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Cricket is a difficult game to put onto a micro and this simulation has some very interesting features to it. You play a 60 over match against either the computer or another player, although fatigue and lack of concentration ends most games long before then.

You can choose your own teams or be supplied with World and England elevens containing six bowlers, four batsmen and a wicketkeeper. Each has a batting or bowling skill, although these have little effect in a two player game.

If you are bowling, you choose one of your six bowlers who can be fast, medium or slow. He appears with his back towards you at the base of the screen and runs up to the crease. You control his speed with the joystick, along with the direction and pitch of the ball as you release. You also control the spin and swing of slow and medium pacers.

The batsman has more to control and uses the second joystick for determining the angle and height of the bat and also the batsman's position on the wicket.

Once the batsman has played his shot, an overhead view of the field is given, showing the eleven stickman fielders.

The player controls any of the eleven fielders if bowling, or the runners when batting. At this stage you can be caught if the ball is between one and eight feet high when fielded, or run out if the ball is returned while you are out of your ground.

Other features allow you to move fielders around between balls and select village, country, or test match skill levels.

Cricket is a slow game and so is this. Even if you love cricket, you could well be disappointed: flickery, crude graphics, no sound and user unfriendliness contribute to make a bad game worse.

This is a fine attempt at cricket on a micro and in a two player game will demand plenty of skill and hectic activity. Playing against the computer is less of a challenge, once you have sorted out the cheat methods, but it gives you a chance to knock up some ridiculous scores. The graphic flicker of the bowler as he runs makes him look like he has a crab in his cricket box. As with all sport simulations, if you like the real thing you'll probably enjoy the computer game.

Tim may well love cricket, but I find it a very dull sport and the thought of playing the game on a computer struck me as even more depressing. The general presentation of the game wasn't bad and I did enjoy batting and bowling. The coarse flickery sprites and spindly fielders were crude and I feel that more could be done with a cricket simulation.

When playing against the computer, there are one or two quirks which allow you to produce some very unlikely scores.

Firstly, if you concentrate on hitting balls in one half of the field, you can draw fielders out of position so that they gradually can be distributed in the other half of the field, leaving a clear area to hit into.

There is also a bug whereby very infrequently two fielders get stuck going for the same ball and you can pile up an infinite number of runs. The only way out of this is to load the game again.

When bowling against the computer, if you always pitch the ball short and fast you will rapidly bowl out the opposition - as long as your aim is good. This, of course, is an accurate simulation of England's batting against the West Indies.

Presentation 65%
Reasonable number of options.

Originality 57%

Graphics 42%
They're either flickery or crude.

Hookability 34%
Won't convert non cricketers.

Sound 4%
One thud and one boooop.

Lastability 68%
Cricket lovers could get plenty of hours' play.

Value For Money 58%
Higher if you really like the sport.