How to make tournament fixtures
Fixtures are the one document every captain reads. Here's how to draw them up so they're fair, fit your grounds, and don't change after you've sent them.
Want them made for you? The free fixture maker does every step below from a list of team names. Read on for how it works — and for the decisions only you can make.
Count teams and match slots
Start from what your grounds can host. A 10-over match takes about 90 minutes with the innings break and the changeover, so one ground with daylight from 8am to 6pm fits five, maybe six matches. Multiply by grounds and days and you have your budget of match slots. Then see which format fits it:
| Teams | League | Knockout | Groups + knockout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 15 | 5 | 9 |
| 8 | 28 | 7 | 15 |
| 12 | 66 | 11 | 19 |
| 16 | 120 | 15 | 31 |
A league is n×(n−1)/2 matches; a knockout is always n−1, because every match knocks out exactly one team. The groups column assumes the top two of each group go through: 6 teams as two groups of 3, 8 as two groups of 4, 12 as four groups of 3, 16 as four groups of 4.
Choose a format
- League — the fairest: everyone plays everyone. Best up to about 6 teams, or when the tournament runs over several weekends.
- Knockout — the quickest. Fits a single day, but half the teams go home after one match.
- Groups then knockout — the best default for 8 or more teams. Every team gets a few matches, and you still finish with semi-finals and a final.
Seed or draw the teams
Seeding means ranking teams so the strongest don't meet early — use last year's results if you have them. A draw means a random order, which is the only fair choice when nobody knows who's strong. Either is fine; changing your mind after the fixtures are out is not. Write the order down first, then make the fixtures from it.
Make a league: the circle method
Number the teams. Pin team 1 in place and arrange the others in a circle; each round, pair teams across the circle, then rotate everyone except team 1 by one place. After n−1 rounds every team has played every other exactly once. Six teams take five rounds:
| Round | Matches |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 v 2 · 3 v 6 · 4 v 5 |
| 2 | 1 v 6 · 2 v 5 · 3 v 4 |
| 3 | 1 v 5 · 6 v 4 · 2 v 3 |
| 4 | 1 v 4 · 5 v 3 · 6 v 2 |
| 5 | 1 v 3 · 4 v 2 · 5 v 6 |
With an odd number of teams, add a pretend team called “rest”. Whoever is drawn against it sits that round out, and every team rests exactly once.
Make a knockout: seeds and byes
A knockout pairs up evenly only with 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 teams. Seed 1 plays the lowest seed, seed 2 the second-lowest, and so on. With any other number, round up to the next power of two; the gap is the number of byes, and they go to the top seeds, who skip round 1. Ten teams round up to 16, so the top six seeds get byes and the other four teams play two matches in round 1. The two winners join the six seeds in an eight-team round 2, and from there it's a normal bracket.
Groups then knockout
Deal teams into groups in turn — team 1 to Group A, team 2 to Group B, and back round — so the top seeds land in different groups. Each group plays a mini league. Then the knockout: with the top two from each group going through, each group winner plays the runner-up of another group, which keeps teams from the same group apart until the later rounds. Choose groups and qualifiers so the knockout has 2, 4, 8 or 16 teams, or it will need byes of its own.
Turn fixtures into a schedule
Fixtures say who plays whom; the schedule says where and when. Number every match, give each one a ground and a start time, and check three things: no team plays two matches in a row, every team gets roughly the same rest, and the knockout — especially the final — is on the last day, late enough for a crowd. Leave one spare slot a day for a late start or rain.
Share one list
Send the numbered list to every captain at the same time, in one message, and pin it in the group. Every change after that is ten phone calls and one team that didn't get the message, so get it right first. If you run the tournament on SportsScorer, the fixtures are made for you from the teams you approve, and everyone follows them — with live scores and the points table — on one public link. Create a free tournament. The rest of the job — rosters, scorers, the points table — is in how to organize a cricket tournament.