2020 All Year Fantasy Competition

[Arthur Crabtree]

Cancel the new competition in order to get the CC played.

[Durhamfootman]

you'll be lucky!

the ECB have sunk everything they have into that. If this situation persists, they'll absolutely sh1t themselves

[The Professor]

Things in the world of cricket (and the world of the world) have taken a turn for the dystopian in the last 48 hours - but, blissfully unaware of what was to come, our list of Cricketers were as active as they have ever been in 2020. They were pehapa making up for the paucity of cricket we may see for as long a month - this could have a huge bearing on our list for the year. One player who has benefited from the Corona cancellation of cricket is Joe Root. It has long been established that Joe Root absolutely bloody loves a pre series warm up match; an opportunity to annihilate green bowlers and show what he can do with the ball against green batsmen. This time round he has had the opportunity to do the pre-tour warm-up part without having the inconvenience of the actual tour part. In his two matches this week against a Sri Lanka Cricket XI and a Sri Lanka Board President's XI he scored a combined 180 runs - and that was with the latter match curtailed to allow England to hot foot it home. The 280 points accrued this week was Root's highest total for the week since the tour of New Zealand and his last Cricketer of the Week accolade in December last year. It sees him move his way back into the top five - joint in fourth place with Steve Smith. Nobody knows when Root may play again - it could very well be the University game against Leeds Bradford MCCU on the 2nd of April - or it could be in the burnt out wreckage of a church against a rampaging pack of motorbike riding ruffians from the nearest village for the prize of drinking water and a four pack of Andrex. In more frivolous news Root becomes the first cricketer to win Cricketer of the Week in all three years we have been doing this.

Lower down the table there were big lurches of points for two Australians - one playing domestically and another internationally. Marnus Labuschagne's position on the overall list has been going up and down like the supply of dried pasta over the last few months. Debuting in first position, he spent January in first or second before plummeting to the bottom of the top ten throughout February. Last week saw him down to tenth - his lowest position of the year. He then proceeded to score a century against South Africa and a half century against New Zealand to score 264 points, finish second for the week and move up to 6th place for the year. Labuschagne will be annoyed that the series against New Zealand went from being an affair to be played behind closed doors to cancelled as he was genuinely cementing his place in a very competitive middle order for Australia. He is now second to Ian Chappell for most runs for Australia after 6 ODIs. Another player that did well this week was a player that Labuschagne is gradually freezing out of the international scene - Travis Head. Head has been lurching up the table playing Sheffield Shield cricket and put on a truly exceptional all round performance for South Australia against Victoria this week comprising 76 runs, a wicket and four contributions in the field. His yield of 220 points sees him move into the top ten for the year. Unlike a lot of other players in this list, there is a very real possibility that these two players may feature next week....against each other. As I write there is to be no impact on the final round of Sheffield Shield fixtures and with South Australia playing Queensland it might be very interesting to see these two matched up against each other.

Another player who will be hoping to take advantage of the cessation of other forms of cricket is Babar Azam who this week moved up for the fourth week out of the last five to find himself creep into the top ten. The rest of the PSL is to be played behind closed doors and, as yet, there is no official cancellation or postponement of the Pakistan v Bangladesh ODI series. Azam has been off the pace for a while but is starting to get in a more recognisable vein of form - averaging 59 in his last three PSL games and easing past Ben Dunk to become the top scorer in the tournament with 294. Karachi are now second and are likely to progress to the knock out stages of the competition so further point for Azam seem likely - and if you look further up the table he could really do a job on some of those inactive players. A wall of Australian players stand between him and the top 5, with David Warner 18 points away in 9th and Smith 306 points away in joint fourth. If Azam makes hay while the sun is clouded over in a pestilential smog he could manage to leap up the table once more.

Week

Joe Root - 280
Marnus Labuschagne- 260
Travis Head - 220
Babar Azam - 187
Aaron Finch - 112
Mohammad Nabi- 101
David Warner - 101
Ben Stokes - 66
Tom Banton - 50
Martin Guptill- 50
Steve Smith - 44
Peter Handscomb- 36
Keshav Maharaj- 20
Lewis Gregory - 18

Kyle Abbot - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp

Overall

Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Ben Stokes - 1128
Joe Root - 1109
Steve Smith - 1109
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Travis Head - 901
David Warner - 821
Babar Azam - 803
Virat Kohli - 787
Lewis Gregory - 759
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Tom Banton - 603
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383
Jason Holder- 225

Headlines

Alviro takes top spot

Contrasting fortunes in the RD household as Junior and Pops trade places. The senior party started the week in 5th and ended in 8th whilst RDJ went in the opposite direction thanks to three figure scores from both Labuschagne and Nabi.

Week

Arthur - 381
RDJ -365
DC - 253
Alviro - 240
MIB - 162
DD - 80
The Professor- 50
GG - 18
DFM - 0
Ian - 0
RD - 0

Overall

Alviro - 2087
The Professor - 1995
DC - 1931
Arthur - 1928
RDJ - 1701
MIB - 1583
DD - 1477
RD - 1437
GG - 984
Ian - 471

[Durhamfootman]

this might be the table for a while now, unless someone is playing in the PSL

[The Professor]

The Aussies and Azam will score next week.....beyond that hard to see.

[The Professor]

https://t.co/xKAl2biqYe?amp=1

[Red Devil]

https://t.co/xKAl2biqYe?amp=1

Hi Prof, is that you posting a link ... or have we been hacked?!

[The Professor]

Sorry

I typed a message but.....not sure where it went.

Announcement of Ackermann as club captain of Leivestershire

[Red Devil]

Sorry

I typed a message but.....not sure where it went.

Announcement of Ackermann as club captain of Leivestershire

thank god for that!

reckon he might do a decent job for Leics as well

[The Professor]

Not much cricket played this week.....and even less of it in the coming months. As the world of cricket is threatened with total blackout, two players moved their way up the list. The one who did so from the lowliest position was Jason Holder who began the week at the bottom of the list and was 158 points away from Peter Handscomb. He used a return to domestic cricket and a game for Barbados against Guyana as a way of revolutionising his year.....just before it took a long sabbatical. At the start of the week the West Indies Championship was one of a mere handful of competitions who were still in business and mid way through this game it was announced that after this round of fixtures the season would grind to a halt. Holder's Barbados team are already likely winners of the season but his return to the side and haul of five wickets and 33 runs gave him 223 points for the week. Such has been the poor form for the West Indian captain, that these 223 points reflected just two points fewer than he has got in the year so far. One thing that has been holding Holder back is a lack of cricket - something that he is going to have to get used to going forward. He has played just 5 fifty over games this year, two against a Sri Lanka composite teams and a further three ODIs against Sri Lanka. However he underperformed in all of these with his best performance coming in the final ODI where he got 2-68 and 8 runs. The fact that he clawed himself off rock bottom and gained his first Cricketer of the Week was a pleasing end to this chapter of the year.

The PSL was the only competition that nailed it's colours to the mast this time last week and stated that it was going to soldier on. And it did so.....for a bit. It was devoid of a majority of its foreign talent as the likes of Tom Banton and Lewis Gregory returned home before it was finally put out of its misery mid way through the week. It did allow time for Babar Azam to put on two more average looking performances and continue his ascent up the table. The Pakistan limited overs captain has made progress in five of the last six weeks and and gone from 18th place at the start of the PSL to split the difference and finish the competition in ninth place - overtaking David Warner with scores of 19 and 32 in the dying embers of the competition. Without blowing the competition away, Azam ends up as the top run scorer in the PSL and has the highest average of 52.16. He will be a very intimidating prospect when (or if) the T20 World Cup roles around. For now, however, he will keep his low top ten position until cricket is resumed.

The world has been rocked by the Coronavirus pandemic and to focus on the world of sports seems myopic and rather selfish. For many of us sport is the ever present thread that runs through our lives. The narratives, the speculation, the anticipation and the grandeur of sport is the focus for the way many of us live our lives. Yes, there are larger things and that is the case now more than ever; however for many of us it is a bitter blow that now, in our hour of need, we have also been stripped of one of the core facets of what makes us us. To quarrel or gripe about when Cricket returns is natural but also pointlessly unhelpful. It will return when it can. It knows it is needed and will return when it can in some form. There are swirling vespers of rumours that the IPL may still go ahead in some form - however these were wafted away by the announcement by the ECB that there would be no cricket in England until the 28th of May. Just like the rest of what we have taken for granted for so long, when cricket will return it will not be in the form we expected. But we will be here waiting for it and we will count points once more. Until then we must stay safe, be kind and look after each other.

Week

Jason Holder - 223
Babar Azam - 71

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann - dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Joe Root- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
David Warner - dnp

Overall

Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Ben Stokes - 1128
Joe Root - 1109
Steve Smith - 1109
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Travis Head - 901
Babar Azam - 874
David Warner - 821
Virat Kohli - 787
Lewis Gregory - 759
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Tom Banton - 603
Rohit Sharma - 471
Jason Holder- 448
Peter Handscomb - 383

Headlines

DC moves into second just before the break.

Ian and DFM look adrift.

Week

GG - 223
DC - 71
Arthur - 0
Alviro - 0
DD - 0
DFM - 0
Ian - 0
MIB - 0
The Professor- 0
RD - 0
RDJ - 0

Overall

Alviro - 2087
DC - 2002
The Professor - 1995
Arthur - 1928
RDJ - 1701
MIB - 1583
DD - 1477
RD - 1437
GG - 1207
Ian - 471

[The Professor]

David Warner withdraws from The Hundred in favour of Australia v Zimbabwe ODI series

[Red Devil]

David Warner withdraws from The Hundred in favour of Australia v Zimbabwe ODI series

if either are going ahead!

[The Professor]

So... we've seen our first player in action since Jason Holder played for Barbados vs Guyana......and that player is.....Jason Holder.....who gets 0.

I'll take it!

Normal service resumes this weekend, guys!

[Durhamfootman]

normal service? I hope not because that means no points for me

cheers prof

[The Professor]

Please allow me a moment. For the first time in thirteen long weeks, I am sat at my desk about to write about cricket from the previous week. It has been thirteen long weeks since I last did that. Weeks filled with worry and concern. Unnatural weeks. I am a teacher and have spent the last weeks working from home (regardless of what the Daily Mail might tell you). On top of this I am expecting my first child towards the end of next month. For many first-time parents this is an unnatural time anyway but when you add the removal of sport it seemed even more unnatural. Sport is a triviality but in these stressful times it is the frivolous nature of sport that allows us to lose ourselves in it for 90 minutes, a day or a weekend.

The most reassuring thing about sport is it's ever present nature . If it isn't the cricket at Lord's , it would have been the football in Bilbao or the golf in America that would take you into the early hours. All those sporting fixtures should of been played out today - only one is. All would have been a respite. A moment to dip in, zone out and lose yourself. Yet now, when we needed that respite the most, it seemed like the cruellest twist of fate that it was removed from us.

As the sensible amongst us are beginning to eke our way out of lockdown, sport is beginning to inch it's way back into our day to day life. Starting with the most important and the most economically suitable, we are beginning to see the games we love return . This week we saw our first player from the List don their whites. When I went to put his score on my spreadsheet - which I still fill out on paper like a Luddite - I left a crosschecked square to mark the thirteen weeks since the cessation of cricket. On inputting the Week 26 score I was annoyed to find that it meant that the spreadsheet was now askew and didn't line up. But perhaps that is fitting. A dark line etched on our society - both socially and sportingly - that means that nothing will quite line up again.

The game that we love will not be the same in the short term and, in many cases, it will struggle to be the same in the long term. The West Indies series will, at times, seem anodyne and nothing like the Summertime spectacle that we know England home games to be. Things that wouldn't have been huge considerations 6 months ago need to be considered. No crowd, new rules, the England captain missing from duty for two weeks due to the birth of his child are all very modern concerns. These minor inconveniences will be insignificant compared to the seismic effect on cricket clubs up and down the land. Many of these village clubs, who struggle year on year, will be plunged into further debt or dissolved.

Even to those for whom cricket is important, it has, at times, seemed insignificant over the last three months. As we prepare to welcome some of it back, as we lust after the battles between bat and ball and lose ourselves in the finites of techniques, statistics and record, we must also pause to consider the sacrifices that have been made. In the most macrocosmic scale, we need to spare a thought to those who have lost their lives or the lives of loved ones. We must also never forget those who have risked their lives to help. Cricket has played a small part in this. Kohli used his immense social media pull to implore the people of India to abide by the lockdown whilst Heather Knight and Amir Virdi put themselves in the front line. Our great game has remained a great game even when it wasn't played.

Credit also needs to be given to the West Indies and Pakistan teams for honouring their commitments and coming to play this Summer. Much has been made of the advance payments to West Indies Cricket and the PCB - which many have described as a pay off or bribe. As far as I can see, we have two squads of players who could have said no, but said yes. That has to be applauded. It means we will see Babar Azam, Jason Holder, Joe Root and Ben Stokes scoring points again - and there were times when that looked like it wouldn't happen. As for the other 17 players on the list, we will have to see. But cricket is back. And don't you love to see it!

Another great thing about this game of ours, and by association our List, is that it can sometimes take the mick. Sport is all about anticipation - and when that anticipation is built up, the climax is usually higher. Ask Sting. Think of big crickets big cathartic moments. Think Ben Stokes at the World Cup last year. Think about Middlesex's win in 2016. Think about the 2005 Ashes. But there are also the damp squibs. In the first week with any cricket to speak of, we have the dampest of damp squibs. The first post-Lockdown score on the board turns out to be the greatest biggest zero you could imagine. It was all set up for Jason Holder. He scored a huge 233 points in the last active game pre-Lockdown as Barbados beat Guyana. There would have been a great cyclical nature for him to have got even 50 points. But it was not to be. International cricket's Mr Nice Guy is suffering with an ankle injury so protected himself by not bowling in the cobbled together WI Holder XI v WI Brathwaite XI. He did bat. For one ball where he got a golden duck as part of a bravo display from Raymon Reifer. So there we have it. Our first score in 13 weeks is 0 but....you know what! I'll take it.

Week

Jason Holder - 0

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann - dnp
Babar Azam - dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Joe Root- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
David Warner - dnp

Overall

Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Ben Stokes - 1128
Joe Root - 1109
Steve Smith - 1109
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Travis Head - 901
Babar Azam - 874
David Warner - 821
Virat Kohli - 787
Lewis Gregory - 759
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Tom Banton - 603
Rohit Sharma - 471
Jason Holder- 448
Peter Handscomb - 383

Week

Arthur - 0
Alviro - 0
DD - 0
DC - 0
DFM - 0
GG - 0
Ian - 0
MIB - 0
The Professor- 0
RD - 0
RDJ - 0

Overall

Alviro - 2087
DC - 2002
The Professor - 1995
Arthur - 1928
RDJ - 1701
MIB - 1583
DD - 1477
RD - 1437
GG - 1207
Ian - 471