With over 2.5 billion fans worldwide, Cricket is a global sensation, trailing only soccer in popularity. The IPL (India Premier League) alone is valued at $11 billion, and matches between long rivals India and Pakistan regularly break viewership records. However, when fans turn to video games to recreate the sport’s magic, they’re met with glitchy animations, laughable commentary, and a sense of disappointment.
Cricket 24, the latest entry in the genre, has been called “unfinished,” “repetitive,” and “a missed opportunity.” How did we get here? Why does gaming’s treatment of cricket feel stuck in the Stone Age while franchises like EA FC and NBA 2K thrive, in terms of playerbase and fanfare? Let’s dive in and explore why cricket games can’t seem to live up to the hype.
A Timeline Of Cricket Games
The Golden Era – When Brian Lara And EA Cricket Ruled The Pitch
While recent cricket games feel like they are developed by someone who has never touched a ball, it wasn’t always like this. In fact, in the genre of cricket, the older the game, the better. In the 90s and early 2000s, cricket games were simple, polished, and most importantly, fun.
Titles like Brian Lara Cricket and EA Cricket ‘07 perfectly nailed the cricket vibe. The controls were intuitive, fielding was responsive, and the developers seemed passionate about the project. These games perfectly encapsulated the love of the sport, and the gameplay showed that. Back in the day, Cricket 07 was a game that was impossible to put down. To this day, it has an active modding community that keeps updating the game with current teams and rosters.
So, why do the fans prefer a game that was developed more than a decade ago to a game that came out last year? Well, it’s not because of nostalgia, it’s because ever since EA left the genre, no studio has been able to provide the same thing. And yes, that is a jab at Big Ant.
The Dark Age – How Big Ant Studios Dropped The Ball
After EA left the Cricket world, Big Ant joined the party, and they seemed passionate, at least at first. With the release of Don Bradman Cricket in 2014, it seemed like the cricket genre was in good hands. While the game had some flaws — like a lack of official licenses and clunky animations — it was still fun to play. The project was ambitious, with great ball physics, a deep career mode, and engaging gameplay.
That said, in the early days, fans were more forgiving of the glitches because the games were still a step forward in the right direction. However, fast forward to Cricket 22, and the community was left frustrated. Even after nearly a decade, Big Ant refused to fix their game. While Cricket 22 was supposed to be a next-gen leap, it featured the same bugs and glitches that first surfaced years ago in Don Bradman. And this is where Big Ant started to lose its goodwill.
Now – Cricket 24
After the warning punch that was Cricket 22, Cricket 24 is a direct slap in the face. A game that was supposed to be a revolution, turned out to be the biggest nightmare in the world of cricket games. Big Ant basically just published the same game with a new name and called it a day. And somehow, it has even more glitches and bugs than the last one.
The gameplay is repetitive, the graphics are abysmal, and the AI’s idea of ‘strategy’ is balling 10 consecutive bouncers. Cricket 24 is a prime example of how not to evolve a franchise. Ever since its release, the reception has been heavily critical and the sales have gone downhill.
So, in the generation where games like EA FC, Madden, and NBA 2K are at the top in terms of sales, where is cricket going wrong?
Why Cricket Games Fail
Popularity
While cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world, most of that viewership comes from South Asia. With over 1.2 billion fans in India alone, cricket is followed religiously in Asia. On the flip side, countries like the USA, UK, and Canada don’t feel the same way about the sport. And this is where all the major game studios are located.
So, with the major part of the West out of the equation, the only country with an interest in cricket and a large enough game studio is Australia with Big Ant. And sadly, Big Ant is not doing a good enough job. Consequently, fans are subjected to subpar games like Cricket 24. Unless cricket starts attracting more people in the West, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a new cricket game developed by EA or 2K.
Licensing Gaps
One of the main reasons why cricket games fall short is the licensing gaps within the sport. Unlike FIFA’s centralized FIFPRO license, cricket’s licenses are a fractured mess. Different leagues like the IPL, Big Bash, and the Hundred negotiate deals separately, making the entire process complicated. The result? Virat Kohli becomes “V. Striker”
This is one of the major turn-offs in cricket games. It’s like playing EA FC, but Lionel Messi is renamed “Left Foot Guy”. Sometimes, even entire teams are renamed, and it all feels childish. When you’re paying $60 for a game, you expect a certain level of quality. And when the players are named Joe Rutt and Steven Smythe, it’s just laughable.
Low Budgets
We talked about how Cricket’s popularity is restricted to a certain part of the globe. Well, when the popularity is restricted, so are the budgets. While EA FC games are developed with a budget of over $100 million, cricket games receive 1/10th of that. So, Big Ant becomes an indie developer compared to giants like EA who dominate the world of sports gaming.
These tiny budgets become the reason for the game being absurd. While low budgets don’t necessarily equal a bad game, they’re a huge factor. Cricket is a complex game that has a ton of intricacies. And, when the studios are limited to a $5 – $10 million budget, it’s hard to achieve the same level of gameplay and graphics as the more prominent competitors in the space.
Cricket Is Complex (And Video Games Hate Complexity)
Cricket’s rules are a nightmare to simulate. Whereas soccer has goals, Cricket has powerplays, LBWs, and a million types of dismissals. On top of that, nailing ball physics (swing, seam, and spin) is brutally hard. If that’s not enough, then add a hundred different types of shots you can play, and it becomes a nightmare for developers. While all this can be solved with the right resources, Big Ant just doesn’t have them.
On top of that, it’s also a tough game to learn. Games like Cricket 24 have a steep learning curve; you can’t just pick them up and start having fun. Firstly, you have to familiarize yourself with different shot types, different bowling mechanics, and all the rules. Secondly, you have to incorporate all the glitches into your playstyle because they won’t just disappear. All of this makes Cricket 24 an unpopular choice when it comes to parties and couch play. Personally, I’d rather play 5 matches of EA FC 25 than waste 30 minutes teaching my friends how to play Cricket 24.
Cricket 24’s Greatest Hits: Bugs, 2D Crowds, And Toddler-Like AI
While the previous section explains, in theory, why cricket games fail, Cricket 24 actually shows you how to fail. If you take every single point from the previous section and cram it into one glitchy mess, you get Cricket 24. This isn’t just a bad game; it’s a case study on how to anger 2.5 billion people, and we’re here to explain why.
Glitches: The Game’s Unofficial ‘Feature’
Glitches in Cricket 24 aren’t just buggy; they’re unhinged. The only thing consistent about this game is how consistently it crashes. Cricket 24 is at a point where the glitches are so bad, they’re good. From the batter phasing between the stumps, to the wicketkeeper teleporting, it’s all just laughable.
I once had an instant where I made 42 runs off a single ball because the ball glitched, and the fielders couldn’t pick it up. This is just one example. Fans all around the world have reported hundreds of glitches that Big Ant refuses to address and fix. Unfortunately, Cricket 24 offers more glitches than gameplay, and it’s honestly funny.
Commentary
This is one of my main complaints with Cricket 24. It feels like the commentators are trapped in a time loop and will keep repeating the same five lines. Additionally, the commentary will misfire almost every time. As a result, the statements will either be out of sync or downright ridiculous.
For example, you might ball a wide delivery, but the commentators will go, “What a delivery!”. The worst part about this is that commentary isn’t even hard to fix. Yet, players have to suffer through it.
PS3 Graphics In 2024
Released in the generation of next-gen consoles and high-end graphic cards, Cricket 24 looks like a PS3 game, and this is not an exaggeration. The graphics feel like they’re stuck in 2010 and can’t seem to escape. Hair textures are bad, half the players look like wax figures, and the crowds are 2D cutouts.
This wouldn’t be an issue if this was Cricket 07, but graphics this bad in 2024 are a no-go. Granted, Big Ant doesn’t have the same budget as EA. However, they can still do better than the hair of Pat Cummins looking like a Lego helmet.
AI Strategy: Spam Bouncers, Forget Fielding
If you’ve played Cricket 22, then you’ve already played Cricket 24. Again, not an exaggeration as this game is an exact copy-paste of the previous one. It’s like they changed the title screen and called it a day. Cricket 24 features the same gameplay, career mode, and mechanics as Cricket 22. However, the game’s AI has somehow evolved backward.
The AI’s cricket strategies are on par with a toddler swinging a plastic bat. Fielders will stand over a ball and not pick it up, dive over simple singles, and drop easy catches. Plus, the bowlers are on another level. The AI’s bowling strategy is to spam a 90-mph bouncer for five straight deliveries and then bowl a yorker. This happens 90% of the time and gets super repetitive. Overall, nothing new has been added to the game, and it’s just redundant.
How To Fix Cricket Video Games?
While Cricket 24 is a huge letdown in a long series of letdowns, the genre of cricket still has massive potential. With billions of fans around the globe, cricket is just one good game away from becoming the next FIFA (before it lost its soul). The question is, how? Well, here’s a to-do list for the developers.
- Fix the obvious glitches: The glitches and bugs make the recent cricket games unplayable, even for the die-hard fans. Moving forward, studios should focus on making a game that doesn’t piss people off.
- Fix the licensing nightmares: The ICC must step in. Bundle global licenses (IPL, international teams, players) under one deal, like FIFA’s FIFPro agreement. No more “V. Striker” nonsense — give us the real Kohli, Babar, and Stokes.
- Ditch hyper-realism; prioritize fun: Studios need to realize that fans don’t care about the nuances of LBWs, they care about fun. Instead of focusing on making the game hyper-real, they should focus more on the gameplay – add chaos modes and multiplayer features like EA FC’s Ultimate team to bring more replayability.
- Mobile first, console second: With Cricket’s market being more concentrated in South Asia, developers should put more focus on mobile gaming. India has more than 500 million mobile gamers. Tapping into that market with a free-to-play mobile game with IPL licenses and good gameplay could provide competition to games like FIFA Mobile.
Can Cricket Video Games Ever Compete With EA FC Or NBA 2K?
For most of the fans around the globe, cricket isn’t just a sport — it’s religion, drama, and national pride. So, cricket games should mirror that passion. Until studios invest in licenses, budgets, and creativity, fans will keep replaying Cricket 07… and praying for a miracle.
As one fan tweeted:
“Cricket games don’t need a revolution. They just need someone to care.”
Published: Feb 4, 2025 10:43 am