EA Sports Cricket 2007 : My Impressions

Posted by Pallab on 30 November, 2006

130 Comments

This item was filled under [ Software ]

Ea Sports Cricket 07 is the latest avatar of the long running cricket game series. In the past Ea Sports has received a lot of flak for the poor quality of gameplay in their cricket games. Cricket 2005 was a complete disaster as far as gameplay was concerned. So, what most people were asking for is better gameplay. Like always EA made a bagfull of promises before release. So, did they deliver? Before answering that question I shall highlight the major changes/additions in this edition.

Whats New?

i) The first major new feature is Century Stick. Unfortunately I don’t have an analogue gamepad. So I wasn’t able to test it myself. According to Ea Sports those of you having an analogue controller will be able to play different shots by just pushing the stick in the desired direction. The power of strokes will depend on the amount of pressure you apply on the stick.

ii) Ea Sports have lost the licensing rights from ICC. Hence there is no Worldcup (however there is world championship) or Champions Trophy. They have retained the rights for England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Players from other countries have goofed up names, and they have no face resemblance.

iii) Another major new addition is the Ashes series. You can take part in the Ashes 06-07 Downunder or relive the 05 Ashes in England. You can also relive several situations from the previous Ashes series. These mini challenges put you in a given scenario with a given set of objectives eg. scoring a half century with Pietersen or getting a hundred run opening partnership. You are introduced to each scenario using real clippings. Once you complete the challenge you unlock the same video in the Theatre. (It would have made more sense if the videos unlocked were different.)

iv) Twenty20 Cricket has also been introduced. You can play Twenty20 Championship with either Australian or English domestic teams. Although in Twenty20 format 2 runs were awarded for a no ball, free hit was not awarded.

Here is a full list of various Tournaments you can play

International : World Championship ( i.e Worldcup) in West Indies,
World Series in Australia, Knockout Cup in region of your choice, Test series, ODI series
Australian Domestic Cricket : Pura Cup, State Season, One Day Domestic Series, KFC Twenty20 Big Bash
English Domestic Cricket : County Season, Liverpool Victoria County Championship, Natwest Pro40, C&G Trophy, Twenty20 Cup.

v) One of the longstanding complaints of gamers has been that the pace of the game is too slow. Ea has finally listened. Now you can change the game speed (slow, medium and fast). This time around there are 5 difficulty levels instead of 3. You can also choose the number of overs of field restriction for 50 over games. There is no Powerplay though.

vi) Semi automatic fielding system similar to BLIC.

vii) And finally, there is no Jim Maxwell this time around! He has been replaced by Mark Nicholas.

Those were the major new features/changes. Now, let me do a bit of nitpicking

Graphics and Presentation :

The overall presentation has definitely improved. The various navigation menus are similar to previous versions. EA Sports have added 10 rocking tracks to get you in the groove. The ingame tv overlay has been drastically improved and looks cool now. EA Sports have managed to pack in a fair amount of info in the HUD without making it appear cluttered. This time around you don’t need to switch to your mouse after every over and click on a stupid continue button. Now, you can also play with a behind the batsman camera if you want. This is a nice addition (making the wicket keeper and batsman translucent was smart), and it makes gameplay more challenging and fun.
As always there is fair amount of stats available, but there is no Hawk Eye.
Commentary is slightly improved. Mark Nicholas sounds much better than Jim Maxwell. Unfortunately Richie Benaud still puts you to sleep. The commentary starts to get repetitive after playing a couple of matches. And off course they still make stupid errors like calling a six a four or mixing up the off stump and leg stump (see the video). Due to licensing issues no name commentary is available for players from unlicensed countries. After every innings there is a Fall of Wickets package which is a welcome addition. The option to save replays is still missing.
Now coming to the graphics part. In one word its average. They are a bit more polished but still leaves much to be desired. Most of the players from licensed countries are recognizable. However, players from other teams have generic faces. For PC users there is hope - there is an active modding community for the game which should come up with faces for other players also soon. While fielding all the players wear sunglasses which is stupid. This also hides their facial features making them look somewhat generic. Like always crowds looks disgusting. The bowling actions havent been touched upon. Outfielders still throw the ball in a wierd manner. There are 36 stadiums and again they appear almost unchanged. I found the stadiums bit too small (especially the Australian stadiums when you consider their actual sizes). Eden Gardens is the only Indian stadium present in the game. And yes! like always there are the bugs!

Screenshots
(Click to enlarge)

Faces

TV overlay

Behind the wicket view

The ugly crowd

McGrath
McGrath bowling with a multi coloured ball.

Gameplay

Now coming to the most important part. The gameplay. I am stating it again; I don’t have an Analogue gamepad so I couldn’t check out the Century Stick. I have read a few reviews about Century Stick and they are quite varied. While some people didn’t find any major improvement others were very satisfied with it. I will give my thoughts based on the classic keyboard controls.

As I mentioned earlier, there are 5 difficulty levels. However, the
first 4 levels are a piece of cake. You can hit sixes on virtually every ball. Level 5 makes things a bit more challenging. You need to be precise with your timing. However, it’s much more balanced this time. The confidence meter has been tweaked to make things more balanced. You will also find it much tougher to time the ball with a tailender or a lesser batsman. But many of the old problems are still there. It’s very difficult to hit a boundary without using the six hit button. Most of my boundaries were actually mistimed six-hit shots that fell short of the ropes. The normal ground strokes don’t have any power at all. This severely hampers normal gameplay. One simple way to counter this would have been to add a separate four hit button that would have resulted in a powerful ground shot. The shots are pretty much the same; they have been just tweaked a bit. Against the spinners you can now reverse sweep.
I found that the AI is smart enough to alter field settings according to my stroke play. After I slogged a couple of sixes over mid-wicket it moved a fielder from cover to midwicket. However, when it comes to bowling or batting AI disappoints. Sometimes even after getting smashed around the part the bowler keeps bowling at the same place. The AI bats according to a set pattern. It attacks in during field restrictions and then slows down. On one occasion even though it needed more than 15 rpo the AI went defensive once the field restrictions were lifted.
Bowling and fielding has been improved. Now you can fix the ball marker using a separate key. Although this is a small change, it made bowlling much less painfull. Basic bowling controls are similar. Slower bowl, bouncers, yorkers etc are special deliveries which are not always available. This is a bit unrealistic. A bowler should be able to bowl any kind of ball when he wants to - with his accuracy depending on his confidence and abilities. The seam movement is quite realistic but the swing movement is way too much. I got the ball to swing wildly on a hot sunny day in Kolkata! But overall it’s still an improvement. Brett Lee feels a lot faster than Glen McGrath. The bounce and spin are realistic. Another good addition is the ability to change field settings on the fly at the press of a button.
Overall playing the game is a lot more fun than before.

EA Sports Cricket 07 : Gameplay Video (Batting)

[ Please note that the video was recorded after applying the Planet
Cricket Correct Names Roster v1]

The final verdict

EA Sports Cricket 07 is definitely a significant improvement. It’s the best cricket game till date. However, it’s still flawed in many respects. Ea Sports 07 is all that Cricket 04 should have been able to achieve. EA has taken 2 extra titles and 3 more years than they should have. If you can wait, it may make sense to wait for a few more months and check out BLIC 07 before buying the game. BLIC will include multiplayer mode, which should make things more interesting and fun. But if you are a diehard cricket game fan you will probably want to get it anyway.

NOTE : Please dont request for cd-keys or download links for the full version of Cricket 2007. Such details would not be provided here.

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130 Comments

At 2007.07.03 04:30, Faisal said:

well i bought dats CD yesterday and had a match with kenya as trial……

almost all your comments are true and ia gree with you specially when u hit six, ball take a bounce in crowd and go out of the ground thats quite wired………..

controls are bit tough and not piece of cake i like that……..

overall da best crick game till date as mentioned by you….

Thanks for your words….

Fsl from Islamabad

[Reply]
At 2007.07.06 11:33, sagar said:

how do i save a game when i am on tour and retrieve it when i goback?

[Reply]
At 2007.07.08 17:31, JAVED SHEIKH said:

DEAR,

PLEASE GIVE ME PROPER INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO DOWNLOAD THIS GAME AND I APPRECIATE THIS GAMING COMPANY FOR SPLENDOUR GAME THEY MADE.

REGARDS,
JAVED SHEIKH

[Reply]
At 2007.07.08 17:37, Pallab said:

Sagar I am unable to provide the instructions as I dont have the game currently installed. You can try the planetcricket forums.

Javed : I am sorry. I wont provide instructions for downloading the full game as that is illegal.

[Reply]
At 2007.07.16 11:52, arshad said:

my best game

[Reply]
At 2007.07.23 19:24, jehan said:

i need this game.

[Reply]
At 2007.08.13 06:11, anindya said:

how can i downlod this game

[Reply]
At 2007.08.13 08:39, Ahmed said:

Actually, this is not a comment, but a request. Will someone kindly give me the official website address for cricket 2007. I’m afraid I don’t have the manual, and hence I have very little clue as to how the controls work: how you can hit the ball, how you ball, what the meters stand for, etc. (i.e. I’m clueless).Please reply soon.
Thanks everyone.

[Reply]
At 2007.08.15 18:22, abhisek said:

hi there i want to download all the songs/tracks on the game cricket 2007. please give me a link to download all the tracks.

[Reply]
At 2007.08.20 16:12, Isnaad said:

Please improve the game in the year 2008.

[Reply]
At 2007.08.23 09:49, Pallab said:

Click here to visit the official website

[Reply]
At 2007.09.11 10:42, Aditya said:

The computer can hit shots like on drive, sweep, late cut, pull shot, hit the ball through extra covers but when I try with the arrow keys pressing S it goes on straight, between cover and point and only the leg glance and by pressing D the ball goes to long on, mid wicket and between point and third man. Please tell how can I hit shots like the computer.

[Reply]
At 2007.09.19 09:33, Siddharth said:

i want this Cricket Correct Names Roster v1
which is specifies in U tube cricket vid…

[Reply]
At 2007.09.21 10:36, Kapil Soni said:

I have problems in saving games. Can anybody tell me the solution

[Reply]
At 2007.09.22 12:27, shubhrayu dey said:

i have got all the fixes for this game asians have proper names and faces windies are also included.

there is full detail and i have got the patch for tougher gameplay

[Reply]
At 2007.09.25 08:17, Vince said:

Hello!

I’m German and got to know Cricket just about one week ago. I purchased EA Cricket 2007 in India and I have played it for three days.
In your blog you told that it is easy to hit sixers with the six hit button. I read about this button earlier on the net but I don’t know which button this is. Do you talk about the adavanced shot button?
Please tell me how to hit a six.
Thanks.
Vince

[Reply]
At 2007.09.29 13:18, jyothisjose said:

Actually, this is not a comment, but a request. Will someone kindly give me the official website address for cricket 2007. I�m afraid I don�t have the manual, and hence I have very little clue as to how the controls work: how you can hit the ball, how you ball, what the meters stand for, etc. (i.e. I�m clueless).Please reply soon.
Thanks everyone.

[Reply]
At 2007.10.07 10:53, Arun said:

I just bought the game recently and installed it .but when i try to execute it,a window is displayed then the whole screen blacks out and comes back to the desktop again. please give me some advice over this issue

[Reply]
At 2007.10.07 13:04, DemonHunter said:

I only played my last PC cricket game several years back. To be honest … im finding Cric2007 very addictive but the repetitive comments, umpire faces, crowd, the ball’s defying the laws of physics, the fielding actions and reaction times … just hilarious. But i know soon i wont like it anymore .. coz upto 4 stars its way too easy my runrate remains 36.00 per over … but in 5 stars its way too hard :p

[Reply]
At 2007.10.07 19:18, shk atif said:

Actually, this is not a comment, but a request practice was must be in ground and i like this game so much

[Reply]
At 2007.10.07 19:26, shk atif said:

cheat codes dosen,t work then what did i do plz tell me as soon as posible thanks

[Reply]
At 2007.10.14 17:07, Sandeep P said:

Hi

Guys !!!!

I already installed this game cricket 2007 of ea-sports i wanna aks u that do have any idea how to upgrade or anyupdates for this exiting game so that i can get some new features

[Reply]
At 2007.10.17 10:55, Anurag said:

hi everyone… i need a littel help with my ea sports cricket 2007.. i installed the game properly..but when i run the game it doe,nt play peoperly.. the background music plays but the screen grapics are not there.. intead the whole screen is filled with missing texture all over it…
and the match just doe,nt start…
what could be the reason behind this???
please send suggestions at amazinganurag@gmail.com
thanks and regards
Anurag

[Reply]
At 2007.10.28 09:32, Hamzashah said:

From where can i download ea cricket 2007 audio commantary files ? mail me hamzashah2006@yahoo.co.uk

[Reply]
At 2007.11.02 04:10, wasim abbas said:

i want to download this game cricket 2007.

[Reply]
At 2007.11.03 08:18, venkitesh said:

Its wonderful& FABULOUS game I have ever played

[Reply]
At 2007.11.11 18:06, naveenkumar said:

i don’t have audio files in my ea sports game so plezzz tell me how can i get back the commentry while playing? plezz mail me how can i get those audio files.
ok bye mail me soon.

[Reply]
At 2007.11.12 05:05, Sharvil said:

How can I download the game free from the net?

[Reply]
At 2007.11.21 10:25, Muhammad Imran said:

Dear How I can get the real faces for players in circ07 and name. Is it possible. If so, than please give me link or show the way.

[Reply]
At 2007.11.21 10:27, Muhammad Imran said:

don�t have audio files in my ea sports game so plezzz tell me how can i get back the commentry while playing? plezz mail me how can i get those audio files.
ok bye mail me soon.

[Reply]
At 2007.11.23 10:12, Syed Abdul Samad said:

how i am free downlode

[Reply]
At 2007.11.23 10:15, Syed Abdul Samad said:

how i am downlode free game cricket 2007.

[Reply]
- At 2008.07.05 18:20, vishal said:
  
  EAsport cricket
  
  [Reply]
At 2007.11.23 10:16, Syed Abdul Samad said:

how i am downlode free cricket game 2007

[Reply]
At 2007.11.23 10:17, Syed Abdul Samad said:

how i am downlode fre cricket 2007.

[Reply]
At 2007.11.24 15:24, NISHRANTH said:

cheats dont work in cricket 2007 why

[Reply]
At 2007.11.24 20:17, ASIF said:

GOOD EFFECTS BUT NOT LIKE FIFA EDITIONS PROBLY U HAVE SOME PROBLEM WITH ASIANS

[Reply]
At 2007.11.27 02:01, jasbir said:

pl tell me how and where to load this game free.
thanks

[Reply]
At 2007.11.29 10:03, viki said:

pl tel me the cd code for installation…….tanks

[Reply]
At 2007.12.10 07:58, trinadha rao said:

hi,
i would like to download this game,
please give me download link,
thanks a ton

[Reply]
At 2007.12.12 00:38, raja said:

i want to down load cricket 2007 give me the link

[Reply]
At 2007.12.12 02:05, raja said:

download this game

[Reply]
At 2007.12.13 10:44, DEEP SINGH GILL said:

How Can I download Cricket Ea Sports 2007 for Free

[Reply]
- At 2008.08.15 18:01, uma said:
  
  download cricket
  
  [Reply]
At 2007.12.15 15:41, uday said:

how to play cricket online?

[Reply]
At 2007.12.22 11:31, A. Mattison said:

Hey everyone! What’s the code for installing cricket 2007?

[Reply]
- At 2008.09.16 17:29, vishal said:
  
  hi
  plz download this game
  my bestgame
  pizzzzz
  
  [Reply]
At 2007.12.31 14:27, yuvananda said:

hi friends!the gameplay was good but commentry was too boooooring!!!.
One day i hit for a four but umpire shown it as six and six runs was added to my total

[Reply]
At 2008.01.02 20:25, mudasir said:

plz help me 1 have this game but not avelabil comentry plzz tel me how to gett this plzzzz any brother help me plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Reply]
At 2008.01.03 05:28, Pallab said:

mudasir are you using a pirated game? If so get the original version.

[Reply]
At 2008.01.06 02:37, NIshranth said:

How to play a hook shot in cricket 2007 ea pc

[Reply]
At 2008.03.05 17:40, Ameya said:

how do i play pro co-op in this game.
i have made my own player and i only want to play wid him,not for the rest of the team.i saw a headline which moves over the menu thati can i play pro coop but thr is no such option.

[Reply]
At 2008.03.12 02:11, kawal said:

i want to download free 2007 cricket game.give me way of downloading

[Reply]
At 2008.03.20 17:15, kay said:

It’s a “six and four” game. Even 280 can be chased in a 20 over game. Too easy even after patching it up.

[Reply]
At 2008.03.24 05:32, kumar said:

hi friends

i please help me I want to install cric 07.

[Reply]
At 2008.03.29 12:28, vivek said:

Good game but i cant put cheat codes because there is no option for changing controllers so while pressing s it will select my cricket Cheat eg :(asif) and in fielding ball will bounce in air suddenly and faces should be improved and sometimes while playing a test series the game will close suddenly without any reason and will show desktop

[Reply]
At 2008.04.06 15:18, vikash said:

how can use multiplayer options on EA sports cricket 07

my e-mail add- kaushik_2003492001@yahoo.com

[Reply]
At 2008.04.09 11:27, svasanthreddy said:

I found your blog via Google while searching for natural your post regarding orts Cricket 2007 : My Impressions looks very interesting to me. I was impressed by your site and offerings. I was looking at some of the Games downloads how can i downloads the cricket 2007

[Reply]
At 2008.04.17 10:44, asfar said:

please send cricket 07 cheat codes to my id

[Reply]
At 2008.04.17 15:34, manju said:

i need this game.

[Reply]
At 2008.04.18 19:49, HACKER said:

once u CREATE A PLAYER and then QUIT the game,
the player created is not saved.
also any names changed is not saved.

dats a big problem.

[Reply]
At 2008.04.19 17:46, sunand said:

i want to download this game

[Reply]
At 2008.04.21 05:28, mangesh said:

i have to download this game

[Reply]
At 2008.05.26 06:51, Akash Jain said:

We can get back the names of players whose names are not properly mentioned by going in the squad management and then edit team,then rename player.But how to get there commentary back meaning will the commentators now speak there name.Can anyone help me out in this??

OTHERWISE THE GAME IS EXCELLENT

[Reply]
At 2008.06.06 17:12, aju said:

please tell me how can i download the game i like CRICKET 2007 very much.my email albela

[Reply]
At 2008.06.08 16:57, Nirmal said:

how can i unlock the ashes videos? please help me.

[Reply]
- At 2008.06.08 17:07, Pallab said:
  
  You win to win the various ashes challanges/scenarious to unlock them. Anyway the unlocked videos are same as the video you are shown at the beginning of the challenge.
  
  [Reply]
At 2008.06.14 07:03, Shashank said:

Hi Pallab - Nice to see you analysis .. Please suggest any way of using the game on Vista .. Think the compatibility of 07 is only limited to XP edition

[Reply]
At 2008.06.20 09:42, Nirmal said:

what are the challenges to unlock ashes videos?

[Reply]
- At 2008.06.20 19:43, Pallab said:
  
  You have to relive certain situations from the famous 05 Ashes in England. You can find it in the Ashes section.
  
  [Reply]
At 2008.06.20 12:18, Nirmal said:

how can i take a wicket in ashes?

[Reply]
At 2008.06.20 19:34, bharath said:

Hi everyone, you can download cricket 07 full game at but before that you need a software called utorrent but don’t worry you can download it at utorrent.com. Cricket 09 will be released at november 2008 and BLIC will be released on 23 rd march 2009

[Reply]
At 2008.06.27 15:18, RAMESH.M said:

how can i download the free EA sports cricket game 2007.
please send the link. please replay me…

[Reply]
- At 2008.06.27 17:49, Pallab said:
  
  Hi, unfortunately EA Sports Cricket 07 doesnt have any free demo. You would need to buy the full version.
  
  [Reply]
At 2008.07.02 08:18, gurmukh basra said:

i want to download this game but how

[Reply]
At 2008.07.04 16:10, xxx said:

Not bad better than cricket2002

[Reply]
At 2008.07.07 17:13, abhishek said:

i want to download this game for free
but how

[Reply]
At 2008.07.22 20:35, Rajeev said:

please tell me how to download EA sports cricket-2007

[Reply]
At 2008.07.24 11:30, Noddy said:

GO to MY cricket option at main menu and then click on load/save option.then load ur game.

[Reply]
At 2008.07.24 12:59, Vishal said:

Hey guys I am trying to load EA Sport’s Cricket 2007 but i just get a black screen. Can u please help me in changing some settings please. I have Windows Vista Home Premium, all latest graphic drivers, AMD processor, 2GB RAM

[Reply]
At 2008.07.27 19:09, mohit dudhani said:

where can i download this game

[Reply]
At 2008.08.05 17:37, Mahmud said:

Dear Pallab bhai,

If you kindly send me the controls in EA Sports cricket 2007, I will remain ever greatful to you. Just controls for batting.

I can play quite a few shots but not too many, so it gets boring.

If you reply, reply through my email.

Thnaks, Mahmud

[Reply]
- At 2008.08.08 15:15, Pallab said:
  
  You can always use the email notification system to be notified of any reply.
  Anyway, use shift key to hit a powershot (lofted shot).
  Use combinations (w+d on backfoot=pull and on frontfoot=sweep) and so on. Keep experimenting. You would get the hang of it. The game isnt very hard.
  
  [Reply]
At 2008.08.06 11:40, BakaNames said:

Honestly, ALL people in India use pirated software, as if matters if it’s illegal or not. Even ISPs know if they crackdown on piracy, they will go out of business

Here it is. Hope you’re familiar with Torrents.

[Reply]
At 2008.08.18 09:03, chandu said:

i want to download this game free

[Reply]
At 2008.08.24 15:07, ricky said:

hi
plz can i download this game free. plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Reply]
At 2008.09.11 18:45, jash thakkar said:

it is so funny

[Reply]
At 2008.09.16 17:24, madan said:

my best game

[Reply]
At 2008.09.19 09:21, sandeep said:

it is funny game

[Reply]
At 2008.09.20 09:44, Barath said:

How to use Multiplayer options in EA cricket 07 ? I could see that we can use multiplayer options but I couldnt see the option for the same. Please help……

[Reply]
- At 2008.09.28 11:36, Pallab said:
  
  You cant play it over the lan etc.
  But if you have a keyboard and a gamepad plugged in simultaneously then you can play it with your friend.
  
  [Reply]
At 2008.09.20 12:22, Sohom Pramanick said:

There you will get IPL patch and Asia Cup Patch. You can even download the game.

[Reply]
At 2008.09.21 11:24, THEJUS said:

IT IS THE CRICKET GAME WHICH I PLAYED. I’VE A LOT OF REASONS TO SAY,
1. THE PACE OF EACH BOWLERS(FAST, FAST MED,MED, SPIN) ARE DIFFERENT
2. THE PLAYING MODE IS SIMILAR TO PLAY REAL ONE
3. BY MAKING BOWLING MARKER OFF ,ONE CAN PLAY REAL BATTING BY
REALLY WATCHING BALL CLOSELY
4 MORE OVER WE CAN EXPERIMENT IN IT ,AND FIND NEW TRICKS TO OUT A BATSMEN OUT IN DIFFERENT STYLES ANY TIME

BUT IT HAS MANY COMMENTARY, DISPLAY ERRORS,COMPUTER ONLY SETUPS( ESPECIALLY STUMPING FOR MED FAST BOWLERS, LATE CUTS THAT DON’T SNICK EVEN IN GREENY PITCH ETC)

[Reply]
- At 2008.10.07 19:15, Pallab said:
  
  For getting a bit more realistic gameplay experience use the gameplay patches available from http://www.planetcricket.net
  
  [Reply]
At 2008.09.30 14:20, aditya said:

need this game

[Reply]
At 2008.09.30 14:27, rahul said:

thank u where much

[Reply]
At 2008.10.02 15:14, chetan said:

how to hit a six guys?

[Reply]
- At 2008.10.07 19:14, Pallab said:
  
  Press the powershot button in addition to the shot selection buttons. It is shift key for keyboard.
  
  [Reply]
At 2008.10.08 17:09, N.V.SAMANTH said:

IAM UNABLE TO DOWNLOAD THIS GAME.

[Reply]
- At 2008.10.08 17:35, Pallab said:
  
  You need to purcase the game.
  
  [Reply]