Easton Cowboys Fantasy Cricket League – 2018 Season
The Rules :
To compete in the 2018 Easton Cowboys Fantasy Cricket League, each entrant must submit a squad of 15 cricketers, who may each score points for their fantasy team according to their performances over the course of the 2018 season.
Each team submitted costs £10. There is no limit to the number of different teams any individual may submit for entry, but each team must be named uniquely. This year, there will be a period of grace following submission so long as payment is received before midnight on 31st May 2018.
For the purposes of the 2018 Easton Cowboys Fantasy Cricket League, the cricketers have each been given a fantasy valuation of between £0.02 & £0.16 & classified as either a Batsman, All-Rounder, Wicket Keeper or Bowler. These classes & values will remain fixed for the duration of the 2018 season.
Although there are no absolute restrictions on squad budget or composition, only 4 players from the squad may be left inactive & the active team selected initially & for each subsequent weekend, must fall within a total budget of up to, but not exceeding, £1, in order to qualify for a fantasy score from that weekend. The active team must also always contain 11 different cricketers with a minimumof 2 Batsmen, a minimumof 2 Bowlers, a minimumof 1 Wicket Keeper and no more than 5 All-Rounders. Selectors are not obliged to select themselves in any of their teams.
From those 11 cricketers, one player in the team must be selected as the captain, who will score points according to performance at double the rate of the regular players, for as long as they remain in office.
The representative 11 & captain for each fantasy team is fixed for the duration of the weekend, but changes may be made within the squad for the following weekend, as long as the budget & selection criteria as described above remain valid, through notification on or before midnight each Friday. If no notification is received on or before the weekly deadline, the team composition remains as it was for the previous weekend & the same captain stays in office.
Each team has the opportunity to make a maximum of 5 transfers over the course of the 2018 season. Each transfer involves the deactivation of one original squad player in exchange for a different player from the general pool, not originally selected, at no additional cost, & may be made individually or in combination with others, but the budget & selection criteria, as specified in 4. above, for the active players in the team must be maintained continuously.
Transfers may not be effected until Monday 28th May & no transfer may be made after Friday 31st August 2018. For a player to begin scoring in any given weekend match, notification of their transfer must be received at or before midnight of the preceding Friday. Players new to the club or originally unlisted for any other reason will become available for transfer over the course of the season as soon as possible following their classification & valuation by the fantasy league administrators & announced on the player availability news page.
Cricketers will score fantasy points only through performances in weekend Bristol & District & North Somerset Cricket League fixtures. Friendly matches & 20 over competitions are excluded. Scores will be calculated from data posted to the ecb play-cricket website, contained in the score books & from information provided by the weekend team captains, whose verdicts regarding such information will be final.
Team selections may be submitted at any time, but to score points from any given weekend fixture a cricketer must be selected on or before the Friday immediately preceding that weekend. Cricketers will start scoring points for their performances in the weekend league fixtures of Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th May 2018 & continue to score until the last fixture. Hence, to maximise scoring from the full season, submissions must be received no later than Friday, 4th May 2018. Teams submitted after the start of the Fantasy League season will receive a flat rate basic score of 10 points per player, i.e., 110 points per team, for each week of the season which has taken place before the submission was received.
In order to avoid administrative overload over the few days before the start of the season, fantasy teams may be submitted on a provisional basis up until Friday, 4th May 2018. Selectors will remain free to notify changes without penalty to their provisional teams until this date, at which point the team composition will be fixed until the first transfer opportunity.
All communications relating to the fantasy cricket league should be directed to the dedicated email address: fantasycowboys@gmail.com. This includes initial team submissions, notifications of captaincy changes & of transfer executions, but also advice on availability, unlisted & newly available players & any queries or points of relevance to the game. Such communications may also be made directly to the fantasy league administrators in person but the email address is always preferable as this ensures a documented record of the event.
Fees for team subscriptions may be made in person to the league administrators or directly to the Treasurer, Peter Spavin. Funds may alternatively be transferred directly into the Cowboys Cricket Club bank account: Santander Bank; A/C Name: Easton Cowboys Cricket Club; Sort Code: 09-01-50; A/C: 05093589. (Check with Spav) Please include a reference to fantasy cricket and, if known primarily by it, your nickname. In such cases the action should be accompanied by a confirmation email to the dedicated address above specifying the date & amount of deposit. If a team has not been paid for by midnight on the 31st of May the outstanding amount will be considered owed to the club personally & must be settled like any club debt.
The funds raised will be split equally between supporting our 25th Anniversary celebrations (insert specific noble cause here) & a fantasy league prize pot. The 50% revenue dedicated to the prize fund will be split between the top 10 finishing teams as outlined on the front page. In the event of scores being tied for any of the prize winning positions, those positions will be resolved as follows: 1. The team whose mean total budget amounts to the lower value, calculated over the course of the whole season, shall finish ahead. If these resulting figures prove identical then: 2. The team which has used the fewer transfers over the season shall finish ahead, & if still identical then: 3. The team whose captains, combined over the season, score more points shall finish ahead. If these criteria fail to discriminate positions for the teams involved, the prizes for those positions will be combined & split equally.
The league administrator is Justin Avery (01173789822). Their decision on any disputed matters arising will be absolute. Maintenance of the scores will be achieved principally by reference to the match data entered in the ecb website, but for certain events, namely the occurrence of Golden Ducks, Run Outs & Assists, Man of the Match elections, wicket keeping changes, home tea makers, player Late- & No-Shows & Team selections in cases of matches cancelled, abandoned & conceded without play, it will be necessary to consult with weekend team captains, typically with reference to score books. The assistance, co-operation & vigilance of scorers & captains would therefore be greatly appreciated & indeed, will be essential for the smooth functioning of the fantasy league.
Although I will endeavour to respond to all incoming requests as directly as possible, I will not be around continuously throughout the season. There may be occasion on which team changes may go unconfirmed across a weekly deadline. All forms submissions & emails are time stamped & may be retrospectively resolved, however any changes that would render a team ineligible to score could not be negotiated in time for such a deadline & could not be admitted.
The fantasy administration reserves the right to enter a maximum of 2 of its own teams free of charge; however, should any such team finish the season in a prize winning position, any revenue remaining, subject to approval of an appropriately distributed end of season jug, will be dedicated entirely to the 25th Anniversary fund.
The composition & weekly evolution of all teams will be published upon completion of the seaon & stored thereafter in the archive.