Directed by : Stevan Riley
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727790/
Its my 1st sports documentary, and first time I am writing on a documentary film. The first audio of the film begins with a bouncer that hits the batsman very badly, and the commentary of Geoffrey Boycott. Great commentary and aggressive bowling, makes cricket double exciting to watch. Something today's cricket is missing.
The documentary shows the times when WI cricket were struggling, they were termed as players who would entertain the crowd, but end up on the losing side. And given the name of 'Calypso Cricketers'. Until, Clive Lloyd stepped in as captain, considered very calm in his approach to handling the team. His first major challenge was playing against Aus in Aus, and he failed at it as Wi lost that test series 5-1 (yea, 6 match series use to happen then.. and today there are silly 2 match series at times). Wi were made to struggle, with some very pacy fast bowling by Lillee, Thompson and co aimed at their bodies. Lloyd took that strategy, and Wi pacers Robert and Holding took inspiration from it to make India suffer during their Wi tour(it was the same tour where they chased 406 in 4th innings, but this documentary didn't mention it).
Then, it was followed with England series, their major enemies as shown in documentary who treated them as slaves during 60's and before, plus the racism that was strong at that time. Tony Greig's comment 'We will make them grovel', and it costed his team badly as WI aggression doubled, and they had a easy test series win.
Later, they took revenge against Australia in Australia, winning 3-0. They always kept producing great fast bowlers then, Holding, Garner, Roberts, Croft, Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh.
Also, the batting heroics of Greenidge and Viv Richards (the master blaster of that time) were shown in few games. Plus, the narration with the players telling how it was then, Viv describing his team's policy of banging the ball short as, aggression meets aggression, no one ever intended to kill people. They were just doing their job. Also, the crowd that would be non-sporting to them specially while playing in Australia, along with the sledging of Australia.
They included Wi music, without which the documentary would had been incomplete, plus 2-3 Wi supporters footage. The latter half of the film was slightly less appealing, mainly because I just wanted to see cricket related things only instead of racism, and different cities of Wi. Even then, Wi had probs with their board, all players getting ban for playing world series, and then the public protested making Wi players retun back.
Holding states in the final scene of the film, that Wi didn't lose a single test series for 15 continuous years from 1980 to 1995. Maybe, they could had shown more of those clips..
There is definately a favourism done towards the Wi cricket in the film plus lots of drama enforced through continuous body hits and crowd background, but for someone like me who hasn't seen any cricket of that time.. this movie works a lot. The passion, overcoming hard-times, the aggression Wi cricket had at that time, they considered themselves unbeatable. Watch this film to see the rise of Wi cricket during late 70's. You would definately love batsman being hit all over by Wi bowlers (at a time when there were no helmets either, and some players didn't prefer wearing).
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727790/
Its my 1st sports documentary, and first time I am writing on a documentary film. The first audio of the film begins with a bouncer that hits the batsman very badly, and the commentary of Geoffrey Boycott. Great commentary and aggressive bowling, makes cricket double exciting to watch. Something today's cricket is missing.
The documentary shows the times when WI cricket were struggling, they were termed as players who would entertain the crowd, but end up on the losing side. And given the name of 'Calypso Cricketers'. Until, Clive Lloyd stepped in as captain, considered very calm in his approach to handling the team. His first major challenge was playing against Aus in Aus, and he failed at it as Wi lost that test series 5-1 (yea, 6 match series use to happen then.. and today there are silly 2 match series at times). Wi were made to struggle, with some very pacy fast bowling by Lillee, Thompson and co aimed at their bodies. Lloyd took that strategy, and Wi pacers Robert and Holding took inspiration from it to make India suffer during their Wi tour(it was the same tour where they chased 406 in 4th innings, but this documentary didn't mention it).
Then, it was followed with England series, their major enemies as shown in documentary who treated them as slaves during 60's and before, plus the racism that was strong at that time. Tony Greig's comment 'We will make them grovel', and it costed his team badly as WI aggression doubled, and they had a easy test series win.
Later, they took revenge against Australia in Australia, winning 3-0. They always kept producing great fast bowlers then, Holding, Garner, Roberts, Croft, Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh.
Also, the batting heroics of Greenidge and Viv Richards (the master blaster of that time) were shown in few games. Plus, the narration with the players telling how it was then, Viv describing his team's policy of banging the ball short as, aggression meets aggression, no one ever intended to kill people. They were just doing their job. Also, the crowd that would be non-sporting to them specially while playing in Australia, along with the sledging of Australia.
They included Wi music, without which the documentary would had been incomplete, plus 2-3 Wi supporters footage. The latter half of the film was slightly less appealing, mainly because I just wanted to see cricket related things only instead of racism, and different cities of Wi. Even then, Wi had probs with their board, all players getting ban for playing world series, and then the public protested making Wi players retun back.
Holding states in the final scene of the film, that Wi didn't lose a single test series for 15 continuous years from 1980 to 1995. Maybe, they could had shown more of those clips..
There is definately a favourism done towards the Wi cricket in the film plus lots of drama enforced through continuous body hits and crowd background, but for someone like me who hasn't seen any cricket of that time.. this movie works a lot. The passion, overcoming hard-times, the aggression Wi cricket had at that time, they considered themselves unbeatable. Watch this film to see the rise of Wi cricket during late 70's. You would definately love batsman being hit all over by Wi bowlers (at a time when there were no helmets either, and some players didn't prefer wearing).
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