CricSonic Help

Getting started

What CricSonic is

CricSonic is blind cricket made into a game you play entirely by ear. It follows the World Blind Cricket Council's T20 international rules, and it was designed by a blind cricketer who plays the game at the top level. Everything you need is a sound placed around you in 3D: the bowler's run-up, the ball bouncing down the pitch, the bat, the fielders, the umpire and the crowd. Wear headphones.

You can play against the computer on your own, one against one with a friend, or in teams of up to six people a side. CricSonic runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on Android, and works with NVDA, JAWS and TalkBack, or with its own voice when no screen reader is running.

Installing on a PC

1. Run CricSonic-Setup (the version number is in its name). It needs no administrator: the game goes into your own Programs folder.
2. Windows may say the program is new or unrecognised. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
3. The installer makes a CricSonic folder in the Start menu with the game, this help and What's new, and, if you choose, a CricSonic shortcut on the desktop.
4. At the end you can start the game straight away.

Uninstall CricSonic from Windows Settings, Apps, like any other program. Your account lives on the server, so nothing is lost. Never play the game from a shared folder such as Dropbox: when it updates itself it would change the files under everybody else.

Installing on an Android phone

1. Open the CricSonic APK on the phone. Android asks to allow installs from this source: allow it once.
2. Play Protect may say the app is unknown, because it is not in the Play Store yet. Choose to install anyway.
3. On Android 13 and newer, open Settings, Apps, CricSonic, the three-dot menu, and choose Allow restricted settings.
4. Then Settings, Accessibility, CricSonic touch, on. When the service is off, the game tells you and offers Open settings or Not now, and says "Touch service is on" when you come back with it on.

A phone with a keyboard attached is asked once whether to play by touch or with the keyboard. You can change this later in Settings.

Your account

• Making an account is its own step: logging in never makes one. Choose Create an account.
• Your name: 2 to 20 letters, using a to z, numbers, the underscore and the dash.
• Your password: 8 to 128 characters, typed twice. It must be strong enough: an obvious password, or one that contains your name, is refused.
• Your email: one email address per account. An 8-digit code is sent to it. It is good for 15 minutes; after 5 wrong tries you need a new one, and you can ask for a new one after 60 seconds.
• After the code, an admin approves your account. You hear when it happens.
• The game remembers you for 30 days on that machine, so you do not type your password every time. If you log in somewhere else, the older login is put out.
• Forgot your password? Choose I forgot my password. A code goes to your confirmed email; type it and a new password. A reset logs your account out everywhere.
• After 5 wrong passwords you wait 30 seconds.
• /email address sets or changes your email, and /confirm code proves it. /me tells you your player number.

Your profile and privacy

In the lobby, Account, My profile:

• Your category: B1, B2 or B3. How you play: batter, bowler, all-rounder or keeper.
• Your team, your country, your city, and one line about you (up to 120 characters; the others up to 40).
• Each has its own everyone can see it box. Your country and city are private until you tick them.

You can also type /profile to hear it, /profile category B2 to set one thing, or /profile public all and /profile private city to change who sees what.

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The rules of the game

CricSonic plays one set of rules, the Blind T20 International rules of the WBCC, as they are written below. Where the game is different from a real ground, it says so.

Sight categories

• Players are B1 (totally blind), B2 or B3 (partially sighted).
• A B1 batter cannot be bowled or out leg before wicket above the red line, 8 inches up the stumps. B2 and B3 defend the full stumps.
• A B1 fielder may take a catch after one bounce, if the ball came up to at least half a metre.
• A B1 fielder may not stand within 5 yards of the bat.
• Runs scored by a B1 batter are not doubled in CricSonic.

The ground

• The boundary is 50 yards (45.7 metres) from each wicket, all the way round: 65.7 m straight, 57.6 m to the corners, 45.7 m square and behind.
• The pitch is 20 metres. The inner circle is 20 yards from each wicket.
• The ends change every over. The ground does not move; the players do. Each fielder takes the name of the place he now stands in, and each end keeps its own field.
• Between balls the fielders walk back to their places, and the next ball waits for them.

A match

• A match is 2, 5, 10 or 20 overs a side.
• There are 10 wickets. All out ends the innings. A side with fewer than eleven people still bats until ten are out: a man who is out goes to the back of the line and bats again.
• The side batting second chases the first side's total plus one.

The delivery

1. The bowler chooses his line: middle, off, leg, outside off, down leg, wide off or wide leg.
2. He asks the batter "Ready?", and the batter answers.
3. Two seconds later the run-up starts: seven strides. The ball is let go at the last footfall.

• Let go more than 200 milliseconds early: no ball (early release). More than 250 milliseconds late: no ball (overstep).
• Letting it go early makes it slower; riding the crease makes it quicker.
• Holding Up or Down during the run-up pitches the ball fuller or shorter.
• A bowler who does not bowl is waited for: at 25 seconds everyone is told, at 60 seconds the umpire calls Time, and at 2 minutes the computer bowls for him until he presses a key.
• The umpire calls "Play" before the first ball of each innings.

The bounce law

Every ball must touch the ground in both halves of the pitch.

• Never in the bowler's half: "No ball. Over pitch."
• Never in the striker's half: "No ball. Early pitch."

Wides

• The wide line is 3 feet (0.9144 m) from the middle stump. It is the same for every category, and where the batter stands does not move it.
• A wide you hit is a fair ball: only the runs off the bat count.
• A wide you miss or leave is 1 run and is bowled again. Byes run off a wide are added.

No balls and the free hit

• A no ball is called the moment it happens: early release, overstep, over pitch, early pitch, or too many fielders outside the circle.
• A no ball is 1 run and is bowled again. A single run off a no ball is one run, and the no-ball run is added on top.
• Off a no ball you cannot be bowled, leg before wicket or caught. You can still be run out.
• An overstep no ball gives the next ball as a free hit: on it you can only be run out. If the free hit is a wide, a no ball or a dead ball, the free hit moves on to the next ball. The umpire calls "Free hit" at the Ready.

Dead balls

• A ball that stops more than 0.6 m short of the striker without being hit: "Dead ball. Short." It is bowled again and nobody is penalised.
• A ball held near the stumps with nobody running is dead; a run cannot be called.
• A player whose line drops or who leaves while the ball is alive makes it a dead ball.

Running

In blind cricket the batter does not run himself: two runners run for him. Your job is the call.

• Enter calls a run ("Yes!"). Press again for a second ("two"), and again ("go one more"), up to four runs. A second press within half a second is not counted.
• Your partner's Enter early in a run means "yes, coming"; late in a run it means "two".
• Shift before anyone runs is Wait: your partner holds his call. During a run it is Stay: finish this run and no more.
• Backspace is Back: go back. It is a real call, and you can still be run out going back.
• The computer as your partner refuses a run that is clearly suicidal.
• You can run byes off a ball you did not hit; off the pad they are leg byes. Overthrows are run if a throw misses the stumps and beats the fielder.
• The strike changes on an odd number of runs and at the end of every over.
• Runs go on the board when the umpire counts them.

Fours and sixes

• A four crosses the rope after bouncing. A six crosses it in the air.
• The crowd and the commentary react as the ball reaches the rope.

How a batter is out

Bowled

The ball hits the stumps (for a B1, below the red line).

Leg before wicket

• All the conditions of the law apply. A ball that pitched outside leg stump is never out.
• It must be appealed for within 4 seconds: the bowler presses A. When the computer bowls, its keeper appeals. Without an appeal it is not out.
• When it is not out, the umpire says why: pitched outside leg, missing the stumps, going over the stumps, hit him outside off, or above the red line.

Caught

• Caught on the full, at any height a fielder can reach, or after one bounce by a B1 fielder (see Sight categories).
• About seven catches in ten are held; a fielder's hands decide. A ball a fielder reaches in the air is always a chance: held or dropped. You hear a dropped catch fall.
• Runs taken before the catch do not count.
• Caught off a no ball or a free hit is not out.
• The catcher shouts "How's that", and the umpire gives it.

Run out

• Only at the end the throw goes to, and only if the runner is short of the crease there.
• Clear ones are given at once; close ones are appealed for, and the keeper appeals.
• The run out is named: who, and at which end.

Retired

• Retired not out: your line dropped and you did not come back in time. You can bat again (see When your line drops).
• Retired out: you walked off while batting.

Only one wicket can fall off a ball.

Fielding rules and the powerplay

• The umpire announces the powerplay before the first ball, and its end with the score.
• In the powerplay at most 2 fielders may be outside the circle; after it at most 5. One more is a no ball (with no free hit).
• At most 2 fielders may be behind square on the leg side.
• Every innings starts with the powerplay field.

Bowlers and captains

• Each bowler has a quota of overs; you hear how many he has left when he takes the ball.
• Nobody bowls two overs in a row, unless he is the only bowler on his side. The computer never bowls two in a row.
• The people on the bowling side take an over each in turn; the others stand at close places: short mid off, short mid on, point, short square leg and third man.
• Field presets: standard, ring, attacking, defensive, off side, leg side and straight, plus three fields of your own. Changed between overs.

Captains, in team matches

• The first person in a team is its captain.
• The fielding captain moves a fielder (between balls), and names the next bowler.
• The batting captain chooses who bats next from the men waiting.
• Any team-mate may ask the captain to change the bowler or move a fielder. The captain hears the request and allows it with Enter or refuses with Escape. A request lapses at the next Ready.

The toss, the break and the result

• On the ground, after a few seconds: "Get ready for the toss". The guest calls with the Heads or Tails button (or H, T) within 8 seconds while the coin spins. The winner presses Bat first or Bowl first (or B, L) within 15 seconds. If nobody answers, the umpire decides and the winner bats.
• The walk out: after the toss the fielding side has 20 seconds to walk out and set the field. Then the umpire asks both sides if they are ready: press Space (a touch on a phone). The computer answers after 3 seconds. When both are ready the umpire calls play, and the bowler asks the batter as always. Nobody answering? The umpire calls play after 30 seconds.
• Against the computer there is no toss: you choose to bat or bowl.
• The innings break: the umpire calls Time, and for 10 seconds you hear the totals, the target, and who bats next.
• The result: "won by so many wickets with so many balls to spare", "won by so many runs", or "the match is tied". A match ended by an admin, or let go after a pause, is no result.

The computer as a player

• The computer bats as a good B1 batter and bowls medium pace. Its nine fielders have their own names and skills, and its captain sets the field until a person moves a man.
• When a team proposes a match it chooses Computer players allowed or People only.
• Whatever the choice, the computer stands in for anybody whose line drops, and gives the place back when he returns.

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Playing on a PC

Menus and the lobby

• Tab and the arrow keys move, Enter chooses, Escape goes back. Alt+F4 works like Escape.
• The main menu: log in, log in as a different player, create an account, the keyboard tutorial, Settings, Quit.

The lobby

• R refreshes the list. Delete cancels your waiting match.
• On an open match, Enter joins (and asks for the PIN if it is private). On a match being played, Enter takes you to the bench to listen.
• Your match is a page of buttons, like your team: who is batting and bowling, Remove a player, Add the computer, Start the match and Cancel the match (asked first). A guest has Leave the match. A still adds the computer, and Escape asks before you cancel or leave.
• Waiting for a match: Escape stops waiting. Between innings: Escape leaves. Reconnecting: Escape gives up.
• Every "Are you sure?" page has No first, and Escape means No.

Batting

A late swing opens the face of the bat: a late sweep lifts a little, a late drive goes finer.

Bowling and fielding

Keys that work everywhere

Control is never a game key: it is your screen reader's key for stopping speech.

The scoreboard

• K opens the board. Up and Down move between lines; Left and Right change part: Now (score, chase or run rate, the batters, the partnership, the bowler, this over, the last wicket, extras), Batting card and Bowling card.
• K or Escape closes it. Space closes it and answers Ready.
• The full card also comes up on the screen by itself for a few seconds after a wicket and after an over.
• /card reads the card of the innings you are in.

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Playing on a phone

Menus

• With TalkBack: the menus are TalkBack's own. Explore by touch, flick to move, double tap to choose. On a slider, a double tap opens a list of values.
• Without a screen reader: touch or slide to explore, flick right or down for the next item, left or up for the previous, double tap to choose, down then left to go back, down then right to hear where you are. A two-finger tap stops the speech, a two-finger double tap is your ping, a three-finger tap is help.
• The back button is Escape. Back twice leaves the main menu or the lobby.
• In the lobby: two fingers down refreshes the list. Your match and the toss are buttons, the same as on a PC.

The match by touch

In a match you hold the phone sideways. Game touch turns on by itself when the match begins, after the toss, or hold both thumbs still for 2 seconds. The left half takes flicks; the right half takes taps. A double tap with both thumbs swaps the sides.

• Either role: two fingers held stops the speech; a two-finger double tap (or a double tap on the left) says the score.
• The toss is buttons: Heads or Tails, then Bat first or Bowl first.
• Each gesture has its own small sound, and a thud means it did nothing. The phone also vibrates; switch that in Settings.

The match menu

Hold both thumbs for about a second between balls. The menu has: Scoreboard, the next field and set this field (bowler), the field, the gaps, who is on strike, clap the field, timing clicks (batter), your kit, swap hands, game touch off, and leave the match (choose it twice). Flick up or down to move, tap on the right to hear the item again, double tap on the right to choose it, flick left to close. A ball coming closes it.

If you turn game touch off, the older gestures work instead: tap for ready, double tap to run, flicks to step, and two- and three-finger flicks for the score keys. The touch tutorial teaches the game-touch way.

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Playing online

Making and joining matches

• Create a match: 2, 5, 10 or 20 overs. One person a side; the computer fills empty places when you start.
• Private, with a PIN: your match has a 4-number PIN, said to you spaced out. Only people with the PIN can join. Five wrong PINs in 5 minutes means a 5-minute wait. Anyone may still listen to a private match.
• Join from the list with Enter.

Teams

• A team has up to 6 people and a name of up to 24 letters, and can be private with a PIN.
• The first in is the captain, who can remove members. If the captain leaves, the next in becomes captain. A team lasts while someone is in it.
• The captain proposes a match to another team or to the computer: the overs, then computer players allowed or people only. The other captain accepts or declines.
• When a match is agreed, the teams leave the list and the match appears in it. A full team is marked full.
• On the team screen, Escape asks to leave the team.

Watching a match

• Enter on a match being played puts you on the bench, to listen. Up to 20 people can watch a match.
• The players hear how many are watching, never who.
• A watcher cannot bowl or appeal; the play keys say "You are watching". Escape leaves the bench at once.
• Commentary is on for watchers at first (see Commentary).

When your line drops

1. The game notices 4 seconds of silence and reconnects by itself, for up to about 100 seconds.
2. The server waits 2 minutes. The ball is dead and everyone hears "lost connection, waiting for him to come back".
3. After 2 minutes the match goes on without you, and your place is kept to the end of the match:
   • Batter: retired, not out. When you come back you take your place from the computer, if it was standing in for you, or bat at the end of the order if a person came in.
   • Bowler: the computer bowls until you are back; you bowl again at your turn.
   • Fielder: off the field; the computer bowls any over that would have been yours.
4. If you were the last person on your side, the match pauses instead (see Paused matches). If it had hardly started, the side that stayed wins.

A dropped line never costs you points.

Leaving a match

• Escape, then Enter.
• A batter at the crease who leaves is retired out. A bowler who leaves: the computer finishes his over.
• If the last person on a side leaves, his side loses the match.
• Walking out costs points: 30% of what the match would have paid (never below nothing), and nobody in that match is paid.

Paused matches

• A match that had really started (six fair balls, or the second innings) pauses when the last person on a side drops and does not come back. Think of it as rain stopping play.
• A paused match waits 24 hours. The lobby shows it with the hours left.
• Play on (or /resume): everyone says ready, and the others are asked "Play on?".
• Let it go: no result, and nobody loses anything.
• A pause nobody plays on is no result. A dropped line is nobody's fault.

Maintenance and restarts

• Maintenance: a minute's notice, then matches pause between balls. You stay logged in and hear a maintenance page. When it ends, the matches play on by themselves.
• A restart: warnings at 5 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds and 10 seconds, with the reason. Matches pause, everyone reconnects by themselves, and the matches play on.

Points

No points for a match of fewer than 5 overs (so 2-over matches are for practice), a match with fewer than 12 fair balls, a match anybody walked out of, a match an admin ended or that was let go, or a banned player. You can earn at most 200 points a day by playing. You hear what you earned when a match ends; /points gives your balance and your last five lines. Points are spent on repairing a bat.

Your kit and your bats

• Every new player has a match bat. The middle is the part of the bat that hits the ball cleanly: a bigger middle forgives more.
• A bat wears: it plays as new for the first half of its life, then slowly loses power and middle. Edges and the toe wear it most; a middled ball very little; a miss not at all. Only matches between people wear a bat.
• Its condition: as new, well used, getting tired, about to go. W in a match tells you.
• A broken bat: you are lent an old net bat for the rest of the innings.
• Repair with points, outside a match: the full price times how worn it is.
• I opens your kit: Use it and Repair it on each bat. You can change bats between overs, or when you are not at the crease. Commands: /items, /use, /repair.

The leaderboard and stats

• Lobby, Leaderboard: most runs, most wickets, best batting average (from 10 innings), most sixes, most fours, highest score, best bowling, most fifties, most maidens, most hat-tricks, most points. The top ten of each; Enter on a name opens his card.
• Only matches against people count in a career.
• On anyone's card (F4): Stats and Profile. Also /stats name and /top runs, /top wickets, /top average.

Chat

• Plain words go to everybody in the lobby and on the bench. /t words goes to your team, or in a match to your side. /pm name words goes to one player.
• In a match, chat is said between balls, so it never covers the ball. A line can be 300 letters; type too fast and you are told to slow down.
• Each kind has its own bell, so you know what arrived before it is read:
  • public chat: one soft high bell
  • team chat: two quick bells going up
  • a private message: two bells going down
  • an announcement: a ringing chord
  • logged in: four notes rising
• Switch any kind off for yourself in Account, Chat, or with /chat off, /teamchat off, /pms off (and on again).
• Bad words are starred. Three starred lines in 10 minutes mute you for 10 minutes. Chat is kept for 30 days.

Commands

When the server asks you a question, answer with the Yes or No button on the screen, or type yes.

Reports and fair play

• /report name what happened (also Report him on his card), or /bug what happened, or Account, Report a bug. Up to 500 letters, three a minute. You get a ticket number, and you are told what was done, by email too if your address is confirmed.
• Admins can mute, warn, put off the server, or ban a player who spoils the game. Every action is asked first and recorded.
• The watchman listens for timing no person could have (a program playing) and can ban it.
• If a match is stuck, tell an admin: an admin can end any match, with no result.

Commentary

• A short line as things happen: the shot, a four or six at the rope, a catch, the stumps. It also opens the match (the toss, the openers) and closes it (the result, the top scorer, the best bowler).
• Settings, Commentary: while playing (off at first) and while watching (on at first).
• Each moment has many ways of being said, and the same words are never used twice running.

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Settings, sound and screen readers

Settings

• Speech (PC): speak through Automatic, the screen reader, or the game's own voice; game voice on or off; the speed of the game's voice (0.5 to 3).
• Controls (phone): play by touch or with the keyboard; vibration on or off.
• Messages: switch off any kind: Private, Team, Public, Match, Commentary, Match news, Arrivals.
• Commentary: while playing; while watching.
• Quiet when the game is not in focus.
• Audio: the ball's sound in the air on or off, and a level for Ball, Impact, Feet, Umpire, Field, Ground, Crowd and Music. The same levels are on F6, F7 and F8 during play.

The sounds of the game

• The ball: each bounce down the pitch, the roll, its rush through the air after the bat, the stumps.
• The bat: the middle, an edge, the toe, a miss, a defensive push.
• The bowler: the run-up footsteps; the click as you aim.
• The umpires: Play, no ball, wide, out, not out, four, six, free hit, over, Time.
• The field: every fielder has his own voice; they clap after a wicket, a dropped catch, a near run out, a dot ball and a maiden. C claps the whole field round the ground so you can hear where everyone is.
• The runners: each call is heard from the side of the man who made it.
• Timing clicks (T): two ticks either side of the right moment to swing. Swing between them and you middle it.
• The ground: the crowd and the ground in a match; music in the menus; the coin at the toss; the chat bells.

Screen readers

• NVDA and JAWS: the game speaks straight to your screen reader, in the menus and in a match.
• JAWS: the game gives JAWS its own settings for CricSonic, so the arrow keys and Escape reach the game and can be held. The first time you play with JAWS, press Alt+Tab to another window and back once.
• No screen reader: the game's own voice speaks. F9 switches between the two.
• TalkBack: TalkBack reads the menus, and the CricSonic touch service takes the screen for a match.

The tutorials

• Keyboard tutorial: 27 short lessons, one key at a time, from Ready and the swing to the toss and leaving a match. A wrong key says "Not quite. Again." Free practice at the end. Escape asks before leaving.
• Touch tutorial (phone): 24 lessons, from turning game touch on to swapping hands, with its own menu to practise batting, bowling and the toss.

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Updates and problems

Updates

• The game checks for a new version when it starts and asks you: Update now or Not now.
• PC: it downloads the new installer, closes, installs it, and opens again by itself. Nothing else to do.
• Phone: it downloads the new version and Android asks you to tap Install. The first time, allow CricSonic to install apps.
• A version too old to play is refused and offered the update.
• What changed in each version is in What's new.

Problems

The game is silent.

Press F9. Check your headphones and the Windows sound device. Check the levels with F6.

I cannot log in.

Check the name and password. A new account needs its email code and then an admin's approval. Use I forgot my password if you need to.

My match stopped.

See When your line drops, Paused matches and Maintenance.

The update did not finish.

Open the game again: it carries on from where the download stopped. Or download the installer from cricsonic.com.

Something went wrong in a match.

Tell us with Account, Report a bug, or /bug. Say which ball, what happened, and what you expected. The game keeps a record of every ball in %APPDATA%\Godot\app_userdata\CricSonic\sessions.

Words used in the game

B1, B2, B3

The sight categories: B1 totally blind, B2 and B3 partially sighted.

The red line

8 inches up the stumps; a B1 cannot be bowled or out leg before above it.

Over pitch, early pitch

A no ball that did not touch the ground in the bowler's half, or in the striker's half.

Free hit

The ball after an overstep no ball; you can only be run out off it.

The powerplay

The first overs, with only 2 fielders allowed outside the circle.

The sweep, the drive

The shot along the ground (Space alone), and the shot in the air (Up and Space).

The middle, the toe

The sweet part of the bat, and its end. A drive can find the toe and go nowhere.

Retired not out, retired out

Off the field because your line dropped (you can bat again), or because you walked off.

The bench

Where you sit to listen to a match.

A paused match

A match waiting up to 24 hours for its people to play on.

No result

A match that did not finish and counts for nobody.

Your kit

Your bats and items.

About and contact

CricSonic is made by Voice Vision Studio. Website: cricsonic.com. To reach us, use Account, Report a bug, in the game. Thank you to everyone who tested it, ball by ball.

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