Cricket Games
I Don’t Like Cricket… I Love It
You’ll probably find that you enjoy cricket video games, even if you don’t really care about the sport of cricket itself. There’s something about the game of cricket that just feels crisp and summery, and the combination of action and strategy make for a sports game that has something for everyone.
The Game of Cricket
While it may not be much on your radar if you’re from the States or Europe, cricket is a huge game internationally, with legions of passionate, fanatical fans across the world. India is famous for its love of the gentlemanly sport, but it is just as well-loved from Australia to Pakistan and from Trinidad to South Africa. It’s no surprise then that cricket is well-represented in the world of video games.
Cricket in Video Games
The mid-eighties saw cricket arrive in the world of video games with a bang. In 1983, you couldn’t buy a cricket video game to play at home. By the following year there were at least three to choose from, available on early home computers like the Acorn Electron, BBC Micro and Commodore 64.
Cricket Games With Real Cricketers
The following year saw the release of Graham Gooch’s Test Cricket, the first game to use a big-name professional cricket player as the face of the game. It featured an arcade mode that let you play quick, batting-focused games, as well as a deeper simulation mode, where you decided the big-picture strategy for your team. You could say that the simulation mode was an early version of modern, sports manager games.
Cricket Games Everywhere
By the mid-nineties, there were cricket games on every gaming platform. Programmers were taking advantage of the steadily increasing power of home computers to deliver cricket computer games with better graphics and more complex simulation of the sport.
1994’s Brian Lara Cricket, featuring West Indies batting superstar Brian Lara, was a great example of the sophistication you could find in cricket games of the time. The game was packed with features that improved the playing experience and added to the depth of the virtual sport;
- A pseudo 3D environment including detailed stadia and rendered crowds
- Smooth animations for the sprite-based graphics
- Digitized sound effects for a more immersive, compelling game of cricket
- The choice of one-day game or test match format
- The ability to play as or against most of the major cricketing countries
- A range of real-life, named players to add to your team or play against
- Multiplayer play supporting up to four players on a single machine
- A choice of bowling styles, including spin, fast-bowl and swing bowling
- The ability to choose between manual and automatic fielding
It was a very popular game and was ported from the PC to the Sega Mega Drive and Commodore Amiga, as well as later versions of home PC platforms.
Super Cricket
Nintendo didn’t miss out on the popularity of the cricket sports game genre either. Their first foray into the genre was 1992’s International Cricket, but its release was limited to Australia and it suffered from weak AI which you could easily beat.
The follow-up cricket title, Super International Cricket, was released for the SNES two years later and was a vastly better game. It blended pick-up-and-play arcade fun with brilliant commentary to great effect.
Cricket Games, but Snappier
As cricket changed to fully embrace shorter formats, cricket games changed too. This innovation was typified by Big Bash Boom, which was based on the revised “Twenty20” cricket rules and focused on hitting the ball as far as possible, as often as possible. Its fast pace made it popular with players who didn't know all of the rules or who wanted a more casual cricket video game. It also featured women’s cricket, as well as including every player and team in the league for its year of release, all properly licensed and with their real name!
Cricket Games on GamePix
Whether you’re looking to win the World Cup, take home The Ashes or just hit some of the world’s fastest bowlers for six, our range of cricket games has something for you. If you’re a longtime cricket fan who prefers test matches, or a one-day fan who just wants to hit the ball out of the park, you’ll love recreating your favorite games.
Many of these games also allow you to practice before you head to the field, so you can work on your hitting and improve your fielding. In our cricket games, you can pick the number of overs that suits you, so you can enjoy a quick hit in a couple of minutes or play a game that lasts for hours. All of our cricket games are free, so there’s no need to download or install anything ever. Our free online cricket games run from any browser and on any device, so you can have lots of fun wherever you are.
FAQs
Are cricket games free?
Every game in the extensive range of cricket video games we have here on GamePix certainly is! Like all of our online games, our browser cricket games won’t cost you a dime. Even better, they can all be played straight from your web browser, with no download or installation necessary and no updates ever.
How long do cricket games last?
The actual sport of cricket, in its traditional form, is famously long in duration, with a single match taking as much as five whole days! Our free online cricket games aren’t as much of a commitment. You can play them for as long or as short as you want to.
Can cricket games last days?
While test matches can indeed last most of a week, the free online cricket browser games we have here on GamePix are usually much, much shorter! Our cricket games work straight from any web-ready device with no need to download anything, so you can start and finish a game in a few minutes. Of course, like all our games, they’re totally free, so you could play for as long as you like—even for days if you wanted to!
