England Re-issue set 2 Fli-La

'I.C.' PLAYER CARDS NOW AVAILABLE IN 'OWZAT GAMES FORMAT

Some users of 'International Cricket' have asked about the possibility of producing all the Player Cards prior to Set 144, in the much-favoured 'Owzat format. The task of re-typing something over 2,000 Cards is not undertaken lightly but out of the blue we had a volunteer, Dave Quinton, and with the huge task almost completed it's time to go public.

We debated loud and long with Dave about how to produce the Sets, it wasn't possible merely to re-issue the Sets as originally produced as that would have meant expecting people to buy out-of-date Cards as many, of course, have been up-dated over the years. We did consider era or decades, but that was also ruled out as many careers spanned two decades, and 'The Bradman Era', 'The Chappell Brothers Era' were also non-starters as the Cards are of course career Cards for those who have retired and we did not want to produce more than one Card per player. So in the end we settled on publishing by country, in alpha order. That, of course, is not ideal, especially if you are only interested in a particular period of cricketing history, but in the end it seemed the best compromise and it does mean of course that that provided your wallet is fat enough you can purchase each country separately to build up into the final and complete collection, thereafter the only need is to buy the annual up-date sets for Current Players.

What we have done is taken the opportunity to check all the Cards for a stack of things, RH or LH, Captaincy Grades, (OB), (OB?), bowling type, Stamina to match the bowling type, correct spelling and initials, etc., etc. and have also added Bowling Cards for those who bowled in Test matches but not on a regualr basis. All will be on the 'Owzat Games-style heavy cardstock and in all the 'Owzat Games coloured glory. The complete collection will include all Cards ever issued (including Sets 144 et seq) except for the specialist 'Bodyline!' and tour Extension Sets, and the 'Quest for the Ashes' series.

We realise that these Sets represent a substantial investment by users of 'I.C.' who may feel they already own all the Player Cards they need. Fine, the new Cards add nothing to the game (except for the minor alterations mentioned above) and we don't expect to sell the complete collection to everyone. Elsewhere on this page will be published the details of the new Sets (which will be called England 1, Australia 1, etc.) in due course, but we do take this opportunity of saying a big 'Thank You' to Dave Quinton for pushing though this project. This is not something we would have normally undertaken, but some users have been clamouring for it and here it is - well, it very soon will be !

Terry Goodchild