CricketDiceBGG

The International Cricket Series

Year

1986

Players

2

Playtime

—

Min. Age

—

Complexity:Medium

Publisher:The Aspen House Group

View on BGG

About This Game

From the box lid:

"Captain your team to victory using all the tactical skill of a professional cricketer.

Unique card and dice combination provide all the excitement of a fast moving one day cricket match.

Easy to play - family fun."

This game is themed around the one-day cricket phenomenon that became popular in the late 70s, although the board game lasts for 10 overs instead of 50 like the real game.

Although the rules say that the game can be played by any number of players, in reality it seems to be designed for two people to oppose each other as the two team captains. Each captain has to make the same type of decisions that a cricket captain would normally make during a game, namely:

In what order to use his batsmen (four "top" batsmen, four "medium", and three "tail"); typically you would use your best batsmen first, as they have no individual characteristics such as skill against a certain type of bowling.

When to use his bowlers (two "strike" bowlers with one over each, two "medium" bowlers with two overs each, and two "spin" bowlers with two overs each). The rules suggest using your strike bowlers first to get the best batsmen out.

Where to place his fieldsmen; the bowler and wicket keeper have to be in their designated positions on the board, but the other nine can be placed in any one of 21 other named positions (mid-off, mid-on, extra cover, etc.). This seems to be where most of the decision-making takes place.

Once the batsmen, bowler, and fieldsmen are in place and ready, a bowler/batsman matchup table is consulted to determine which of three coloured dice is rolled:

the black die (1,1,2,3,3,4), which favours neither batsman nor bowler

the blue die (1,2,3,4,4,6), which favours the batsman

the red die (1,1,1,2,2,4), which favours the bowler

The indicated die is rolled. On a six, the batsman simply scores six runs (the maximum). On a 1 to 4, a card is drawn from the relevant deck, there being four named "Card One" to "Card Four"). Each card has three possible outcomes, one for each type of bowler. The relevant outcome is evaluated based on the positions of the fieldsmen. For example, one of the "Card Three" cards says this for the "strike" bowler:

"Driven in the air for some distance but a bad bounce beats mid-off who stumbles after it for 2 runs. No mid-off, 3 runs. No long-off, 4 runs."

Some cards call for the red die to be rolled, in which case the batsman must roll a 1 NOT to be given out (50% chance).

The innings is over once ten batsmen are out or ten overs have been completed. Each team has one innings, after which the team with the higher score wins the game.