pressing and pressing and pressing for breakthroughs.

Goats batting ended up pretty solid, though the opening question remains. Tuskers did well I reckon with the late Mutizwa pick. He has 12 hundreds (as many as Whittall) and has his average nudging back towards 40. The fourth best keeper batsman option on form, but a very solid batting option in a competition where batting is weak.

[foreignfield]

Looking at all the squads, I reckon Jemisi has probably put together the best batting line-up with Mawoyo, Williams, Chakabva, and Waller. That looks really solid, but I'm not overly concerned by the Rhinos' bowling, Vitori apart. Tiripano has done well in Shingi's and Chatara's wake, it will be interesting to see how he fares as Vitori's new ball partner.

Eagles and Mountaineers rely heavily on Taylor/Raza and Hami/Mutumbami and need the other batsmen to chip in and bat around them. Tuskers have a dangerous batting line-up, both for them and the opposition, I would say: Vusi, Chigs, Moor are all explosive but prone to blowing hot and cold.

Overall the squads are much more balanced than the current franchises. Bring on the Phantom League.

Goats' four frontline bowlers are ahead of ours, but Vitori, Tiripano, Madziva, Mufudza, Garwe/Muzhange, Williams, Kaia, Waller, will be a four pronged seam combined with four pronged spin in the same XI that will overwhelm opposition batting line-ups by pressing and pressing and pressing for breakthroughs.

Goats batting ended up pretty solid, though the opening question remains. Tuskers did well I reckon with the late Mutizwa pick. He has 12 hundreds (as many as Whittall) and has his average nudging back towards 40. The fourth best keeper batsman option on form, but a very solid batting option in a competition where batting is weak.

Mutizwa "roared back" into contention at the back end of the season. If he gets back to his normal self of two years ago, he'll be a brilliant pick for the Tuskers.

As I said previously, I thought you should have picked a second specialist spinner from your ranks, Jemisi. But now I see you are happy with your part-timers and have taken my earlier hint about building your attack around Sean Williams. Williams and Kaia are decent enough in the shorter stuff, but watch them taken apart by the likes of Taylor, Hami or Chigs in the Logan Cup (and forget about Waller) at your own peril But banter apart, your team looks nicely balanced.

I can also formally announce that Timmy Maruma will be off to New Zealand to visit the Mark Richardson Centre for the Rehabilitation of Useless Slow Bowlers into Opening Blockers.

Honestly, I think Maruma has a better technique than most give him credit for, and I can sense a stubborn temperament there. The way he plays his forward defensive to a perfection when the slogging is on in the later stages of a T20 match tells a story not yet written.

[Jemisi]

Nice. If Maruma becomes half as good as Richardson did we will all be grateful.

I think Williams, Kaia and Waller will do well with the ball one game out of three. Since all three of them are in my starting XI that equals a second spinner between them. Plus with four seamers there aren't that many overs for the 6th bowler.

[jaybro]

@ the mountaineers brains trust

I thought you could have passed up on Mutumbami and selected Tino then took Wellington before Timmy and let Sarumba take the gloves if you guys really wanted to keep the same squad although in terms of quality taking Richie was the obvious choice ......

I still feel the mountaineers have the best squad apart from lacking that other opener .....

[zimfan1]

Perhaps everyone should state there starting XI's?

[brmtaylor.com admin]

totoro, can you please talk a bit about how the rankings work in your simulation program?
Do you give players a ranking out of ten overall? Or a ranking in each discipline (batting, bowling, fielding, wicket keeping) or can you narrow it down even further into spin bowling, fast bowling, etc? Do different venues play differently? Can players get "injured"?

I think we will need to come up with a fair mathematical formula to rank players (the franchise owners will be a part of these discussions), but we need to know what we are dealing with technically first

[foreignfield]

I think we will need to come up with a fair mathematical formula to rank players (the franchise owners will be a part of these discussions), but we need to know what we are dealing with technically first

Better leave us owners out of the equation ... otherwise we will forever argue. It's hard enough to agree on one player's merit when you have two people involved.