Cricket 97

Cricket 97 is a cricket game for PCs that was released in 1997. The sequel to Cricket 96, it was developed by Melbourne House (as Beam Software) and published by EA Sports. It was the final cricket game in the series to be developed by Melbourne House, EA Sports followed Cricket 97 with Cricket World Cup 99, developed by Creative Assembly

Compared to the previous game, the improvement in graphics continued with three-dimensional stadiums (though players remained rendered as sprites). Cricketing legends Ritchie Benaud and Ian Botham for the first time provided commentary and also featured in full motion video interludes. The game did not feature real player names as with previous games in the series (with real Australian and English sides appearing for the first time in the game's successor, Ashes Tour Edition).

Ashes Tour Edition
A re-release of the game entitled the Ashes Tour Edition featured the English and Australian tour squads for the 1997 Ashes series.

New Zealand Team Disc
Following the Ashes Tour Edition an update disc was released to include the New Zealand Cricket Team. This disc included official players, portraits and statistics from the New Zealand side at the time. This was intended to make Cricket 97 the most realistic cricket game on the market at the time.

Cricket Ashes Tour
Another re-release of Cricket 97 followed later with the release of Cricket Ashes Tour, with updated stats and players from the 1998/99 Ashes tour.