Seen it twice - 2nd time was a Q&A where had a brief chat afterwards....in particular about the gaps......
A documentary by cricket bloggers – a handsome Stephen Merchant lookalike Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber lookalike Jarrod Kimber, based upon conversations with players, analysts and administrators focuses on the two key issues facing the "dying gentleman" that is my first love – Test Cricket. Namely, firstly the vast schism between cricket's haves (broadly 1stIndia, 2nd India, 3rd India, somewhere way behind in the distance England and Australia) and the have nots (the remaining 7 Test playing nations not to even mention all the associate members). Secondly how the great longer version of the game is under threat from the relatively new brasher, trashier, vastly inferior, Bollywood inspired crash, bang, wallop thrills provided from its Frankenstein's Monster of a creation – IPL.
However interspersed through this driving theme was perhaps the more engaging story of befriending and following Ed Cowan's career. The highs – scoring a half century on debut versus India at the MCG on Boxing day in front of 70,000 plus people and his only century against South Africa at the GABBA. The lows – being ignored by fans clambering past him to get David Warner's autograph which he takes with typical good humour, but more significantly getting a first baller in an Ashes test at Trent Bridge which together with a failure in the 2nd Innings brought his brief test career to an end. The inevitable fall from hero to zero played out in the cruel modern World of social media allied to an honest self-assessment of not being "good enough" was certainly the most poignant moment suggesting that this story was worthy of being the subject of a film in its own right. Surely the tragic untimely death of Phillip Hughes doing what he loved best will one day be made into a film but for cricket fans or sport fans generally for that matter seeing the hard work and determination that a young boy puts in to fulfil his lifetime ambition and dreams come true must make such ripe pickings for the big screen.
Returning however to the chief premise of the movie, which is that the people who run cricket do so for their own good rather than the benefit of the game or its fans. Greedy, selfish sporting administrators from the big 3 making dodgy deals and pacts in secret meetings to the detriment of poorer cricketing nations. Hard to believe I know! Say whatever you like about Sepp Blatter; and there is much to criticise, but at least he is an avowed expansionist of the game of football – taking power away from its traditional political strongholds of Europe and South America and thereby providing a development infrastructure for the new generations of African footballers that populate the top domestic leagues.
Cricket administrators on the other hand not only want to carve up more of the revenues between themselves but also to further reduce the number of teams in the World Cup. Much of this is probably well known already to most informed cricket lovers but what came as a shock to me was that it was the ICC, not the IOC, that blocked cricket (albeit T20) from being an Olympic sport. The big 3 fearful perhaps that potentially 100m Chinese fans and players may threaten their nice money spinning and political oligarchy. As Gideon Haigh, the respected Australian cricket writer and historian, asks "what other sport is trying to reduce the number of participating countries?"
The film though certainly missed a few pertinent points such as India's stubborn refusal to adopt DRS in complete defiance to the rest of the cricketing world and its symbiotic parasitic relationship with Pakistan. India needs to play Pakistan in the shorter form of the game as it generates revenues like no other sporting fixture apart from ironically perhaps what these contests closely represent - one off big boxing bouts but it is imperative that India wins so not to damage the precious brand. India therefore fails to support Pakistani cricket by not permitting its players in the lucrative IPL or honouring test series – not because of notional security issues but due to TV rights wrangling to name just 2 examples. Yes filthy lucre is at the heart of every decision-making in the game. Giles Clarke, Narayanaswami Srinivasan, Ravi Shastri and KP for instance (just because he is being KP) certainly don't come out of the film looking good. It’s just not cricket!
Nonetheless a decent well intentioned film that unfortunately will probably not appeal to many outside the narrow confines of cricket lovers in this country. Collins and Kimber liken India to 1920s America on speed in its path to modernity. Permit me then to quote from the novel that perhaps captured best the mood of the age - F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Even more pertinently “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”
Please appreciate Test cricket while it's still alive and don't let this gentleman die.
* Apologies for any inaccuracies in this review as I was distracted by sitting next to Joanna Lumley. Certainly the highlight of the evening for me. The lowlight though was being escorted by security for attempting to invade her personal space.
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