Interest in International cricket

[boscorp]

A recent topic was about how much interest in National sides there is in FTP. I don't expect much of a response as the site isn't that active but I am interested in other managers perspectives.
There is currently 38 National managers and a further 81 assistants currently involved. Thats 119 managers from a pool of about 1150 managers. Approx 10%
Then there is the managers who train the players selected in National squads and have them in their club squads, they may or may not support a country but they likely have an extra interest in their selected players development and performance. Each National squad of 30 has a decent turnover of players during a season and I wouldn't have a clue how many extra managers that involves but I do believe there is a decent number of managers who aspire to have a player in a National squad.
I think the numbers are healthy with room to grow and that there is a growing interest in comparison to 10 seasons ago.
What are your thoughts? Please keep the comments respectful. How much interest is there and how much should there be?

[Basto111]

I probably wouldn't play the game without international cricket, I have much more interest in trying to create players for a small nation and making them better.

Being an international manager I always ask people about players training and work with them to try and get the best player for them, 99% respond respectfully and if they say they arent interested then thats fine. I have sent over 100 mails this season and only had 2 responses of people who are not interested. that is 98 against 2 so from that small sample size, I would say people are interested. If I get any rude responses then I just reply with tongue in cheek comments haha.

Running a national team takes some time and commitment which is probably the issue with getting people involved. FTP in my view would be a lot worse off without the international team scene. Although I would say it needs a shake up, and I have to admit, I do beleive the compensation for selected players should be hire.

[GA-James018]

Speaking primarily as a user here, not as an admin.

I can pipe up here as someone who isn't really involved in the international game. (I have helped out before because I was asked to and had the spare time, but it's never been my thing.)

To me it's nothing to do with rules, structures or anything preventing me from getting into it. I just don't want to. The attraction of FTP for me is being able to manage my own side, develop my own players, make decisions about my own squad and so on. The whole concept of managing or contributing to an international side just doesn't really interest me - it's not why I signed up to play the game.

There are people (Basto, for example) who are the opposite - it's the international game they're interested in and they wouldn't play the game if it was just club management. That's fine - that's great, in fact, for the health of FTP that different people have different reasons to enjoy it. I feel like the majority of users probably are like me, though, in that their club takes priority and internationals are just something that happens off to the side that they're not very interested in. FTP, after all, is advertised and marketed as a game where you manage your own club. That's what people come into the game wanting and expecting.

If there's anything that would raise the profile of international cricket in FTP, I'd say, it might be making it explicitly a part of the game's marketing. The front page already says, "National teams, with human management - will your youth recruit be good enough to make the International level?" Maybe that could be changed or something else could be added along the lines of "will you win the election and lead your nation to World Cup glory?" That might get the idea of international management as a goal/aspiration into the minds of starting users rather than just relying on word of mouth.

But meanwhile, I think we also have to accept that out of everyone who plays FTP, a percentage of the community will just not be interested in the national side - and that's fine.