The bowling is particularly well done. A power meter in the corner of the screen allows you to judge the swing, seam, spin and pace of a delivery, and a little marker lets you position exactly where the ball will pitch. This system works effectively because you really do feel like it's a battle of wits with the batsman: one bad ball and they'll hit you for six, but deceive them with a couple of well slanted 'slower' balls and their bails will soon be flying.

The batting in WCC is realistically hard when you have the game on Difficult mode, and therefore also extremely satisfying when you actually manage get a ball off the middle of your bat. A good heave-ho barnyard slog will get you runs at the cost of wickets. Building a solid innings is another story - you'll need well-timed stroke play, judicious fending-off of dangerous looking balls, some 'quick runs' and not a few magnificent sixes. As in real life, painstaking practice, and playing each ball on its merit pays dividends.

The fielding is the only area skipped over in this thorough game of cricket - and that's not really a bad thing. You've got a big enough job on your hands setting a field to bowl to without having to worry about catching. Besides, you can choose which end to return the ball to, and run-outs do happen in this game.

Certainly no other stone has been left unturned in CWC. You have camera angles and replays galore, the graphics (the players and the grounds) are as gorgeous as the weather, and when you lob the ball at their head the batsmen actually duck. In fact, the detail is such that when the players go up for a "Catch it!" you can even hear accents. Nice, eh? And even if, at the close of play, it all seems to take rather a long time to complete, well... that's cricket, isn't it?