The ins and outs of Fantasy Cricket

Our special guest this week is Gaurav Sundararaman, a senior stats analyst at ESPNcricinfo, and he helps us unpack the complexities of Fantasy Cricket - where fans pick teams and compete in increasingly popular Fantasy Leagues.

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Talking Points:

• The allure of fantasy cricket and how it changes one's perspective


• ESPN Super Selector and the early days of fantasy cricket


• The popularity of fantasy leagues in the T20 era


• Picking a team and the dangers of biased selections


• Tournament mode v daily mode


• Rajat Bhatia, Sreenath Aravind and the value of unheralded stars


• Chris Gayle, David Warner, ABd - the must-haves


• Rajat Bhatia, Sreenath Aravind, Amit Mishra - the bankable players


• The moment when Fantasy Cricket creators asked - 'Who is Jasprit Bumrah'


• Automated substitutions, dynamic pricing and the next steps in fantasy cricket

Participants:

Gaurav Sundararaman (@gaurav_sundar) (All ESPNcricinfo articles by Gaurav)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Related:

Dueling with Kings - Daniel Barbarasi on Fantasy Sports - Amazon.com

How to boss fantasy cricket - ESPNcricinfo - Part 1, Part 2

Five important tips for Fantasy players - Joy Bhattacharjya - Cricbuzz.com

A $150bn market: How fantasy sports transformed cricket fans from being spectators to stakeholders - Rohan Abraham - Economic Times

Has Fantasy Sports got the right direction in India? - Somesh Chandran - Livemint.com

The allure of fantasy cricket and why it should bother us - Tony Kuriehon - Newsminute

Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution - Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde - Amazon.com