Cricket, eh? It's a game of two innings. Or sometimes four. Or none if it's raining. Ah - it's always strangely comforting ti start a review with an old cliche or two.

Anyway, World Cricket is a Football Manager-style game with a slightly different perspective. By far the most noticeable difference is that, unlike most footy manager games, there isn't actually any football - just cricket. I mean, it would be pretty stupid calling it World Cricket if it was a football management game, wouldn't it? The second, and slightly less patronising, discrepancy lies in how the game is actually played. There's no need to fart around arranging matches, buying players and all that malarkey (there are no options to do so), leaving you (once teams and game lengths have been chosen) to get straight into the first match.

Tragically though, there's little to actually get into. Firstly you browse over your team's fundamentals, and then set the batting and bowling orders. Once the match has commenced, it's all a tedious matter of pressing fire, watching a scoreboard and re-adjusting the batsman/bowler when necessary. And that's all that you can do - the game takes place almost by itself, with you contributing very little to the proceedings. Just as in the real game, you feel as if you want to get up and do something rather than, metaphorically speaking, sitting on the side making daisy chains all the time. The main problem is that, although its well presented and easy to get into, it's about this much annoying (extends arms far apart), and only this much fun (brings hand close together) to play.

To be perfectly honest, it's a bit naff.