Cricket is hands-down one of the most popular sports in the entire world, second only to Soccer (Football). As per statistics, roughly 4.5 billion people from around the globe follow Cricket. And if you live in either Australia, the West Indies, England, or the South Asian region (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), you’ll probably be aware of how crazy people are over this sport. Unfortunately, many of us lead extremely busy lives and often, we find it hard to sit and watch an entire game in front of our TV set. Missing a match is still okay, but not knowing what the scores are like, is a cricket fan’s worst nightmare. Thankfully, there are a few brilliant apps out there which give you real-time updates on all the significant cricket matches, across tournaments. We’ve spared you the time and effort by rounding up the best cricket apps in this article. Check them out below –
1. Cricbuzz:
Cricbuzz has to be my personal favorite, and for good reason. This app is very easy to use and provides a broad coverage of a legion of tournaments including ICC Cricket World Cup, BBL, IPL, CPL, and Natwest T20, as well as a few domestic games. Apart from giving you updates on live scores, Cricbuzz also offers all the latest news relevant to Cricket. A few of its other features include ball-by-ball commentary, notifications for breaking news and live games, schedules for upcoming leagues and matches, stunning themes, score widget for quick update, player profiles, stats and rankings, and special content for major leagues. What’s more? It also offers video highlights for certain matches in select countries. There’s also an option for sharing the live scores with your friends and family. For Android – For iOS –
2. ESPNCricinfo:
Yet another premium Cricket app, ESPN Cricinfo also offers prompt live scores of a bunch of tournaments including IPL, BPL, CPL, BBL, ICC Cricket World Cup, County Championship, Sheffield Shield, Ranji Trophy, and several more. Apart from live scored, the app also offers live commentary, player stats, coloumns authored by famous cricketers, cricket news, personalized alerts, select videos, and the ability to use the app even on a slow internet connection. Users love how ESPN Cricinfo’s UI looks. However, there are a few problems reported with regards to its functionality and navigation. For Android – For iOS –
3. Yahoo! Cricket:
Boasting of an excellent user-rating, Yahoo Cricket is back with a bang, featuring a brand new design and interface. As with all cricket apps, this app also let’s you in on the latest cricket updates including breaking news, live scores, and other interesting content. It also offers “Fan Shouts”, stats, commentary supplemented with infographics, tweets, and more, enhancing your overall experience. You can also get photo stories from across the globe and be notified for all the significant matches, especially those in which your favorite team is playing. Our only disappointment with Yahoo Cricket is that the navigation/scrolling through the app wasn’t as smooth as on the apps mentioned above. For Android – For iOS – Download
4. Hotstar:
Hotstar is currently one of the most popular video streaming services available in India. Hotstar is a subsidy of the Star network, so you know that this app means quality. You not only get live scores but are also allowed to stream live games including major tournaments such as IPL, ICC World Cup, and more. You can also get updates on IDOs and test-matches. The best part? No ads! Almost every app listed here is ad-supported unless you pay a premium fee. Hotstar doesn’t charge any extra money for an ad-free experience. The app gives users regular updates on a variety of sports including Badminton, Hockey, Tennis, Football, Kabaddi, Formula 1, and of course Cricket. Other than that, it also offers a ton of popular TV shows and movies in English and other regional languages. You can also stream Star World’s original series. What’s more? This is the only app in India which offers HBO’s original programming. Though it is free to use, you’ll have to upgrade to the paid subscription (priced at only $3/mo) if you wish to access the premium titles. One flaw that we noticed while using this app, is that some videos take a lot of time to buffer while others load super fast. Also, in case you get interrupted while streaming, you cannot pick up right from where you left. For Android – For iOS –
5. NDTV Cricket:
Another well-received cricket app, NDTV Cricket sports offers an extensive coverage of domestic as well as international cricket tournaments including test matches, ODI, and T20. Aside from notifying you with live scores, it also alerts you whenever there is some breaking news. The updates are usually punched up with photos and videos. Furthermore, you can also follow your favorite team and retrieve player stats. Don’t like receiving notifications? You can turn it off by simply disabling the “Show notifications for live matches” by navigating to More»Settings. As far as the UI is concerned, I was quite impressed. The look of the app is very neat and the interface is super snappy. A feature that stood out for me was that users can add matches to their calendars so that they don’t miss out on an important game. All this, just with a single tap. The only disappointment was that each time the score gets refreshed, the entire screen gets refreshed with it too. Now, this happens within fraction of a second, but it can still bother some users. For Android – For iOS –
6. Cricket Exchange (Live Line):
Probably the top-most rated cricket app currently available, Cricket Exchange is a fairly lesser known, yet a superlative app that provides you with fast and live scores for various leagues including all major international tournaments, women’s cricket, ODI, T20, and test matches. To add, you can also get other details such as current team form and squads, detailed scorecard, precise match odds, upcoming match schedule, series stats, videos with pre-match reports, and other special news with latest cricket facts. Of late, users have been complaining that the app keeps freezing and the video isn’t clear. However, they keep releasing new updates so hopefully these issues will be fixed soon. For Android – For iOS – Wrapping Up: We hope that you find our list helpful. There are also a few other notable cricket apps such as CricHQ, Live Cricket Score, and Cricket Line Guru. You can check all of them out and see which one you like the best. Keep in mind that majority of the apps mentioned above do contain ads and may offer in-app purchases for advanced features, including an ad-free experience.
