It was released in January 1997 in Australia and April 1997 in the United Kingdom.

[3] Ritchie Benaud and Ian Botham provided commentary for the game.

[2] It featured actual photographs, real player names, portraits, and statistics of all major Australian and international cricketing personalities.

[2] Richard Moore for The Age called the game "very realistic" but criticized the "play-balance-driven parity of the sides".

[3] George Soropos for PC PowerPlay rated Cricket 97 Ashes Tour Edition at 87% and stated that "Really, this is the game that Cricket '97 should have been in the first place and all credit to Beam for sticking with it until they got it right.