Considerably better than its rival EA Sports: Cricket 2007, even with its own faults. Not perfect but still a good game.
Well, this version certainly has made improvements since 2005. The most distinct of which would be online play. But the game still has some annoying flaws that make it loose its luster. The game maintains its unique fielding and catching feature from the previous version, where you have to press the button on time to either take the catch or make a perfect throw to the stumps. However, this version sees a new greatly appreciated feature of being able to throw to both ends of the stumps instead of just the keeper's end as in the 2005 version. The AI has improved, but not greatly. There are some very clear bugs in the AI. For instance, the AI almost never changes the field during an over even if there is a huge gap and runs are being easily scored. The only time the field is changed it seems is between over changes. Furthermore the keeper will "break" the stumps, a good many seconds after the batsman has clearly made it into the crease. There are as usual four different difficulty settings: Village, County, Test, and Slog. The village is way too easy and probably shouldn't even exist. The AI plays well according to the difficulty settings. So for example they will always manage to hit fours/sixes off almost every ball in slog mode while you yourself will have a hard time doing the same. Online matches are fun as every online game is, but there still some flaws that need to be worked out. For instance, connecting through GameSpy can be major pain sometimes. But I am sure it'll be improved upon in their next version. After all this is the first time that a Cricket video game has made it online.
In contrast to the previous version, one of the biggest changes would be the controls. The default controls are mapped to the mouse and the keyboard where you use the mouse to select the direction in which to play a shot and the keyboard to either play a defensive, lofted or "dance down the wicket" shot. This change makes the game very enjoyable due to the removal of complicated keyboard keys as in the previous game and as also seen the EA sports versions. Of course, the player can remap the controls to the keyboard if necessary. Overall the gameplay has improved considerably, but there are still certain bugs that need to be fixed. Hopefully, the promised patch from codemasters will fix these bugs.
Graphics:
At first glance there would almost no changes in the graphics from the previous version. But when given a closer look you can clearly see that they are better though not perfect. The fast or medium pace bowlers still seem to be in a awkward position when the bowl. The only discernible faces in the game are those of Brian Lara, Yuvraj Singh and Ricky Ponting, giving credit to the fact that there are in fact three versions of the game with each of their names for the European, Asian and Australian regions. Other players in the game do not quite seem to resemble real players as much. But I doubt that will remain so for long, since the PlanetCricket would release a fix soon enough. Still the graphics are far better than Cricket 07.
Sound:
Well, the first you play a match in BLIC 07 you would clearly notice that you can hear the players on the field just like you sometimes can on TV. For instance, the keeper would occasionally shout out "Great Bowling" when the batsman misses a ball; the batsman at the bowlers end will shout "That's gone, you did it" if the facing batsman hits a lofted shot; the facing batsman will shout "Take it", "...and again" when running or "No, no...get back" when you abort a run. This makes the game even more enjoyable. The only place where the sound seems lacking is during appeals. They are far too weak, almost like spoken words instead of a roaring shout (which would have been great).
It makes a great addition to your collection if you like cricket games especially if you liked BLIC/RPIC 05. With a little more work on their online feature and a few fixes to the AI, the next version will surely turn out to be more impressive.