Death Of A Gentlemen

Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber are cricket journalists, commentators and simply love the game. They love the test version of the game most of all. But they had a problem, they were concerned that test cricket was becoming irrelevent and so they set out with a question. Is test cricket dying? Some believed that 20/20, its new and sexy cousins was simply out gunning the old test format. With this question they spent the next few years exploring this question and found some very difficult answers.

When you love something it can be hard to see it being destroyed. The test is not only an intergral part of cricket history but it is also a wonderful source to reflect on the growing power of commercial interest in sport and in media in general.I have to say that the film works on so many levels. It works as a story of power, it works as a document on business within sport and it works as a morality play. It does all this in simple because it makes very valid and valuable points about the way media rights are used and how this has destroyed the game they love. What we see within this work is the new norm of media. That is to say the new environment and media space where monopoly control vast sways of rights and money. They then use this to enrich themselves and their side and this is often not to be challenged or questioned. This has created an arena where three teams are king makers and if you are outside of these, then you are a sitting duck. The sad truth is that this is not only a problem in cricket but thanks to the work of these two journalists we are exposed to the cricket world and its unbalanced realms or spheres of power.

With the Ashes currently ongoing it is interesting to watch a film that is pioneering the form against such opposition. I myself have seen the IPL and it has the power to pull vast audiences that want fast and explosive sports. This has its upsides like more experience for players and exposure for up and coming cricketeers. IPL and 20/20 is the new audience desire and with the fast pace world, we all want things faster and faster. The downsides or issues however comes about when you see that the level field that cricket should have, is scrapped by money from superstars and conglomerates. This means that great cricketeers from countries outside of the top three are not given opportunites, money, status and of course matches. Now the story goes that would it not correct itself very simple economic theory? Well maybe not. You see that as the BCCI is looking for control it can almost auto correct the response and this will damage the sport as much as corruption in the 90s did. Sadly however nationalism will play apart in this and so will identity. It seems that the message in the film is relevant but I fear no one is listening.