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