Online Cricket Game lovers

Stick Cricket

I already have quite a few posts on games, specially online games and even in that my all time favourite is Cricket. Cricket is the one thing that I am always involved with some how- either watching any kind of Cricket Match on Television or playing it myself or online.

For online Cricket games, there are quite a few good ones depending on what kind of game you are looking for. A few are-........

 CW Cricket, CoverDrive Cricket, Cricket Academy - The Ultimate Test, Cricket Craziness, Flash Cricket, Last Man Standing, Npower Cricket Game, Slogout, Table Top Cricket, Krish and Zapak etc

Though the best I really feel is the Stick Cricket. In fact STICK SPORTS not only has games for Cricket but also Football, Baseball, Motor sports and Tennis too. I knew about this website earlier and just recently visited after quite some time and it has really improved and added new features and is developing well. It even has blogs, opinion polls etc. It is quite good to play and in that I found one option of Multiplayer. It is one thing to be playing against a computer opponent and entirely different to play against a real opponent. It is so much more enjoyable playing against a real person, and the players are from different countries. It almost feels like a real match. Some of the best features of this Stick Cricket Multiplayer game are- It gives skill and reputation points. The better you play i.e. the better you bat and bowl and win matches against skilled opponents, the more skilled you get, indicated by 5 stars. Currently I am at 4 1/2 stars. So you can select the skilled opponent as per your level or wish or there is even a match up button which will find you an opponent whose skill is the same as yours.

Stick Baseball

There is only one disadvantage that in a match if you are playing quite well and are winning and dominating the opponent, the opponent might just leave the game. This is quite frustrating and really you cannot avoid it but still they do have some measure for that which works to a certain extent because they also give reputation stars just like the skill stars. Initially you have 5 reputation stars and the more the matches you leave midway, your rating goes on decreasing and really nobody would want to play some one with just 1 or 2 rep points because that person is highly likely to forfeit a match that he is losing. Also an interesting stat for this game 97 % of the players are male!

You also have an option of playing this multiplayer game as a guest if you want but then you will not get the skill or rep points. However if you leave the game, you will be temporarily banned. There is also an option of chatting and thus even while the game is going on, you can talk to your opponent, anything, friendly or to disturb his concentration or anything but racism, abuse or anything offensive would mean a ban for you which can be lifetime and the SCC (Stick Cricket Council) looks after it. You can see the kind of realistic feel there is to this game with the freedom to select the team of your choice, the toss, chat with the opponent, sledging, etc.

Before you enter a match, it shows the list of all the players that are online and they have named it the 'Dressing Room' where also you can chat. You can add players to your buddies list against whom you have played and enjoyed and know that they can be trusted and won't leave a match. Thus you can set your profile as 'buddies' meaning only the people in your buddies list can play with you, or 'members' profile meaning only members can play with you and not guests, or 'do not disturb' meaning no one can challenge you to enter a game and you can challenge the person you want. It is good to play guests to improve your skills and it is best to be on 'do not disturb' if you have high rep points because then a lot of people will invite you to play for which the method is to challenge the person.

Now some of the tips. Since I am at a 4 1/2 stars, I can say that I have the expertise to advise you, though it is not necessary that high skill points means a good game every time; just the other day I had a horrible game where I couldn't hit anything and the opponent with 1 star won easily. It is a game of 5 overs everytime and it all depends if you are getting the timing right. If not, it can be a disaster.

For batting, you can just play with the 2 keys- the left and right. All you have to decide is whether the ball is on the off side or on side and where is is moving- either swinging or turning and which direction you want to hit it - thus depending on that, the left or right key. But the timing is the key. The basic requirement is the correct key but to excel, in addition to the correct key, timing is crucial or you may completely miss the ball. Generally I score around 70- 75 every match in 5 overs, but I am more confident of my bowling and mostly get my opponents out under 45 on an average.

I can give some tips for bowling. Firstly select the team according to the type of bowlers they have. Generally I have seen opponents, a large majority of them are almost clueless against spinners, if you use them well that is. I really win easily due to my spinners and thus choose Indian team also because I am from India and they have two spinners in this game. You can also select the opponents this way depending on if you play spinners well, select such a team.

If you are attacking , you can use the bouncers freely but for defending smaller totals, bowl outside the off stump and mostly people miss because the initial reaction is always to hit on the leg side for which I don't really know the reason. It is also very important to vary your length and most importantly PACE. Never let the opponent batsman get his timing right and you can almost break him down. I have had opponents many times like 6 runs for 4 wickets and they left the game!

If you are not doing well, there is also an option of practising to improve your skills.

I can write a lot about this game, various tips etc but then it would be too big a post and also I have to leave something for you to figure out as well because that is how you enjoy the game, creating your own strategies, playing with the opponents mind etc.

So go figure out your plans and Happy Playing!

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Interesting Fact- Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%).