By Indian Cricket Fever
March 3 2005

Right... if you've done any cricket tipping contest/'Super selector'/anything of the sort, this is basically the same thing... if not (or even otherwise), read on for instructions... Pick eleven players for a test team and a number of possible substitutes - only this time, out of the Indian, Pakistani, Kiwi and Aussie squads that'll be facing each other in the next couple of months.

General rules:

Selection:

• Minimum of two players in the first choice XI from each country.

• Maximum of five players from any one country.

• NO OUT OF BALANCE LINEUPS. 10 batsman or 8 bowlers isn't going to be allowed. You can pick combinations of either 5 bowlers/6 batsmen + keeper or 4 bowlers/7 batsmen + keeper.

• If you want two keepers involved (say, Gilchrist and Karthik) - only one of them can play as a wicketkeeper-batsman. If you do select two, then mark which of the two will be a keeper (and have points for stumpings and byes counted for/against him).

• As far as all rounders go - very few of them involved here, so to make things easy, they'll be selected in one specific field: Razzaq, Malik, Styris, Oram, Afridi, Watson (if he plays) and Lehmann will count as batsmen. Vettori, Pathan, Jeff Wilson and Agarkar will be counted as bowlers.

• In addition to the first choice XI: You also need to select a backup batsman, wicketkeeper and bowler - more on this in Substitutions...

Substitutions:

Now... as this thing's gonna be spread out over a few months with NZ/Aus and India/Pak both playing 3 tests against each other... there probably will be injuries or a few axes here or there, hence a few substitution rules:

• As well as your eleven first-choice players... you also need to pick one additional batsman, another wicketkeeper and another bowler as a backup. If one of your first choice players is dropped or injured, the points scored by replacements will be counted instead - so if for example, Ricky Ponting is injured for the first Aus/NZ test only and VVS Laxman is listed as your substitute batsman, the points he scores (or has scored) in the first test between India and Pakistan will count towards your total. From the second test onwards in the series, if Ponting returns to the squad, then any points he scores will count. The same applies for bowlers or keepers.

• All three of the 'bench' players have to be from different countries.

• If a second player from your starting XI is dropped or injured (and I'm talking about a case scenario of two batsmen, or two bowlers here - else two of the subs would play) - then you're a lousy selector. For the sake of simplicity, no further substitutions or anything like it.

• As far as form substitutions go - you're limited to the fourteen players you've selected. If one of the first choice XI is out of form but likely to be picked in the next test (or alternatively, one of the backups is in form) - you can make a change to your first choice XI (ONLY from the other three 'bench players' that you have) at a penalty of 25 points.

Points:

Each run scored by the player: 1 point

Each century: Bonus of 15 points (30 for a double, 45 for a triple, etc)

Each wicket taken: 30 points

Runouts: 30 points (shared equally between participants - direct hit means one person gets 30 points, two people involved - throw/breaking stumps means that they both get 15, etc)

For a five-wicket haul in an innings: Bonus of 20 points.

Each catch/stumping: 15 points

Keeper penalties: 1 point for every 2 byes conceded (rounded up... so 7 byes loses 4 points)

So name your teams in here... feel free to make as many edits as you want, before March 8th - when the first India/Pakistan test begins and the competition is under way... and this page will be updated regularly from then on with points and standings.

The teams to pick from:

India
Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly (capt), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji

Australia
Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting (capt), Damien Martyn, Michael Clarke, Brad Hodge, Simon Katich, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz, Glenn McGrath

Pakistan
Taufeeq Umar, Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Asim Kamal, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (wk), Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Arshad Khan, Mohammad Khalil

New Zealand
Craig Cumming, Lou Vincent, Stephen Fleming (capt), Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Hamish Marshall, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, James Franklin, Chris Martin, Iain O'Brien, Paul Wiseman