Game on! Richard Edwards digs out his joystick to test the best cricket computer games

Under the current circumstances, many people will be dusting off some of these gems...

1. Howzat!

It may have predated the Xbox by almost 30 years but Howzat! remains a classic of the genre. If you had the patience to wait while it loaded onto your ZX Spectrum in the mid-1980s, courtesy of a tape machine plugged into the back of your computer, you were in for a technological treat. Okay, so the graphics weren’t up to much but you could pick your own team, meaning anyone could be Viv Richards, Ian Botham or Kapil Dev for an afternoon.

2. Don Bradman Cricket

What The Don would have made of it we’ll never know, but the 2014-released game was soon hailed as a game-changer and named by Lazygamer as the “best cricket game” of its generation. It’s easy to see why. With the option of creating your own player and following him through a 20-year career, as well as a multi-play online option to enable you to play against anyone else in the world, Bradman still clearly has the ability to inspire the young.

^Howzat!

3. Brian Lara International Cricket

Released in line with the Caribbean’s first World Cup – it was named Ricky Ponting Cricket in Australia and Yuvraj Singh Cricket in India – this is one of the most innovative cricket games. Quality graphics still stand the test of time almost a decade on, the 2007 version of Brian Lara Cricket offered greater game play than its 2005 equivalent, giving the batsman the ability to hit the ball almost wherever he wanted.

4. Ashes Cricket 2009

Unlike its lampooned and laughably bad 2013 equivalent, Ashes Cricket 2009 – like the series itself – was big on excitement, offering Hawk-Eye replays to virtual umpires, more bowling options than you could shake a stick at, and an unrivalled array of potential shots for wannabe Kevin Pietersens. It also monitored your players’ mental state during the heat of an Ashes Test – prescient given what happened four years later in the Ashes down under.

^{A classic}

5. Npower Test Series Cricket

Not the most attractive of games but mightily effective, it had everything a cricket gamer could ask for. Easy to play on a desktop and with a batsman looking uncannily like an animated version of Tony Greig, the game offered run-hungry gamers the opportunity to build a score against bowlers with more varieties than Heinz. Like a genuine innings, it was tough going at the start but got easier the more you played.

6. EA Cricket 07

EA’s initial forays into the cricket were nowhere near as successful as their blockbusting football efforts, but that all changed with a game that has raised the bar for cricket simulators ever since. Offering the option of four-day first-class matches, one-day clashes and Tests, and with commentary from Richie Benaud and Mark Nicholas. Like towering sixes from the bat of Andrew Flintoff, whose face adorned the game’s cover, it was a huge hit.

This article was originally published in the February 2017 issue of The Cricketer