Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1926 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Codemasters Limited
• Released on: 2005-07-21
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1

TotalGames
"Batting and bowling are both intuitive and subtle. Comfortably the best cricket game on PS2. 4/5"

Manufacturer's Description
The ball's hurtling towards you at 95mph, hit it for six and you're a hero, miss it and you're history... In Brian Lara International Cricket your every move is captured and analysed using innovative television presentation techniques.
A key innovation is the exclusive incorporation of Hawk-Eye, the cutting-edge sports tracking and analysis graphics system, as used by Channel 4 and Sky Sports in their televised cricket coverage. Brian Lara International Cricket will be the first video game to make use of Hawk-Eye, incorporated into the game under license from its creators, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd.

Hawk-Eye uses sophisticated image technologies to aggregate, replay, and analyse ball and player movement to improve LBW decisions and compare bowlers' speed, swing, line and length.
Hawk-Eye monitors and analyses your bowling accuracy throughout an over, showing the path of each delivery, where it pitches, and, most controversially, is used to see whether the umpire's LBW decision was the right call.
Additionally Brian Lara International Cricket makes use of the Third Umpire decision aid. This comes into play when a line decision for run outs are too close to call by the umpire alone.
From the most modern technologies of Hawk-Eye, Brian Lara International Cricket takes players back in time to compete in Classic Matches from history, played out in black-and-white newsreel-style presentation.
The Classic Matches mode has you joining in a genuine historic match - such as the Test Match of 1882, which led to the creation of the Ashes - at a critical point. Can you pull off the same amazing cricketing feats as the greatest cricketers from times past, or even improve on their performance?
Back in the modern-day, the televisual presentation extends to a 'picture-in-picture' display. When you've timed the ball to perfection and sent it flying across the outfield, the main screen shows the fielders chasing after the ball, while the inset picture-in-picture shows the batsmen belting between the wickets, racking up the runs.
There are also glorious action replays of boundaries being hit, batting milestones being reached, aggression between batsman and bowler, wickets falling, even the stump-cam blacking out when ball hits the stumps! And it wouldn't be cricket without the ubiquitous animated ducks waddling on-screen when players have been dismissed without scoring.
And for the ultimate in TV presentation, Brian Lara International Cricket brings together the voices of cricket, including David Gower, Tony Greig, Jonathan Agnew, Ian Bishop, and Bill Lawry, to form the biggest commentary team ever featured in any cricket game.

Customer Reviews

patience is the key
you have got to have patience, skill and to actually like the sport before buying the game. rated the best cricket game in history..... yes, i can agree to that to an extent i think the new film cars is rubish

Bowling is a joke - for fun and kids only.
This game could and should have been so much better.

Good points.
Easy to pick up with half a brain, arcade style cricket action.
Two player much better than pretty awfull one player.
Batting is reasonably good.

Bad Points.
THE BOWLING. Unfortunatley whoever designed the game took no relevance to how cricket is actually played and what would normally be a good or bad ball. Bowl a good length ball with any type of bowler and be prepared to be hit for a boundary. Bowl constantly on or around yorker length (which you can acheive with no skill from any bowler) and you will get wickets or dot balls almost every ball.
Dont bother with slips, no matter how you bowl you will get maybe one slip catch per 50 wickets.
The confidnece levels for the bowler goes up and down for very little reason and has very little effect anyway.
Run outs. You can only throw at the wicket keepers end ?? Makes it a bit silly at times.

Overall.
Fun fro kids up to the age of 12 but beyond that no challenge. Try to vary you bowling and you will lose so games become tedious.

Buy it cheap but if you are a proper cricket fan, wait for a cricket game far more in line with the quality of other sports games such as PES or Madden . THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT.

Very good-but some irritations
This game is pretty good most of the time. I do not know hoe good it is in multiplayer as noone is willing to play me. This is about the single player.
Against a team like Bangladesh or not the best batsmen the bowling is quite fun,seeing and deceiving the batsmen with swing and spin etc. (This does not include the dreadful tailenders who hardly hit it, and have no technique whatsoever.) It gets boring when a good batsman comes in, think 75+ out of 100, and it becomes a chore. They can easily time it, even Akhtar, at 100mph, and seam and swing do not concern them too much, and unless you csn get these guys out early, it is hard. The bowlers also alternate between 90 and 50. The batsmen CPU also take no risks, there are no run outs and then a random 6 will be hit, although you can stop this by bowling in a certain way. The ball that works is an inswinger. Anything trying to tempt the batsmen is a 6 over 3rd man (realistic!)The hawkeye feature is good, but it appears at random, and does not show you what you want to see. If there is an lbw, then it comes up, and if there is an unsuccessful appeal, it says why it is wrong. It will be irritating when you finally break Dravid's defence, hitting the pads, only for it to say Hit outside the line of off stump while playing a shot, when it could not have done. The spinners are fairly ineffectual, as they spin it too far, meaning that it gets whipped through leg or 6 over 3rd man, and it bounces too high. There is no advance down wicket option, so no stumpings. Also there are no edges off defence shots (square button), so it is safe, but this is another way. There is a confidence system, if a bowler does not give away any runs off a delivery, it goes up, if he concedes runs, it goes down. If it reaches the top a 'special ball' option is opened up, yorker and bouncer for a pace bowler, but these go at 50/60mph tops. If a batsman successfully defends or gets a good amount of runs then his goes up, get hit or miss it goes down. Leaving the ball also lowers it. The higher this is the easier to time the ball is. The batting is simplified compared to EA's Cricket, with no choice for front foot, back foot or advance down wicket. However it is a lot more intuitive, and this makes it more fun, although perhaps too easy. For example on test the other day I scored 104 not out off 30 balls against england, who have the fastest fast bowlers. It is hard, as really high pace to face is hard as are really swingy balls, so Harmison and Hoggard (he bowls at 60)is a tough combo. If you start and think an easy 1 star team such as USA would be a good choice:no. They bowl yorkers at your feet, slowly, and it is quite hard to play. It is easier to use the nets.
The fielding is a mini game in itself nut it is limited. You can only throw at the wickie's end, at his gloves, nnot at the stumps. This could have been much more interesting and challenging. It is also too easy.
Once you have changed the names (there are files on the internet which say who they are), the create a team is very interesting, to make aparticularly good team, or find a good leg spinner and sla combo. The create a player option i interesting if you have a lot of time, but it is hardly worth it. There are also cups with licensed players and challenges to relive classic matches, or challlenge the best team in the world.
Although these are some negatives, they are easy to see past, and it takes a lot of playing for some things to really concern. I also think thta if you put your mind to it for a while it is too easy.