I first played Allan Border Cricket in 1998 when I was introduced into video games. This was the best cricket game of its time before the introduction of games like Cricket 97’, and has many other aliases such as brain Lara cricket.
Allan Border cricket has many variations of game-play from a standard one day international to a 5 day test match. The game has all the test playing nations of its time (excluding Bangladesh), as well as those teams in the Australia National Leagues such as the Australian cricket shield and the Sheffield shield sides, while a host of other teams from England, New Zealand and the West Indies.
The playing options are standard from playing against a friend, to Computer AI on three different Difficulty levels ranging from Amateur to World Class.
Once we get down to the pitch after the regulatory coin tosses, you can control all aspects of the game from the bowling side of the game, to the batting side of the game and even field placing which have customizations, incase your getting battered all over the park and need more boundary fielders. The controls on a PC are the directional buttons which allow a variety of shots to be played, including the pull, square and front foot drive, while also having the optional "Six-Hit' button. On the Bowling side you have a variety of bowlers from
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the Right-Hand Fast bowling of Curtly Ambrose to the Sly Leg Spin of Shane Warne. The game also gives the options of varying the speed, swing and spins of the respective bowling types, and even has the correct options of which hand various bowlers and batsman are within the game i.e. Brian Lara is left handed.
Unfortunately for some of the younger cricket enthusiasts the players may be too old, but not to despair, all the various edit options are available from players’ names to their statistics. Also for those of you whose wish to create 'newer' teams your in luck as the number of new teams which can be made is unlimited.
Its fair to say that even with all the graphically better games available today such as Cricket 2005 and Ricky Ponting cricket, that Allan Border cricket is a must have game for any cricket enthusiast whether the age of sixteen or sixty.
