I’ve good news for those who’ve been following our friend Dave Black’s series on International Cricket Captain – you know, the one that tracks the lows and even lowers of Durham’s fictional 1999 season.
Last week Childish Things and Kiss released a new, improved, all bells-and-whistles version of the game. It’s the excuse you’ve been looking for to board yourself up in your study for months and forget that the outside world exists.
Oh, and you know that wife or girlfriend you’ve currently got? Well she won’t be hanging around for long after you’ve bought this game. It’s so addictive you won’t have time for anything else. In fact, you probably won’t even notice that she’s packed her bags and left.
Cricket Captain 2017 is the latest iteration in what has become a very successful series. You don’t actually play the game (i.e. bowl or hit the ball yourself using a controller) it’s essentially a strategy and management simulator in which you become Trevor Bayliss, Paul Farbrace, Joe Root, James Whitaker, and Andrew Strauss rolled into one.
Basically, it’s your job to negotiate contracts, pick squads, select a final XI, choose tactics, shuffle the batting order, set fields and make bowling changes as games develop. It’s basically Ray Illingworth’s dream job.
If you’ve played the old Championship Manager and Football Manager games, this is basically the cricket equivalent. You can control pretty much any professional team in the world – there are 130 domestic teams from eight countries plus the ten major international teams to choose from.
Bored with winning the Ashes, or taking Yorkshire to county championship after county championship? No problem. You can seek opportunities overseas instead. The Bank of Pakistan and Tribal Areas are sleeping giants just waiting for a tactical genius like you to transform their fortunes.
Used the play Cricket captain 2000 as a kid. Will probably buy this one later.
Definitely gonna get this one!