A Python 3 client for ESPNCricinfo's match, summary and player information.

A Python 3 client for ESPNCricinfo match, series and player data. The library uses Playwright (WebKit) to fetch match pages and extract embedded JSON, bypassing Akamai CDN restrictions on the legacy engine API endpoints. Both a match_id and series_id are required to instantiate a Match — both can be obtained from Match.get_recent_matches(). See the Usage section for instructions, and see match.py for individual functions.

Disclaimer: This library is not intended for commercial use and neither it nor its creator has any affiliation with ESPNCricInfo. The LICENSE for this library applies only to the code, not to the data.

The current version of this library is 1.0.0. It is very much a work in progress, and bug reports and feature requests are welcomed.

uv add python-espncricinfo

Or with pip:

pip install python-espncricinfo

After installation, install the Playwright WebKit browser (required for fetching match data):

uv run playwright install webkit

For a summary of live matches, create an instance of the Summary class:

>>> from espncricinfo.summary import Summary
>>> s = Summary()
>>> s.matches
[MatchRef(series_id=1478874, match_id=1478914), ...]
>>> for ref in s.matches:
...     m = ref.to_match()
...     print(m.description)

# Tuple unpacking also works:
>>> for series_id, match_id in s.matches:
...     print(series_id, match_id)

For individual matches, pass in both the match ID and series ID. These can be discovered from get_recent_matches(), or read from a match page URL (the two numeric IDs in the URL path):

>>> from espncricinfo.match import Match
>>> from espncricinfo.match_ref import MatchRef
>>> # Get recent matches as MatchRef objects
>>> Match.get_recent_matches(date="2026-02-06")
[MatchRef(series_id=1478874, match_id=1478914), ...]
>>> # Construct a match directly
>>> m = Match(1478914, 1478874)
>>> m.description
'IND Women v AUS Women'
>>> m.match_class
'WT20I'
>>> m.result
'IND Women won by 17 runs'

A full list of methods available to an instance of the Match class is in the code.

For player details, pass in the player ID (found in a player's URL - for example, Ajinkya Rahane is '277916'):

>>> from espncricinfo.player import Player
>>> p = Player('277916')
>>> p.name
'Ajinkya Rahane'

A full list of methods available to an instance of the Player class is in the code.

For series (or league) details, pass in the series ID (found in a match URL, for example, India's 2018 tour of England is '18018'):

>>> from espncricinfo.series import Series
>>> s = Series('18018')
>>> s.name
'India tour of Ireland and England 2018'

Unit tests (no network required — uses recorded fixtures):

uv run pytest tests/ -k "not integration"

Integration tests (hits live ESPN Cricinfo via Playwright):

uv run pytest tests/ --live

Refreshing fixtures (re-records fixtures from live site):

uv run python scripts/refresh_fixtures.py

Playwright and WebKit must be installed:

uv add --dev playwright
uv run playwright install webkit

Dependencies are managed via pyproject.toml. See the Installation section above.