International Test Cricket 1.33

Allows you to play cricket from your desktop

International Test Cricket is a stats-based cricket sim in which you must use your cricketing knowledge to mastermind victory in five-day competitions.

There's plenty of strategy involved in International Test Cricket. Once you've picked your desired starting eleven from your squad, you need to decide the way you want them to play as the game plays out. This means tweaking batting and bowling aggression, deciding if you need to protect a certain play from strike, choosing when to go with the new ball, and more.

If you're just looking for graphically-rich cricket game action you should probably steer clear of International Test Cricket. The game is entirely based around figures and the crude user interface doesn't even have so much as a pair of animated stick cricketers running between pixel stumps.

Actions in International Test Cricket are performed using menu buttons, sliders or shortcut keys. You click the mouse to proceed through the overs, and icons will appear on the screen after each one to explain what happens on every ball. Text commentary appears at key moments in the game (wicket, score milestone, dropped catch, etc.)

International Test Cricket has been programmed with the latest international squads and averages (these need to be updated through a download), meaning that players and teams perform realistically.

International Test Cricket will appeal to hardcore cricket buffs, but its lack of action or visual elements means it's a bit of a turn-off for many.