Cricket (video game series)

Screenshot of Cricket 96

Cricket 96 is a cricket game for the MS-DOS PCs that was released in 1995. The sequel to Super International Cricket on the SNES, it was developed by Beam Software and published by EA Sports. It was released as Ian Botham's International Cricket 96 in Europe.

Despite featuring improved graphics, like its predecessors the game continued to forgo official team and player licensing, although many of the in-game players had recognizable real-life counterparts.

Cricket 97
Developer(s)	Beam Software
Publisher(s)	EA Sports
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows
Release	EU: 1997 NA: 1997
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Cricket 97 is a cricket game for PCs that was released in 1997. The sequel to Cricket 96, it was developed by Beam Software and published by EA Sports. It was the final cricket game in the series to be developed by Melbourne House.

Compared to the previous game, the improvement in graphics continued with three-dimensional stadiums (though players remained rendered as sprites). Cricketing legends Ritchie Benaud and Ian Botham for the first time provided commentary and also featured in full motion video interludes. The game did not feature real player names as with previous games in the series (with real Australian and English sides appearing for the first time in the game's successor, Ashes Tour Edition).

A re-release of the game entitled the Ashes Tour Edition featured the English and Australian tour squads for the 1997 Ashes series.

Following the Ashes Tour Edition, an update disc was released to include the New Zealand Cricket Team. This disc included official players, portraits and statistics from the New Zealand side at the time. This was intended to make Cricket 97 the most realistic cricket game on the market at the time.

Another re-release of Cricket 97 followed later with the release of Cricket Ashes Tour, with updated stats and players from the 1998/99 Ashes tour.

This game was released only for the PC.

Cricket 2002 is a 2002 video game based on the sport of cricket by EA Sports. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows.

Cricket 2004
Developer(s)	HB Studios
Publisher(s)	EA Sports
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2
Release	EU: 12 March 2004
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Cricket 2004 is a 2004 video game based on the sport of cricket by EA Sports. The game was designed by HB Studios, known for their EA Rugby Series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows.

Cricket 2004 features all of the international teams that played in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, all of the domestic teams of Australia and England.

The player can create their own players for Cricket 2004 and choose which team they play for. An Autoplay feature allows the player to skip 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 or 100 (4 and 5 day games only) overs, until a wicket falls, or to the end of the innings.

The graphics were awarded "Worst PlayStation 2 graphics" by IGN.[1]

Cricket 2005
Developer(s)	EA Canada HB Studios
Publisher(s)	EA Sports
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Release	EU: 1 July 2005 AU: 12 July 2005
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Cricket 2005 is a video game based on the sport of cricket. Developed by EA Canada and HB Studios and released by EA Sports, it was released in July 2005 on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Windows.

The game was released in three different region-based covers. Adam Gilchrist appeared on the Australian cover, Daniel Vettori on the New Zealand cover and Andrew Flintoff on the English cover. It was the last game to have all real player names.