International Cricket Captain III

Ah yes, cricket. The knock of leather on willow, the clack of falling wickets, the ripple of sun-baked applause, and the tumbling commentary of codgers. International Cricket Captain III has none of these in any meaningful sense. However, as far as the expansive world of cricket management goes, it has just about everything else.

Like this year's Pro Cycling Manager 2007, International Cricket Captain III is a niche title that has travelled over from PC and that makes it possible to oversee a team during the course of sessions ranging in length from a 20-over smash and grab to full season slog, but never lets you wield a bat or catch a ball.

It's obvious that there's going to be no fireworks before you've even removed the cellophane from the case, as the words 'New 3D Highlights Engine' are boastfully emblazoned on the cover. The days of impressing gamers with the promise of 3D are well and truly over.

Being a management game, of course, the thrills it promises to give are of the ruminative, slow-burning kind, and even the shortest game is going to take hours to complete. Part of the reason for this is the extent to which you can meddle in the actual moment-to-moment action.

To take a single over as an example, you naturally have the option of choosing your team and deciding who does what and when, but on top of that you can choose exactly how each ball is bowled and how each batter responds.

To inform your decisions, at the foot of this in-game menu is a set of icons describing the time of day, the bounce of the ground, the wear of the ball, the condition of the outfield and the amount of light present. For reference, you can also consult a set of records concerning each cricketer's performance and a visual record of the trajectory of the ball during the course of the over.

All of this is in-game. If you want to get even more involved, you can skip to the menu screen with Circle and take a look at a huge amount of data concerning the match as a whole and individual bowlers and batters, for each of whom you can view not only a numerical record of performance for that game, but also a line graph charting form and even a brief biography describing everything from playing style to annual salary.

It's difficult to know the influence of your decisions, and while tweaking appropriately in response to the available information undoubtedly is the soul of the short-haul game, the relationship between your decisions and what actually occurs when you press Triangle to bowl the next ball or Square to finish the over is difficult to quantify.

In short, luck seems to play more of a part than the high degree of control the game gives you seems to suggest it will.

This is just International Cricket Captain III at its most superficial: one-day or 20-over exhibition matches. If you want to really get your hands dirty, there's a range of long-term managerial commitments, including World Cup, where you skipper a team either from the forthcoming Sri Lankan competition or any of 2007, 2003, and 1999.

For those of you prepared to cradle your PSPs almost indefinitely, there are three full season modes: International Career, County and International, and Full Game. Of these, Full Game is probably the most compelling, as it tasks you with taking control of a county team and proving yourself to the point that you get promoted to the rank of national captain.

In these modes, as in the exhibition matches themselves, detail abounds. You have control of contracts, recruitment, training, physiotherapy, budget allocation, and all of the elements you'll no doubt load up this game expecting. During home matches at county level, you can even persuade the groundskeeper to groom the pitch to meet the preferences of your players

If you can find another player, there's also the option to take on a human opponent in a county level match, with both sharing a single UMD – always a welcome touch.

While it doesn't quite rival its PC cousin for depth, International Cricket Captain III is more than comprehensive enough to occupy the cricket obsessives that many of us so studiously avoid speaking to, and it manages its volume of information with a simple and tight interface.

It's the interface that embodies the game's biggest weakness, however. Although effort has obviously been made to inject a little pizzazz with 3D replays and icon-based menus, the 3D engine is never more than workmanlike and outside its moments of modest dynamism, playing International Cricket Captain III feels like shuffling through pages on a spreadsheet.

For those already interested in the series and sports management games generally, International Cricket Captain III, while hardly the finest example of the genre, is unlikely to disappoint. However, with drab presentation and a lack of training options it's just as unlikely to bring new players into its fold. This one's for the fans.