No Place for Englishmen.

[UnusualChallenge]

For too long the English have dominated their domestic leagues but no longer! Angry at the reduction of the size of the world cup the associates of the world together with a number of Kolpak and overseas players have come together to dethrone the Englishmen!
It is impossible to terminate the contracts of players at the beginning of the first season of the game in a county save so the first season of this save will be briefly summed up as it will include a number of English players. Middlesex was selected as the team with which to attempt this goal as they already have a number of decent overseas players including the star internationals Ross Taylor, Tim Murtagh, and Paul Stirling. My first act as coach was to rename the historic county the Overseas XI, outraging Englishmen all over the country.

Acquisitions for 2019 season: Alexei Kerzevee (Netherlands), Barry McCarthy (Ireland), Chris Sole (Scotland).

Full Squad:
Batsmen: M Andersson, A De Villiers (Sth Africa, T20 only), N Gubbins, M Holden, T Lace, D Malan, E Morgan (who will be viewed as English), S Robson, G Scott, P Stirling (Ireland), R Taylor (NZ), A Kerzevee (NL).
Wicketkeepers: J Davies, S Eskinazi, R White, J Simpson.
Allrounders: None.
Bowlers: E Bamber, T Barber, S Finn, J Harris, T Helm, M Ur Rahman (Afg, T20 only), T Murtagh (Ireland), O Rayner, T Roland-Jones, N Sowter, C Sole (Scotland), B McCarthy (Ireland).
Overall the squad has 6 non-English players available for championship matches excluding Morgan and the 2 t20 only overseas players.

Results:
Although we do not have enough overseas players available to fill an XI we will nonetheless include all of them that we can. So the lineup for the first match was:
1: N Gubbins 2: P Stirling 3: S Eskinazi (wk) 4: R Taylor 5: A Kerzevee 6: E Morgan 7: D Malan 8: J Harris 9: B McCarthy 10: T Murtagh 11: T Sole. The non-English players will be selected whenever they are available.

RLODC Summary: We performed modestly in the one day tournament winning 3 games out of 9 (all simulated) and finishing 6th in our group. We were hurt by international selections and at one stage had 7 players unavailable due to Irish, English, and Scottish committments.
Overseas Performers:
Batsmen:
A Kerzevee, 197 runs at 24.63 HS 98.
P Stirling, 112 runs at 22.4 HS 33, 8 wickets at 32.
R Taylor, 316 runs at 45.14 HS 106, 5 wickets at 20.8
Bowlers:
T Murtagh: 51 runs at 17, 10 wickets at 27.5
B McCarthy: 23 runs at 7.67, 9 wickets at 30.89
C Sole: 11 runs at 3.67, 7 wickets at 46.14.
Overall the core of our future team performed modestly but consistently with Ross Taylor being the star performer and player of the season.

T20 Tournament Summary: We performed slightly more strongly in the T20 format as we managed to sneak into 4th position in our group befpre being defeated by Northants in the quarterfinals:
Overseas Performers:
Batsmen:
A Kerzevee, 237 runs at 18.23, HS 53
A De Villiers, 429 runs at 35.75, HS 98*.
R Taylor, 144 runs at 48, HS 59*
P Stirling, 328 runs at 29.82, HS 96, 12 wickets at 25.67, BBI 3/27.
Bowlers:
B McCarthy: 69 runs at 7.67, 25 wickets at 18.44, BBI 4/25.
C Sole: 28 runs at 4, 15 wickets at 27.87, BBI 3/0.
M Ur Rahman 4 wickets at 28.5, BBI 2/25.
T Murtagh is retired from T20 cricket.
The overseas players performed creditably well in this competition with De Villiers and Stirling being the stars. McCarthy picked up a lot of wickets but was also quite expensive. De Villiers was our player of the season.

Championship Summary: Considering that we were in Division 2 we really didn't perform that well in the championship with 5 wins and 9 losses which gave us a 6th place finish. Tim Murtagh was our player of the season with 89 wickets at 21.83 as well as a matchwinning 89*.
Overseas Performers:
Batsmen:
A Kerzevee, 768 runs at 28.44. 2X100, 2X50, HS 124.
R Taylor, 483 runs at 40.25, 2X100, 1X 50, HS 122.
P Stirling, 802 runs at 30.85, 1X100, 7X 50, HS 110. Also 16 wickets at 41.82, BBI 3/36.
Bowlers:
T Murtagh, 301 runs at 13.04, 1X50, HS 89. Also 89 wickets at 21.83, 6X 5WI, BBI 7/64.
C Sole, 130 runs at 13, HS 16. Also 29 wickets at 40.41, BBI 3/62.
B McCarthy, 422 runs at 21.10, 1X50, HS 66. Also 38 wickets at 35.39, 1X 5WI, BBI 5/82.
Aside from Murtagh Ross Taylor was reasonably impressive despite missing playing only 7 games due to international commitments. Barry McCarthy showed his potential with bat and ball but lacked consistency and Paul Stirling was solid but failed to convert most of his starts.

This concluded a relatively mediocre first season that set the stage for a complete list overhaul courtesy of a vast number of overseas signings who will hopefully push average players like Sole and Kerzevee into the reserves. The beginning of the 2020 season (which will be far more detailed will be up in the next few days!

[bryce87]

Cool idea but this is going to be one heck of a challenge!

Surprised you missed out on McBrine? He is there at the first contract screen and would add a nice balance to the side.

Good luck!

[GrahamB]

Nice idea for a story.
Reminds me of my old Fifa Manager story using Crystal Palace with English players only.

[UnusualChallenge]

Part 2: Transfers and terminations.
All out of contract English players did not have their contracts renewed and as such the squad lost a number of star performers including James Harris, Nathan Sowter, Max Holden, and Tom Lace. This, combined with the extremely unfortunate retirement of Tim Murtagh did however free up a significant amount of room in my budget.
My first 2 signings were promising young Irish batsman Cormac Hassett (FC average of 57 from 12 matches) for $44,000 and the Bermudian Delray Rawlins (2nd XI batting average of 52) for $18,500. I Also targeted star Irish allrounder Andy McBrine but he demanded more money. In the second round we managed to sign McBrine for an expensive $65,000 along with Stiaan van Zyl (South African Kolpak opening bat with an average of 41 to go along with 68 first class wickets) for $46,000 and Scottish offspinner Mark Watt ($23,000) to provide backup for McBrine. This left me with insufficient funds to acquire my other major targets, Irish keeper Gary Wilson and West Indian bowling allrounder Keith Barker. It should also be noted that the previous seasons overseas players including Ross Taylor (main), AB De Villiers (t20) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (t20) were all retained. This meant that we now had overseas players in all positions except for 1, the wicketkeeper.

Our first match was a warm up against the 1 star rated Cambridge MCCU. Unfortunately 4 Irish players (Stirling, Hassett, McBrine, and McCarthy) were called up for a series against Zimbabwe.
So our XI for this match would be:
1. S Van Zyl (SA) 2. P Stirling (Ire), 3. R Taylor (NZ), 4. C Hassett (Ire), 5. A Kerzevee (NL), 6. D Rawlins (Ber), 7. A McBrine (Ire), 8. J Simpson (Eng, WK) 9. M Watt (Scotland), 10. B McCarthy (Ire), 11. C Sole (Scotland).
Due to international committments the actual side was made up of:
1. S Van Zyl 2. S Robson (Eng but born in Aus) 3. S Eskinazi (wk), 4. R Taylor, 5. A Kerzevee, 6. D Rawlins, 7. E Morgan (Enemy of Ire!), 8. M Watt, 9. T Roland-Jones, 10. C Sole, 11. E Bamber.

We lost the toss for this match on a rather flat pitch, although against an opposing side who didn't have a single first class match between them an easy victory was expected.
Disappointingly we conceded 333 in the first innings with Mark Watt (6/116) and Chris Sole (2/77) picking up most of the wickets. Rawlins and Van Zyl also bowled a significant number of overs but were unable to claim any reward. In response to this total we began strongly and eventually reached 379/7 dec in 92 overs. Eskinazi scored an excellent 157 and was well supported by Rawlins (65), Robson (53), and Watt (35) unfortunately Stiaan Van Zyl retired hurt after being gently hit in the stomach by a medium pacer. In their second innings Cambridge decided to hit out and led by the unknown 22 year old James Senior who hit 91 off 67 they made their way to 255 in just 55 overs. Mark Watt continued his superb match taking 6/89 while Rawlins (1/52) and Sole (1/47) were the other overseas wicket-takers. This left us with a target of 210 in about half a day. The chase did not go to plan as we lost early wickets before eventually finishing on 6 (really 7)/180. Ross Taylor was a bright spot with 55 off 50 while Mark Watt (32*) and Toby Roland-Jones (25*) batted well to save the match. Watt was our clear man of the match with his 67 runs and 12 wickets but overall this was a poor performance as Kerzevee and Sole both disappointed.

County Round 1 vs Derbyshire.
In this home game we instructed the curators to create a batsmans pitch as without our strike bowlers we appeared to lack quality seam-bowling. After winning the toss we batted superbly as, led by Kerzevee's savage 143 (off just 140 balls) we reached 491 in 113 overs. Also of note were the 88 runs scored by Robson and scores in the 40s from Watt, Eskinazi, and Gubbins. 2 of our future targets Scotsman Safyaan Sharif and Dutch allrounder Logan Van Beek did most of the damage with the ball picking up 7 wickets between them. Derbyshire crumbled in response to this imposing score and made just 168 as despite a fine 63 from Godleman Sole (5/61) and Watt (2/46) tore through their middle orddr. With a huge lead and time on our side we decided to enforce the follow on. Derbyshire showed more fight in the second innings but still ended up falling far short of making us bat again. 3 wickets each from Roland-Jones and Delray Rawlins ensured that they were dismissed for just 210 to complete a comprehensive victory. Kerzevee was the man of the match for his magnificent first-innings century.

County Round 2 vs Sussex
With our Irish players still touring (and crushing) Zimbabwe we named an unchanged XI for a game with cloudy weather expected. Riskily we decided to bowl first. This decision appeared to be validated when the strong Sussex side slumped to 6/143 but a barnstorming 69 from Jofra Archer led them to 285. Sole (2/96), Watt (2/71) and Rawlins (2/31) were all among the wickets along with star Englishman Roland Jones (3/38) although Sole was murdered by Archer in his 3rd spell and conceded over 5 runs an over. In response we batted reasonably well to reach 329 as Kerzevee (82 off 95) continued his good form supported by Ross Taylor (75) and Rawlins (47) who added some vital runs with the tail. Sussex batted magnificently in the second innings and managed to reach 440 propelled by centuries from Burgess (138) and Wells (108). Roland-Jones (4/96) and Watt (3/122) were among the wickets while Bamber and Sole (combined 3/149) picked up the others. This left us with an improbable target of 397 in just over a day. Despite not really chasing the total we began extremely well as the openers and Ross Taylor batted superbly. At tea on the last day we were well placed at 2/256 with Robson (106) and Taylor (59) at the crease. The match amazingly ended in a draw as needing 11 runs off the last over with 2 wickets in hand we lost Rawlins for 46 before number 10 Sole swung and missed at the last ball. This was an interesting match which we had chances to win and probably should have lost\. In the end a draw was a fair result.


Our next match was a challenge trophy game away against Essex. We regained Van Zyl (who returned from injury) and Barry McCarthy who returned from carrying drinks for the Irish test side. As such our XI had 8 overseas players (as well as Robson and Morgan) within it.
Due to some slight changes in batting order our XI read:
1. S Van Zyl 2. S Robson 3.R Taylor 4. A Kerzevee 5. D Rawlins 6. E Morgan 7. S Eskinazi 8. M Watt 9. T Roland-Jones 10. B McCarthy 11. C Sole.


We decided to bowl first in helpful conditions against a decent Essex side who had committed treason against the associate world by dropping Ryan ten Doeschate. We bowled well to restrict Essex to 222 as McCarthy (4/54) and Sole (3/48) were among the wickets. Watt also bowled tightly in the middle overs and finished with 1/28 from his 10. The chase was a relatively simple one as 96 from Van Zyl and 71 from Taylor took us to a 5 wicket win in the 36th over. This was an impressive performance which showed that in the one day format we were serious title contenders.

2nd Challenge Trophy match, at home against Gloucestershire.
Following our strong victory against Essex we named an unchanged side and after winning the toss decided to bowl first on a spinning and seaming track. After starting well Gloucestershire collapsed embarrassing as part-timers Rawlins (4/37) and Van Zyl (3/22 off 8) tore through them after an 80 run opening partnership. Young batsman Ben Charlesworth had a particularly miserable day as he was dismissed for a 23 ball duck. In response we batted very aggressively and reached the target in the 23rd over with Ross Taylor (76* off 48 the star).

This was another impressive victory and with our key players due to return it appeared as though things would keep running smoothly.