Wisden's reflections on BLIC and c2k5

[barmyarmy]

An interesting article in the new edition of Wisden

Call me a coward, but there are beads of perspiration dampening my brow as Shane Warne steps up to bowl. I should be feeling confident. I survived 12 overs from Lee and McGrath, but it will require every ounce of skill and timing to fend off Warne's mix of spinners, zooters and straight ones. First ball, he has me fishing outside off stump; next I'm bamboozled by his flipper. Third ball, however, I get everything right and slog him over long-on for six. What a feeling!

Sadly, this isn't real life, as my batting has always been more Kevin the Teenager than Kevin Pietersen. This is a computer game named Brian Lara International Cricket 2005. It's a long way from Wicketz and Crickard. It's a long way too from Table Top Cricket, where you bowled on a synthetic mat with a metal ball, batted using a pulley system, and placed magnetic fielders to guard the boundary. It's even light years ahead of dot cricket - the most primitive form of computer cricket - which we played using the random number generator on a calculator.

But in those heady weeks of August 2005 when England's players were captivating the country, Lara was captivating the computer-games market. On August 23 it was top of the UK game charts, and its rival EA Cricket 2005 was at No. 5. Among the titles eclipsed by Lara were the spin-off from the hit cartoon Madagascar, not to mention Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Destroy All Humans!

copyright Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2006

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