Cricket Captain 2023 - Fans wishlist

[CrazyCaptain101]

Writing this post, I do not just speak for myself, as I know other fans of this great game would love some, if not all of these things to be added to the next version of Cricket Captain

1. Women's Cricket - I don't think I am the only one who would love to see women's cricket added to the game. It's not like it is the 1900s any more, where most women's sports were not followed very closely. Women's cricket today has grown very popular and it would be great to see it in the game. Even if it is just a competition like the WPL or the WBBL or something like that, it would give more incentive for women's cricket followers to purchase this game.

2. Player Profile Pictures - I believe in Cricket Captain 2 when you clicked on a player's profile it would have a picture of them. These would be a great little add on to this game. I really don't understand why something like this was in the game 20 years ago but not in the game today.

3. Associate Countries - This has been something I have wanted in the game for a long time. The ability to play as a team such as the Netherlands or Scotland would be fantastic! It would also be cool that if you performed well enough, in time, you could become a full ICC member country and begin to play test cricket.

4. More Domestic Systems - I think that the ability to play in domestic systems in countries like Zimbabwe, Ireland and Sri Lanka would be a nice new feature that would help Cricket Captain 2023 feel nice and fresh. There is plenty of data out there that would help the devs put these domestic systems in place and I would really like to see it be done.

5. Scheduling your own Matches (Int. only) - Say you have a few months without any International tours, you could schedule a tour of say, England and play against some of the county sides to prevent your players' form from dropping. Of course, it could only be on a day where they are also free.

A few other things that would be nice to see

• World Ratings being fixed. They should be changed to how they are in real life
• Ability to qualify for the WTC. I recently started a save with Zimbabwe but am gutted that I can't qualify for the WTC, even though I am currently 5th on the World Ratings in Test Matches
• Better quality highlights. Adding a few more shot animations and wicket animations would add extra flare to the game, as I feel like I know what every single animation is going to end in.
• International progression. If you start a save with a team like Bangladesh, you only ever seem like you play 2 and 3 test match series even if you're ranked 1st in the world. You should be able to play longer test match series.
• International fixtures. I've noticed that most International series have tests, ODI's, and T20's all in one series, whereas in real life most series are just tests or just limited overs games.
• Indian players shouldn't play in other franchise cricket.
• Factors like breeze, footmarks and slopes come into play during the longer forms
• Running on a bye the last ball of a limited overs innings would also be nice.

If you have any other suggestions please respond to this post as I have probably missed a fair few points. I hope that the devs read this and implement some of these suggestions.

[Cricket204]

3 and 4 ideas are good.
My List
More overseas players in 20 over leagues currently overseas players getting very less after first season in game. More players should be available for overseas signing list.
Ability to control more teams in same domistic and T20 league like main team and 2nd team.
No groundsman in T20 leagues.
Pakistan players should not be allowed in India 20 over league.
AI should use 5 fielders outside circle in T20 matches, currently they use only 4 fielders every time. and for last 10 overs in OD.
In Pakistan Bangladesh Zimbabwe west indies Sri Lanka odi and T20 matches should be at one venue like real life.
Afghanistan home matches should be now in UAE their new home venue.
World cups finals should be at best venue currently hove in UK host finals it should be at north London.
adding total 4s and 6s to player stats is must.
Day matches in India 20 over league.
best batsman should not getting down the order when they gets old.
During T20 leagues in Pakistan Bangladesh no international matches should be played for home team,
Signing an overseas player for 3 years in IPL.
reducing squad to 15 for 2 match overseas test series.
player selection should be on merit, sometime a player done well in T20 games and he gets selected in test squad.
overseas player rule in Domistic teams should be remove other than County cricket.

[omair786]

The game just needs something new, it is such a good game but it has potential to improve so much more, for the past 5-6 years it just feels like the only reason people buy the game is for the database update. The graphics aren't a problem at all, sure it would be nice to improve them but no one that is playing the game for a deeper insight into cricket is playing CC for the graphics.

1. Graphics can stay the same, not a big deal.
2. Can stop internet games, don't think people care enough to play it ( if it's an extra cost can drop it).
3. Make this game into a mould of football manager, team up with CricViz or a statistical database for a more in-depth analysis for player attributes.
4. Make the game more responsive and realistic, why can I set the aggression to one below the maximum and just easily breeze a T20 match/ODI match.
5. A sub point to point 4 is when bowling in t20s i just set the aggression to 1 bar throughout the innings, this means there is a slip in place for the full 20 overs, I still manage to defend and bowl out oppositions for less than 180 most the time, if I have a slip in in the 16th over to a set batsman i should be getting hammered, not getting his wicket.
6. Why am I playing the Pakistan super league and pakistan players are being called up for international duty? It's their league ffs they shouldn't be having matches during it.

These are just some changes the developers can make, doesn't have to turn into an elite game overnight, changes can happen over 2-3 years. But the game shouldn't stagnate like it has, for the past 5-6 years it's just been the same game but with updated players.

It's evident too, CC 2014 had a 258 players in a day peak, over the years this has just decreased (only 150 this year). The market for a cricket management game is massive in asia alone, Childish Things really need to refocus and turn this game into a Football Manager type game.

[TJHC]

This is what I added to the board last year, updated for this year:
Graphical/Animations:

- Make the sightscreens black for white ball games

Match Gameplay / Rules of the Game:

- Intervals taken mid-over if wicket falls within the last over before a scheduled interval

- Intervals taken early if innings break falls within 10 minutes before an scheduled interval

- Introduce Over Rates and associated penalties (this would encouage using spinners)

- Don't always play on the central wicket on the square - use ones to the sides leading to some boundaries being shorter / longer

When there is a 1hr 50min rain delay, take breaks early to start early and also don't play a single over before going back in for an interval.

- Create a scale when batting for partnerships to set their desire to chase quick singles. If you agressively go after quick singles, then could have an increase risk of run outs but also fewer dot balls. This doesn't mean a batter should be on aggressive.

- An option to keep strike without turning down runs. E.g. two batsmen set but one is scoring more quickly so looks to take most of the strike.

- Pitch Conditions refinement:
- Reflect that sometimes wickets flatten out and improve

- Enable different pitch conditions at different ends / lengths / lines. Eg: If using a left armer at one end, foot marks could make the pitch sharp turn at one end when bowling to a RHB off stump.

[ChinMusic]

My improvements... off the top of my head.

Women spectators in the crowd.
More realistic attendances. Full house for an Australia v England test match and a sparse crowd for a West Indies v Bangladesh test series. One man, a dog and a cobra for a Ranji Trophy league match.
Improve some of the catching animations (Caught while facing the crowd looks awful).
A co-commentator, even if it's someone plucked off the street as long as they have a decent cricket-ty voice.
Better bowling permutations. Sometimes a good standard tailend bowler only bowls one or two overs in a match.
More wicketkeeper dismissals.
More first-class leagues.
No regens in the first season.

[Don73]

My improvements... off the top of my head.

Women spectators in the crowd.
More realistic attendances. Full house for an Australia v England test match and a sparse crowd for a West Indies v Bangladesh test series. One man, a dog and a cobra for a Ranji Trophy league match.
Improve some of the catching animations (Caught while facing the crowd looks awful).
A co-commentator, even if it's someone plucked off the street as long as they have a decent cricket-ty voice.
Better bowling permutations. Sometimes a good standard tailend bowler only bowls one or two overs in a match.
More wicketkeeper dismissals.
More first-class leagues.
No regens in the first season.

I also think regens should be switched off for the first season. There really is no need for them as the squads are fully integrated already. The regens displace the young players that are already there and you notice in five years that the original players have not made a single appearance in that time, thus rendering it merely an aesthetic having them there in the first place.

As silly as it sounds, I don't think enough FC games end in draws (I'm talking CC games really). It would make more sense in a game drifting towards a draw, that an option comes up offering you to 'shake hands' rather than your opposition pointlessly declaring to give you 6 or 7 overs to face in the last half hour. It would improve immersion also if little touches like use of nightwatchmen, sessions ending on the fall of a wicket etc were added. Also, I think in recent years, it is clear overrates have dropped and thats not reflected on the game. i.e. no drink breaks.

The distribution of AI overs has always been a funny one. For instance, in an innings of 130 overs, it is not uncommon to see two bowlers going for 40 odd overs while another front line seamer bowls 2 or 3, sometimes even less than a part-timer. It is rare to see a team IRL bowl over 100 overs in an innings and use only four bowlers but on CC it is pretty common place.

I've never been that bothered by the graphics but some of them could be updated in terms of standard fields. I think instances of caught behinds should be increased to go with a reduction of those short leg catches.

Running byes to the wicket keeper and more aggressive running generally in white ball games.

I also would like to see more save breaks. If you don't have a fixture for several weeks, the game advances and you don't get the opportunity to keep a proper eye on other results, players form etc and there is no opportunity to set any bespoke training for players. Now we have the option to pick T20 teams as well as domestic ones, maybe it's time we can choose to play in two domestic leagues such as CC and Sheffield Shield. It would make most of playing time in that calendar year.

The use of an editor is one that has always improved game play. I know its open to abuse, particularly online but there are occasions
where I feel a player's ability needs a little bump, especially if they are a bowler who never bowls because their stats are too low. It would also help control the influx of regens taking over teams too early.

One of my main gripes about a domestic/international save is that when you return from international duty, half of your players are on one millibar of fitness. What the heck is the AI doing while I'm away? Also, the players that were in form when I went away have been dropped and now lost form completely. I'd still like to be able to select my county line up if away domestically, or at least ensure certain players play.

[Trevfromsussex&Oz]

Here are some ideas.
Show the name of the ground under the scores - Edgebaston, Hove, Antigua etc.
More variety in the crowds and grounds, include a Ladies Stand for Asian grounds perhaps.
More variety in pitches. Love to see the weather have some effect too.

[Wilted]

I agree with most of CrazyCaptain101's ideas, especially the following:

Women's Cricket
I think women's cricket should be the next big addition to CC. While I would love to take on a complete domestic or international career, it is probably far too much of a stretch to ask for that at the moment. World Cup, Ashes, WBBL, Hundred and WPL being added in tournament mode is more reasonable. Being able to create custom multi-format series similar to the Women's Ashes would be a bonus. Women's cricket has a larger audience than some of the smaller comps currently in CC.

Playable Associates
Similar to the above suggestion, give us a chance to play as associates in a career mode. Of course, including all 96 teams would be way too much to ask for but the 8 'ODI only' members should be included since they are a part of the international fixtures already and have full squads in the game.

Rankings
Rankings are a joke at the moment. Being 20+ years into a save and missing out on being the number 1 ranked team because you still haven't played an away test series in Ireland or having to wait 5+ years to be able to get those two points back because the only T20 match was abandoned is laughable. Similar thing for individual player ranking. Sometimes a batter remains at the top of the leaderboard for over a year despite not playing in that format in the same timeframe, while on the other hand, a bowler will plummet down the rankings because they took four wickets last match instead of five.

My own wishlist has been getting kind of big over the last few years, though every year I get to cross a couple of more things off:

Dynamic Pitches
Pitches seem to only deteriorate at the same rate every match, just slightly different starting points depending on the initial conditions. In real life, some patches flatten out to be roads. I'd also love to see some graphical variety in pitches such as greener pitches or cracks appearing later in a test match. I believe the same pitch, with the dark patch at one end, has been used in every iteration of CC that I can remember. The end where left arm quicks are bowling from should have different conditions to the other end.

Batting Gameplay Improvements
Batting has one adjustable slider and no strategy at the moment. Once a batsman is settled, you just hit autoplay until it's time to bowl, where you can change your line/length, customise fielders, rotate bowlers, and change aggression. I've previously mentioned a separate slider for running, which would give limited over formats realistic options but toggles such as looking for gaps, leaving anything outside off, running two on weaker fielders' throws, etc. These additional strategies could be in a similar menu to the change bowler or change field menu.

New Animations
We know a graphical improvement is not on the table and personally, I think it wouldn't enhance the game at all, but some new animations would be nice. Catches, cut shots, appeals, celebrations, etc could use a bit of a facelift or at least some variety. Adding in reverse sweeps, scoops, leg side leaves, and other animations that are missing would spruce up the game a bit.

Realism Additions
CC has fallen behind when it comes to small touches for realism. One of the reasons for playing CC over other cricket games is that it has always strived to be more realistic, from fixtures, retirements, injuries, etc. Unfortunately over the last few years, other cricket games have overtaken CC in the realism department. The following changes (including some that may be mentioned above) would improve this:
- mid-over lunch break when a wicket falls
- opposition nightwatchmen
- drinks breaks
-showing partnership milestones similar to individual milestones
- raising the ball for a 5fa
- more variety in stadiums
- international players flying home to play a four-day match in between an away Test and ODI series and somehow playing two matches at the same time
- international contracts are given out in international saves to maintain extra training and ensure those players have a priority of being fit while playing in their domestic comp so my ODI squad can actually bowl more than three overs in a row before getting injured since they used all of their stamina playing in the BBL.
- auctions for those comps that have them
- use existing players in PM XI and similar teams
- offer draw handshake in final session
- tour matches, intraclub matches, etc. for every away tour to regain form
- maintain form after the end of a season. A player with 5 star form on March 31 always drops to 2.5 stars on April 1.
- target score for bonus points in related comps, similar to target score for D/L.

Gameplay Additions
Custom tournaments for World Cups (such as playing the World Cup in Tests), including ATG World Cups. Or having domestic comps available to be added into competitions so we can make our own T20 Champions League.

Harder difficulty. After you've built a solid squad it's pretty smooth sailing for decades to come. This can be done by adding hidden weaknesses to promote experimenting with different tactics throughout a series/competition. Such as bowling right-arm pace around the wicket to Warner. If you notice your own player going out the same time constantly, train them in that area so the opposition doesn't exploit that weakness.

Occasional vs World XI matches. If you spend four years as the number 1 team, the game can add a World XI series to the schedule

Scenario builder. It's nice having a select few scenarios with each version but some teams haven't appeared in scenarios in a long time if at all (I think they didn't even exist in CC22).

Quality of Life Additions
Simulate innings or the rest of the match.

I'll keep asking for adjustable filters until it finally happens. I'd like the option to see the best spinners available without having to scroll down the bottom of a massive list when sorting by bowling style and then wading through part-timers. Or just want somewhat recent results such as most runs in England in the last 5 years.

'Bookmark' players on the contract screen so you get a notification and the opportunity to put in a higher offer.

Make all unselected members of your domestic team play 2nd XI with one click rather than going through 15 players and adding the to the 2XI individually

Influencing what youth players come through. The extra money could be spent to specifically recruit an LF bowler or an SLA all-rounder. Some player pools struggle to populate certain roles across decades. Very difficult to find more than a couple of spinners in an Aus career.

And might as well have the 'filter few' option customisable since some shorter comps won't reach the 15-wicket minimum often enough to be shown. Or maybe I want just to expand it to a minimum of 1000 runs to look at well-established batsmen to bring into a squad or look for bowling-oriented all-rounders with a bowling average of <30 and a batting average of 20+ etc.
Sort and filter save files for those of us who have a bunch of saves on the go at once.

Save highlight settings, especially the camera angle. The camera angle resets to the default every time you open the game.

Stats, records and career achievements
The information available to domestic saves is available to international saves:
- End-of-year summary for international careers. Leading run scorers, etc for both your team and worldwide.
- Career summary that includes how many trophies you win, win/loss ratios against teams, total wins etc.
- Retirement announcements for international players.

World Cup and WTC stats and records, including runs, wickets, title wins, etc.
Tournament-specific career records such as looking at most runs in the BBL or most wickets taken in the IPL.
Expand selection of recorded stats such as 200s, 300s, hattricks, run outs, 4-wicket hauls (for T20s)
Total 4s and 6s count instead of %
Records for most international wickets/runs in a calendar year (domestic teams have this feature)
Batting stats filtered by batting position

Game breaking feature that currently makes CC22 unplayable
Sydney Red should be called Sydney Pink

[MozzieOzzie]

Some great ideas already above. For sure the youth intake is poor, how many RHB non bowling RM can a team really have.

Training - give us the opportunity to turn a batter into a wicket keeper or all rounder if they spin or seam well, for me this would perfect the game in that part, always nice to find an undiscovered talent

More training slots - or an overall team training session that updates the squads overall stats and squad improvement shared equally

Initial budgets = apart from Durham the other two northern teams Lancashire and Yorkshire are stitched up with their " annual" budget to attract new players and pay wages. Surely an equal footing or at least remove the north / south divide in terms of the budget, Surrey, Sussex et al can outcompete for players unless you throw a load at dough at player they will go elsewhere. Does get irksome after a few years of transfer windows (can't think of the cricket equivalent.

Anyone said editor yet?

[Lynx54321]

My list would be:

New Additions

Zimbabwe domestic league - Would be really fun to play in my opinion and a nice change of pace. Interesting overseas players rocking up in the league now like Ben Compton and Kiran Carlson.

Top tier ODI status Associates playable career (Scotland, Netherlands, Namibia, UAE, Nepal, PNG, Oman, USA) - A rotating schedule of ODI and T20 series against each other and the odd series vs lower ranked full members would be a superb addition. No need to add tests straightaway given there is no existing process for advancement to full member and the likes of the Netherlands have even come out saying they don't want to play tests.

"Quick Wins"

The algorithm which determines players aggression should have more recency bias and additionally be weighted more towards T20s than LA given the increasing marginalisation of the latter across most of the world.

The algorithm needs adjusted for it's harshness on young players with reams of these players set to very defensive in both formats because they've only played a couple games and made a slow start.

Turn off first season regens.

Bring back T20I rankings.

Improvements

Fix young player and regen development. It's horrible at the moment and they're both all either generated good or bad and then stay that way. There is no actual development or growth going on.

Better coaching options including off season coaching slots and ability for national teams to assign all season round coaching for centrally contracted players.

We'll never get a full blown editor, I think we know that but I think a halfway house which would help satisfaction with the database would be an option on day 1 only of the first season to add eight buttons to each player's profile on the screen where you can edit their name:

+5% batting ability
-5% batting ability
+5% bowling ability
-5% bowling ability
+5% FC batting agg
-5% FC batting agg
+5% LO batting agg
-5% LO bowling agg

The buttons are limited to maybe 2 or 3 presses for each player, disappear after day 1 and invalidate saves from online play. I think this would allow those little nudges to player ability that would then help players feel the DB is more accurate based on their own subjective opinions without allowing the wholesale change an editor would unleash. You’ll get way less from me in the DB thread too as a bonus.

[Sargey]

I wish to see who the opposition captain is!

[Sheharyar]

I wish to see who the opposition captain is!

Good suggestion. Would be great if can be incorporated

[Krikey]

I have been playing this game since the beginning of the century, and have to say that the last five versions are absolutely superficial. The changes are cosmetic. Adding a new league, or changing the stats of players doesn't improve gameplay.
We need run outs officiated by a third umpire, with red and green lights. Cricket Captain had this in its earlier versions. I don't know why they discontinued.
We also need DRS. For gameplay to seem real, DRS is must.
We also need the option to bring the keeper upto the stumps for medium pacers. This too was possible in an earlier version, where even when seamers were bowling we could load the field setting saved for a spinner.
Finally, need to be able to save best FC XI, OD XI, T20 XI, HUNDRED XI for a team, so that even if a player is rested for a game we have an idea of what is the best combo.

[Yorkie]

A couple I’m sure we’d all like to see when playing a full format season and/or International team with a county/state team is the ability to choose whether to captain in the One Day Cup OR the 100 tournament (England competitions).

Same when you’re playing with an international team and county /state team. An option to choose which course to follow is a necessity. At the moment in England the 100 (with no prize money) takes precedence, with a confused AI running my beloved club in around 3 One Day Cup games. Same with Internationals, the muddled AI again takes over my club!

Not only that, it’s as if my missus takes over at the helm, as my best team selection while I’m away strangely changes to weaker players, my coaching slots all change, batters are given bowling training and players on 5 star form given unnecessary training. Strangely I even lose a fielding training slot, 2 goes to 1! Anyone else get this?

This needs fixing asap as it’s spoiling game immersion at the moment. I’ve actually built one year a strong “non 100” squad to win the One Day Cup, to then see them lose in an AI controlled QF against weaker opposition. Highly annoying.

[Wilted]

From another thread:

A heads-up would also be nice to have when players are going to retire too. A message on the contract screen along the lines of "S Boland has indicated they are considering retirement" would be a huge help in giving you the chance to be proactive and find a replacement in your squad. They wouldn't have to then retire but you know it's coming in the next few years and have the chance to train up a rookie or sign an established replacement. Especially when you get the shock retirement of one of your star players in their early 30s.