I am not a Cricket fan.But congratulations to everyone that loves the sport.

I do indeed, and i know where you are coming from, but I don't know there are a lot of young cricket fans and i thought a lot of them don't know why Lara would be on the cover. It's not like its called 'The Don' Cricket 09 lol. You get what i mean.

It is a fair enough point though, suppose when marketing is concerned you have to chose your target.

also added:
Isn't Lara's top score 501? OR is that his highest 1st class one.
I know Hayden got even with Lara's test score but Lara beat it again lol. The man is a freak, i actually wouldn't mind seeing a Sachin Tendulkar 09 or something, the man deserves some praise.
After all he is the 'Little Master'

I understand being an Aussie you automatically expect an Aussie to be in the title but Brian Lara is recognised and remembered more than Ricky Ponting elsewhere in the Cricket world.

Shane Warne is more well known than Ponting.
Having Brian Lara just seems to make more sense and bring a certain amount of credibility to the franchise than anyone else would.

They will probably localise the cover.  Like back in the sega days Brian Lara Cricket in Aus it was Shane Warne cricket (exactly the same game haha).

Which was cool.    Man if Tandulkar was on a cover and he promoted it on Wii, their whole country would go nuts.

Super League Rugby League 2 was known as NRL Rugby League 2 in Aus and Stacey Jones Rugby League 2 in NZ.
Each with differing covers.

I'm all for localising games as it makes it relevant to that area just make sure there's something in the titles that show what series it's for.
As long as it is localised everywhere. Having one name in one market then another everywhere else seems a bit pointless.

What I don't get is when there is an established brand like Madden, Brian Lara or Colin McRae and then one area wants their current favourite to be on the cover.
No thanks.
This doesn't apply to Madden. It only has one market.

why not wasim akram or waqar younis? they're undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best, bowling pair ever.

Waqar is down a few notches thanks to the ball-tampering issue. Akram was good, the fluency of his delivery was a joy to watch, but I put Shoaib Akhtar a better bowler for sheer spectacle :)

I played Cricket 07 and I am never touching a cricket game again.

I know about 15 people that work at the studio that is doing this ;) - its one of the companies I used to work for.

The game has been in development for a LONG time - it was supposed to be released last year, but got bumped to this year instead. Looking forward to exactly what they managed to do with this...