Arthur Crabtree wrote:Anyway, I picked my all time Aussie squad from experience and impressions and reputation. I thought Chappell was a better batter than Ricky and he doesn't get in. Warner wouldn't be in and I picked him on home stats.
I havent modded versions of this game for a long time, but in previous installments player quality is boiled down to a single figure assigned to each player in the database. So if you think a batsman's generic ability is rated somewhere between 0-100, 0-20 is a bad player, 20-40 is a low level county squad player, 40-60 is a decent county pro, 60-80 is international class, 80-100 is world beating class. Its very uncommon to have every single player assigned a specific value inside that matrix, as no player wants the same results every time they start a new game, randomness makes the game evolve as an experience, so players quality fluctuates. In my experience, you will find maybe the 10 top current players, and players historically who are all-time world XI candidates will be set to always be the same quality, as people dont want their current heros to end up randomly terrible.
After that, most players will be given a randomly generated figure when the game is initiated; that figure can either be totally random, which is usually the case for younger unheard of players (so you get different youth players emerging to change your game), or falls within one of the generic player levels. Someone like Ravi Ashwin would be programmed to have a skill level assigned somewhere between 80-100, so hes always going to be a very good player, he could either turn into the best spinner ever if assigned a score at random closer to 100, or merely a top 10 bowler of his time. Travis Head might be assigned for a random value between 60-80, so he's always going to score runs in county cricket, but as an international he might be rated at 60 and be a rotation international, or 80 and be a very solid test career player. So you get randomness, but it also adds a minimum and maximum threshold.
In the end, the more famous the player, the more likely the value is expressed and not random, the more chance that player is going to be hard coded to be brilliant. The less well known, the more chance its random or the developers held back on making them a legend.
I'd be tempted as Australia manager to even put people like Mark Waugh in, a well loved famous player who's appreciation with fans elevates him over his stats. Ricky Ponting will almost certainly be far better than most of your available batters. Id imagine a huge bias to more recent players, as gamers tend to be younger.
Voges will almost certainly be nowhere near as good as others.