ICC launches official Fantasy League for ICC Cricket World Cup

Cricket fans across the world can now participate in the newly-launched, official ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Fantasy League that has been designed to ensure fans can get closer to the tournament than ever before, with opportunities for everyone to cheer on their favourite players and teams, and feel part of the action wherever they are in the world.

The game is the most in-depth ever created in cricket, with great detail for the passionate fantasy league player, but equally great ease of access for the casual fan to play on a one-off match day. 

"Participants will get to create their own Virtual XI from across all 14 ICC Cricket World Cup teams and a total of 210 players, each of whom will have a profile, detailed statistics and photo. Points will be gained based on how the selected players perform on the field, with points awarded for batting, bowling, fielding and wicketkeeping," the ICC said in a statement.

"Every manager will get one million credits to select their own ‘fantasy’ team from. Each player carries a virtual value and has a designated role.

Players have been given a virtual ‘value’ based on an advanced statistical algorithm that takes into account a huge number of factors ahead of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. This includes the players’ overall ODI record, ODI experience and current form. Career statistics considered include their batting average and strike rate, frequency of big scores, number of fours and sixes hit, bowling average, overs bowled per match and economy. Since players can also earn fielding points, catches and stumpings have also been factored in," it said.

"The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 already promises to be the most anticipated cricket event the world has ever seen, and now, there’s one more reason for fans to connect with the tournament that will get underway in Australia and New Zealand on February 14. To register for the competition, and to see all the player values, please go to fantasy.cricketworldcup.com," it said.

There is a wide range of prices for each team in order to allow participants to create valid squads and select players, depending on the teams facing off on the particular day. To make it easy for managers, there is even an ‘auto-select’ function which will randomly select a squad for the users.

The ICC Fantasy Cricket League will have two game modes - Tournament Mode and Match Mode. Tournament Mode is the primary game and runs for the entire duration of the tournament and users can make substitutions for every match. The team with the most points at the end of the tournament wins. In Match Mode, people create a squad for each match/game day and there is a winner for every match/game day.

The tournament mode will have four distinct phases, with users being able to remake their teams afresh after each phase and having plenty of substitutions during each phase to keep their team up to date.

Phase 1 – League Stage February (21 Games), Phase 2 – League Stage March (21 Games), Quarter Finals – (4 Games) and Semi-Finals and Final – (3 Games)

Users will have to select teams as per the following guidelines, with each team having:

- At least four designated batsmen
- At least one All Rounder
- At least two Bowlers
- One Wicket Keeper

No user can have more than six players from one country in a single team.

To add to the fun and competitiveness, participants will have the option to create their own leagues to compare scores among friends, colleagues or groups. Each participant will also automatically be entered into the league of the country they are supporting at the World Cup so that they can compete against other fans from their team at the #cwc15.

The top fantasy teams in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Fantasy Game win exclusive ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 memorabilia and prizes.

There is a detailed scoring system that rewards all aspect of performance with particular reward on runs, the speed of scoring, wickets, bowling economy and fielding. To see the scoring system in full please visit fantasy.cricketworldcup.com.