Games

20 major cricket games ranked from Diamond Duck to Smashing Centurion

A go-to T20 slugfest of the top-ranked entry from duds that should’ve been dropped to world-class innings.

Written by Nathan Lawrence

5 min readPublished on 18.02.2019 · 06:51 UTC

With the recent international series and World Cup on the horizon, cricket is very much at talking point pitch right now, and what better way to continue that conversation than by looking at the history of the sport in digital form.

There are a six-tonne of cricket games that have been released since the dawn of videogaming. The quality is as hit or miss as a number 8 batsmen...

We're sticking to the core games, so you won’t find the likes of bashtastic Stick Cricket, any of the International Cricket Captain titles (the Football Manager of cricket games) or Cricket Revolution. For everything else, slap on your pads and get ready for this eclectic barrage of bouncers, bodyline balls and on-target yorkers.

20. Ashes Cricket 2013

A real stinker that’s not even worthy of bottom-of-the-barrel ‘associate nation’ status. Ashes Cricket 2013 is more infamous in cricket games than TapeGate. It was so out of form, it was removed from sale after just four days. Ouch.

19. Graham Gooch’s Test Cricket

As bare bolts as it gets, this was the first cricket game to land in 1985. Like going for a nets session, there was some fun to be had in arcade mode. But simulation mode was like watching a form of cricket that was blockier than Cheteshwar Pujara.

18. Graham Gooch’s All Star Cricket

Like George Bailey’s quirky southpaw batting stance, there were only minor improvements between Graham Gooch’s Test Cricket and this follow-up. Action replays and a shinier Shane-Warne-circa-Liz-Hurley-era upgraded look were the only things that set it apart from the 1985 first innings.

17. Ricky Ponting 2007 Pressure Play

A watered-down version of Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2007, the biggest stat highlight of this average performer was mobile play. Regardless, as a PSP exclusive it was middling: and we don’t mean metaphorically in terms of middling the ball for towering sixes. The main sixes it scored were in reviews.

16. International Cricket

Ironically named, International Cricket was only released in Australia. This was a simplistic NES-era offering. In terms of batting, like Chris Lynn, there were two speeds: hit the ball, or smash it. As for the bowling, well, players could rival the Black Caps for cricket’s unenviable Razzies equivalent of lowest innings total because of the terrible AI.

15. Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2007

This was a World Cup cash-grab that looked oddly familiar to Ricky Ponting Cricket (aka Brian Lara International Cricket 2005) that had bounced onto the pitch two years prior. The best bit? Online play. Still, the all-important out-on-the-pitch stuff felt light-on.

The ANZ name for Brian Lara International Cricket 2005, the Aussie legends name on the box makes more sense given it released to coincide with the 2005 Ashes series...

11. International Cricket 2010

Sequel to Ashes Cricket 2009, International Cricket 2010 was the equivalent of Afghanistan’s entry to the list of associate nations in IRL cricket: okay, with occasional flashes of brilliance. Online play was great on paper but ultimately broken. The bugs were almost as bad as the terrible commentary, but like keeping a match on in a busy workplace, there was fun to be had on mute.

10. Don Bradman Cricket 17

The Marsh brothers (pick your preferred whipping boy) of cricket comebacks. Don Bradman Cricket 17 attempted to tweak the near-flawless batting of its predecessor but only succeeded in tweaking a hammy. Bowling was better. But a bunch of other stuff felt like a backwards step onto Big Ant’s own wicket.

9. Allan Border Cricket

Like Brad Hogg, the Gooch-endorsed series sat dormant for a while, but it was always coming back. This time as Allan Border Cricket (in Australia) and a stack of other global versions and updates. Ultimately, this mostly reliable version of videogame cricket would go on to coach mimicking legends like Shane Warne ’97.

Good old AB, still a champion
© Allan Border

8. Ashes Cricket 2009

A decent cricket title for last-gen consoles, the flaws would eventually be highlighted by superior usurper Don Bradman Cricket 14. It ultimately scratched the cricket itch for a time, but is most memorable for the iconic dulcet tones of the late, great Tony Greig.

7. Cricket ’97

Like Bash Brother Baz McCullum in Big Bash 8, the EA Cricket series was all over the place in terms of quality innings. Cricket ’96 was effectively Super International Cricket rehashed, but Cricket ’97 holds a special place because of the FMV commentary from B-bros Benaud and Botham.

6. Big Bash Boom

The latest addition to the cricket videogame team but, unfortunately, not the greatest. There’s fun to be had in belting hundreds of runs off minimal overs. But familiar bad Big Ant habits are back on the pitch. Dodgy commentary. Unfair dismissals. And a kit bag full of bugs.

5. Cricket 2005

Critics dumped on it harder than Steve Smith’s fall from grace, but EA Cricket 2005 had the form where it mattered: out on the pitch. Down Under, it made even most sense: with Adam best-damn-keeper-batsman-of-all-time Gilchrist on the cover, the all-important belting potential was out of the park.

4. Don Bradman Cricket 14

It wasn’t middling everything out of the gate, but by the time the new-gen version hit the pitch in 2015, it’d had nets sessions that made it the best cricket sim, to date. The fielding was worse than pre-2018 Pakistan, but the rest was a tight, box-protected package.

3. Ashes Cricket

The Big Ant one. Definitely not to be confused with the Ashes Cricket 2013 tailender or the middle-order Ashes Cricket 2009 it bumped. Ashes Cricket fixed the selector sins of Don Bradman Cricket 17 and elevated the Big Ant cricket sims beyond the solid foundational Don Bradman Cricket 14.

2. Shane Warne Cricket ’99

This was the best damn cricket game since the 16-bit glory days. Known as Brian Lara Cricket ’99 for the non-ANZ cricketing world, Shane Warne Cricket ’99 had 99 reasons to love it, and the quality of the pitch was definitely one. Mo-capped players. Performance tracking. On-point commentary. And a host of modes.

1. Super International Cricket

The cricketing legend whose name will be forever mentioned in cricket videogame commentary. Super International Cricket was the T20 of cricket before the format even officially existed. Pick-up-and-play arcade fun spliced with unlimited ‘Howzats?!’ elevate this to god-tier status.

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