DISCUSSION POINT - SUGGESTION

[GM-crowfan65]

Remove YT20.
Introduce UT20 (U24 competition; players become ineligible once they turn 25).
Add an MKMC-style cup for YT20 (played either as an alternate to the current MKMC or at a similar time).
Squad sizes, player limits, and other rules to be confirmed.

Possible schedule:
Monday: Senior T20 (+ Youth Training)
Tuesday: Youth One Day (U21)
Wednesday: Rest Day (+ Senior Training)
Thursday: U24 T20
Friday: Senior One Day
Saturday: Open / Rest Day
Sunday: Knockout Cup (All Squads)

Alternatively, we could hold both training sessions on Wednesday.

I’ve intentionally kept this brief to encourage discussion rather than cover every detail.

Please discuss, suggest alternatives, and explain why you agree or disagree.

[casperj]

From what I understand the proposals are

• Replace the existing youth T20 with a under 25s T20

• Introduce a YT20 cup, potentially replacing the MKMC

• Change the days on which some matches happen

In terms of feedback

• I don't agree with moving the Senior T20 to Monday - does not give enough time for players to recover from the senior one day match on Friday - I would just replace the Monday YT20 with the new U25 T20 and leave it at that for schedule changes

• Wouldn't support the removal of the MKMC. If there are to be two cup competitions, and given that the MKMC takes 10 weeks, I'd suggest having MKMC weeks 0-9, and the new competition weeks 5-14 to reduce the overlap (alternative would be to only allow the top 64 teams (on youth rankings) into the youth competition so it could be run weeks 10-14 thus avoiding any overlap. Another alternative would be to run it on Saturday to separate it as much as possible from the youth league matches

• Think 24 years olds are too old to be included in a new 'youth' competition. I'd suggest just having 21 and 22 year olds allowed in the new competition

Somewhere in the suggestions I have submitted a potential format for a second cup competition which would only take 6 weeks, and thus avoid much of the 'overlap' issue with the MKMC - not sure if that can be dug out from somewhere as it seems to have been deleted from the Suggestions forum.

[ChandanMotilal]

I like the idea of replacing YT20 with a U24 T20, especially if the aim is to give younger players a more meaningful competitive pathway before moving into senior cricket.

However, I would be a little cautious about the proposed schedule. The current schedule already works quite well:

Monday: Youth T20 + training update
Tuesday: Senior T20
Wednesday: Senior training update
Thursday: Youth One Day
Friday: Senior One Day
Sunday: Cup

I would prefer keeping the general structure and replacing the Monday YT20 with the new U24 T20 rather than moving the youth T20 to Thursday.

This keeps the youth and senior competitions spread across the week and avoids having too many matches concentrated together.

I also like the idea of an MKMC-style competition for the younger players. If YT20 is removed, they should still have a short-format knockout/cup competition where developing players can get competitive experience.

The main things I would want clarified are squad-size limits, eligibility rules, whether U24 players can also play Senior matches in the same week, and how the new competition would affect fatigue and players experience.

Overall, I support the direction, but I would favour a transition that keeps the current weekly structure as much as possible.

[neeran]

General comment : Good idea to add a youth game for under-24. Today the problem is that even the best youth, at age 21, are nowhere near good enough to play in senior elevens, at least in the top leagues. So we have to keep training them for a further 3-4 seasons at least, with hardly any playing experience, till they can make it to the first XI in senior games. This proposal would give them some legitimate playing experience without being overmatched.

Question : What happens to training speeds and the definition of Prodigy? Presumably that remains cut off at age 20, right?

Pushback : Let's not shuffle the schedule around please -- some of us oldies are far too used to the rhythm of the game Either replace the Monday youth T20 with this U24 T20, OR add this U24 T20 on Wednesdays. My vote is for the latter.

[RobP27]

Rather than removing YT20 and making it U24, could we not go U23 across the board. (maybe also add in a caveat that the U23 can have 2 players under 25 eligible for games?)

Id keep the current game schedule, but add in the Youth T20 cup on a Saturday.

Slightly off tangent here, but could both youth and senior training happen on Monday AND Wednesday, players in real life wouldnt just train 1 day a week, but look at splitting it into a primary and seconday training, so players can choose two objectives for the week (looking ahead at the proposed changes to how a player looks, additional training categories etc)

Im all for change to enable younger players to gain more experience as there is a lull between 21-25.

[llama]

I think there are some really good thoughts here:

* Essentially making the Youth competition be an "older" competition. I agree that players at age 21 are not ready for senior play. I think maybe 23 is the age to progress rather than 21
* I agree that the playing days should not change. If we have"Youth T20" on Monday, why can't that continue. Does this proposed change need to change the schedule?
* Can't we have MKMC Youth and Senior on the same day (though I understand that maybe a player can't be in both on the same day perhaps)?

I think this potentially strengthens the Youth competitions and give managers a chance to manage the loss of key Youth players at age 21 when their stocks for replacement are not ready (if that makes sense)

[JarlOlaf]

Just adding my 2p in support of this suggestion.

Love the suggestion; I have always wanted a way for the 21-25 year old's to be more active in the game. It will make the "development arch's" interesting too. Like others have said, I think the YT20 should be dropped completely for this competition. The new competition will feature many youths anyways. And, in this way the schedule will not change.

Nice to see some interesting changes getting brought up to our hallowed game. Hopefully First Class/Test will be added down the road as well

[epcguy]

Personally not against the idea however less Youth games means less experience unless we move Youth squad age and size across the board so Interantionals as well. Unless we could make space for a 5th round of matches (Wednesdays) to incorporate the idea as not many of current Youths would actually play in a U24 game as managers would target their teams towards that age group rather than having alot of 16/17 yr olds for 1 match a week in the future. I believe it will take the interest out of the game for those who target Youths in the long run.

[CapnSim]

I don't get what this is trying to achieve for the game rather than have a few early 20-somethings get a bit more play time. I'm pretty against this as presented (keeping it vague for discussion is one thing, but it's hard to discuss a proposal when there isn't one).

I don't see the point in removing YT20. It's the format I care the least about but having youth and senior teams play the same formats seems good.

I'm pro a youth cup in general, but I don't know why it would be T20 or instead of the MKMC, either add one (in parallel or preferably on the Saturday to give similar spacings as the MKMC does for seniors) or don't. Don't take away the MKMC.

The proposed timings are awkward. Seems like change for the sake of it and having senior T20 the day after the MKMC and close to the SOD stuff is rough. If you want all training on the same day, sure whatever.

I don't know why we'd want an U24 comp at all? Sure immediately post-youth they don't get to play much apart from cup rounds and rest/rotation from fatigue but is that really a problem? It affects everyone, and if we're in a game that mirrors real cricket, players that excel at international U19/U21 level tend to struggle to break into professional teams. Some comments about development arcs but the development is youth ->fringe senior->senior not youth->meaningless U25 games ->senior. Shouldn't it feel big when a good youth player starts to regularly show up in the senior side? Heck, if you want a comp to have them stay involved just add an additional cup (maybe with a group stage?) that is limited to U25s. I wouldn't remove or change the current setup.

If we keep upping the age that players can play in youth cricket, we won't have a youth system at all. The U24T20 will just be 23/24 year olds playing reducing exposure of 19/20 year olds. Then in a little while it'll be 'what about 26 year olds, none of them play senior cricket?' If you want to give these middle players who sometimes sit around needing something to do, does it need to replace YT20 or even be T20? Why not just have explicit age groups e.g. U18s and U24s which both play T20/OD cricket in the same slot (current youth slots). If people are just after more experience for their twentysomethings play them (this is a management game, do you want this 23 year old to gain experience whilst having a weaker team or do you want to maximise your results?). Having everyone in their early 20s get more experience keeps everything equivalent and feels like a change that achieves very little.

[GM-crowfan65]

For the record the MKMC is going nowhere, it will stay
The YTh cup as T20 as it is still a WC format and deserves some sort of competition


Yth exp will inc like it was when we didnt have YT20, exp was split between the 2 when it came about

We will be looking also at decreasing the effect on the tech gap and power gap
Faster trng early with a bigger slowdown
differeing talents etc

[ukrooster]

I would be opposed to any proposal that results in a reduction in the number of youth matches. For me, the youth competitions are one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game, and I would be very disappointed to see them reduced or removed.

I have no objection to the introduction of new competitions or formats, I am open to ideas that add something new to the game. However, I strongly believe that any additions should complement the existing youth structure rather than come at its expense.

By all means expand the game, but please don’t do so by reducing the area that brings me a lot of joy.

[casperj]

I agree with other posters. Leave the schedule and the YT20 as is, and if we want another competition for the young seniors / 21-23 year olds to be in, it should be the new cup competition. Only issue then is that these 21-23 year olds would likely already be getting their only playing time in the MKMC, so the new cup competition would either have to be placed to avoid being too close to the MKMC, or the two cup competitions be staggered through the season to minimise overlap.

[RevRob]

I largely agree with much that has already been said by several posters (especially Casper J).
I would be extremely reticent about any fundamental changes to the current fixture timetable. And I certainly would not be letting the MKMC go.
(Glad to hear you've already decided it isn't CrowFan!). So I wouldn't change the fixture format that is already in place. My question then is, is it possible and not too difficult to just slot in the extra U25 (or whatever age you decide on) tournament to take place on the Saturday?
Personally, the Saturday is the most 'empty' day of my FTP experience! If it could be filled with another tournament, that would be brilliant!
(And perhaps for those that exit the tournament in the early rounds, it would still free teams up fo enter friendly tournaments in the way we have at the moment).

Regarding the 'overlap' between a new tournament, (if it were held on a Saturday) and the MKMC, how about just moving the Monday double fitness updates to the day before - ie the Sunday / Saturday night's before the MKMC games??

[laup16]

i would be against a change to having a change to the youth system which reduces any games - i quite like having a youth developmental system to have new players coming through until 21. i have found the new system to be great and i have got some really good players from it compared to how it was previously. I have actively promoted new youth players who are good enough to the senior team rather than buying some in the last number of seasons.

Unless the idea is that this could be changed to a 'seconds' style league that would be introduced with no age limit that may be of interest but i am unsure how this would intersect with the squad limits

[Anthracite]

Make the changes as minimal as possible.
When current youth players graduate to seniors their ratings are usually well below senior players in the same squad.
Solution: keep everything else the same BUT make the age limit for youth squads 24.14 years. This will gave youth players a greater change of being competitive in senior matches when they are too old for youth matches.