After a gut-wrenching 40 overs that pulled me one way and then the other, took me to the brink of victory and launched a match-deciding six back over my head at the last hurdle I realised something: Wicket Cricket Manager is a thoroughly realistic game.
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.
The game, which is available for free now in the App Store and Google Play Store, starts as I take over a fictional team in one of nine available countries. I pick the UK, and in honour of the Kia Oval and London’s thriving bushy-tailed population, christen my team the Surrey Foxes.
I am given full control over the club from player training schedules and ticket prices to field settings and bowling orders, as the Foxes start in lowly Division Five and aim to make it to cricket’s Champions League.
Our first game, against the Glasgow Racoons, does not go well. My talismanic number five makes 87 (42), but he’s offered little support as we limp to 160 in our 20 overs.
The Raccoons chase it down comfortably and my lack of bowling resources becomes alarmingly apparent, so I head to the market to bolster my squad.
Bringing in new talent is a pleasingly tricky business, with the top players uninterested in joining my lowly fifth tier side. Using the budget allocated at the start of the game and some ticket sales from the chastening Raccoons loss, I bring in four middling new players in the hope of an improved result.
The following game is much closer and features some impressively realistic passages. I get off to something of a flyer but as my batters get bogged down in the middle overs, they hit out under pressure and a collapse follows.
I’m left relying on the tail to get me close to a respectable score, and we post 148. It seems below par, but there is hope thanks to my new-look bowling attack.
With attacking fields from the start, the Foxes take regular wickets but leak runs and are left defending eight off the final over. I’ve bowled out my expensive new recruits in search of wickets and am forced to turn to Joshua Dixon, a seamer who has gone the distance in both games so far.
His first ball is crunched for six and the game is wrapped up two balls later, a loss that left me reflecting on how I’d used key bowlers too early, set overly aggressive fields and not done enough with the bat.
It struck me at this point that I’d had the exact same set of thoughts after every loss as a third XI village captain, and that this game does an excellent job of reflecting cricket’s tactical struggles.
Wicket Cricket Manager gives you unparalleled control over your team and provides realistic gameplay where every decision you make has clear consequences on the pitch.
Download Wicket Cricket Manager on the App Store
Download Wicket Cricket Manager on the Google Play Store
Find out more about Wicket Cricket Manager’s creator Manish Burman
