6. Players
Clearly your club's most important asset, you must have a minimum of fourteen (14) players in your squad at all times. Each player has seven main skills that determine their ability. They are:Stamina - A player's stamina is arguably their most important attribute. As a game goes on, players will tire. No matter how high their stamina skill, they will experience some reduction in their performance, but the extent to which their tiring is going to affect their performance will depend totally on their stamina. The higher the player's stamina, the lower the tiring effect.
Not only does stamina have an effect on a player's performance during a game, but also their recovery off the pitch. Players with higher levels of stamina will be able to carry more workload before their Personal Fitness Level (PFL - discussed further on) drops, and their PFL will also recover quicker.
There is a limit to how high a player's stamina can be though. Once they reach the maximum level of stamina (superb*), no matter how hard they train at their fitness, it will never go higher. There are limits to human performance!
Batting - Important for all players that are going to bat. This is the primary skill for determining a batter's overall skill.
Bowling - Important for all players that are going to bowl. This is the primary skill for determining a bowler's overall skill.
Wicket Keeping - This skill is important for wicket keepers only. It will help to have a good wicket keeper as they will tend to hold on to a lot of chances for catches and make more stumpings. They will also be responsible for keeping byes and leg-byes down to a minimum. It is not the only skill that decides how well a player performs behind the stumps however.
Concentration - This is an important skill for batters. The importance of this will be larger for First Class games than for one day games, although it is valuable in both forms of the game. A batter may be very well endowed in batting skill, but if they can't concentrate then they are likely to make a silly mistake and get out earlier than they would have otherwise. It also has an effect on an individual's fielding and wicket keeping ability; you need to stay alert in the field or risk missing that chance for a catch!
Consistency - This is an important skill for bowlers. The importance of this is larger for First Class games than for one day games, although it is valuable in both forms of the game. A bowler may have a great amount of bowling skill, but if they can't consistently put the ball in the same areas then they are likely to find the ball disappearing to all areas of the park more often than they otherwise would. It also has an effect on a player's ability to field and keep wicket; the more consistent the individual, the more likely they are to hold their catches and save runs.
Fielding - Important for all your players. They do say that catches win matches, and if your team's fielding is not up to scratch, then you will not catch those catches. It also has a small effect on a players WK ability. As has been mentioned above however, this is not the lone skill in determining a players fielding ability.
All of these abilities can be improved by giving your player individual training. As in real life, generally you will see your younger players improving their skills faster than older ones, although there are two exceptions (concentration and consistency). Read the Nets section to find out more about this.
There are also other aspects to your players that you need to pay attention to:
Preferences and Traits - In addition to the main skills that all players have, some players have special abilities that set them apart from the rest. A full list of these preferences and traits can be found here.
Age - As a player gets older they finds it more and more difficult to improve in the physical skills, although their increased maturity does aid them in improving their psychological skills (concentration and consistency).
Players all age on the same day, at the very start of the new season before the first training session.
Ultimately a veteran player will struggle to maintain their physical performance and you will see their stamina and skills fall away. However, while youth can be a blessing, age does bring...
Experience - An inexperienced player will not know what to do in certain situations (eg hog the strike with a better batter left at the other end) and may well make stupid mistakes that a more seasoned player would not. An experienced captain is a particularly valuable commodity.
Aggression - This gives an indication of what is the player's natural approach to playing. The more aggressive a player, the more likely they are to score runs quickly as a batter, but they will be more likely to get out. For a bowler, they are more likely to get wickets, but also more likely to be expensive. This can be tempered by individual orders though.
Leadership - An important skill for your captain only. They will have various decisions to make throughout a game, and may have to lift a depressed side when things are not going well. This combined with their experience will determine how effective they are as a captain. The highest level of leadership a player can possess is superb.
Form - A sad fact of life is that players go in and out of form. The same is true in Battrick. However you can help a player's chance of improving or maintaining their form in two ways.
Firstly an individual playing regularly will have a better chance of staying in touch than a player who merely carries the drinks and loses the feel of being out in the middle. Equally a player who is receiving coaching in a net session has a better chance of increasing their form. A player's form has a significant impact on their performance. You may be better off picking a worse batter who is in better form than your star player who is in worse form.
Form is split into Batting and Bowling to show how a player's form can fluctuate in each discipline. A player's wicket keeping ability is affected by their bowling form.
Personal Fitness Level (PFL) - While there are no injuries in BT per se, you cannot continually play an individual non-stop without them feeling some effects on their body. An individual's PFL has a major effect on their performance and is lost during their exertions both on and off the field.
Factors involved in a player's loss of PFL are:
- The amount of matches a player plays, and their type. FC Games, due to their length, will have the largest effect, while friendlies have no effect.
- The player's level of involvement in a game; a player who bowls a large number of overs and/or plays a long innings will use more of their fitness reserves than their team-mate who loses their wicket cheaply and fields without bowling.
- The number of net sessions a player is receiving.
At the lowest levels of PFL a player will be barely able to perform.