In they came, the defenders of the universe, 30-something and beardy, 50-odd and grey.
Overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly white, most likely all middle-class. Saviour of Test cricket was on their minds, as they came to the Melbourne premiere of Death of A Gentleman.
Death of a Gentlemen is a film made by two youngish cricket writers who started as bloggers and developed into bona fide online cricket journos, Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber.
That’s the trajectory of the film too, two upstarts with half an idea and a ‘why-not’ attitude, making it up as they go along. But the film turns out much better than that sounds as they take a broad brush to the future of Test cricket.
As post-film panellist Gideon Haigh summarised, it’s a film that looking for an answer but ends up being more about searching for a question. So the criticism of a film will be just that: it’s a bit rambling, it’s a bit long, it’s a bit unfocussed and it goes around in circles a little.
Come to think of it it’s a bit like Test cricket.
However it’s utterly engrossing for cricket fans whether you know the background behind world cricket politicking or not.
If you were just a sports fan you might need half an hour shaved off, and that’s symbolic for all sorts of reasons as the film essentially deals with the rise of T20 cricket and its effect on Test cricket with all the machinations of power in boardrooms that sit behind it.
Conspiracy theorists will love it too, it does a good job of explaining the web of hands that feed in the international cricket world; things that make non-Indian cricket administrators shiver in the night.
There are some telling passages through the film, one featuring the supposed poster boy for all the ills of the cricket world, Chris Gayle. Away from Instagram, Gayle sounds a lot more sincere when he talks about the realities of getting a $1000 for an international as opposed to $800,000 for an IPL stint – never mind the internal bickering that plagues his nation.
It cuts to a packed Indian stadium where Gayle hits sixes to a heaving and delirious crowd with all the bells and whistles, we all see the overseas Test non-crowds on TV and perhaps we can understand the attraction.
Giles Clarke, the former chairman of the ECB, takes the villain role with an unintentionally hilariously pompous display.
In fact it’s the most entertaining documentary appearance by an Englishman since the Gallagher brothers owned the BritPop documentary Live Forever. Sadly the Gallgahers are meant to be ridiculous rock stars, Giles was the custodian of the game in its birthplace.
His labelling of the Stanford debacle as something that English cricket didn’t suffer from, and waving away the effect it had on West Indies cricket as ‘their problem’ may well sum up the message of the film.
In Australia we’ve likely been spoilt by centralised sports administration dealing for the greater good instead of self-interest over the last 25 years along the lines of American models.
The film deals with cricket’s power base unwilling to give up that kind control, and confirms the ICC as the toothless tiger.
As Haigh pointed out, it’s not that cricket doesn’t know that an independent and somewhat socialist model is not the best for running sport as the Woolf recommendations suggested, because it’s done exactly that with its various T20 leagues.
So there’s another motive that doesn’t take too much thinking to work out, but the film does a good job of making that clear.
Watching the film last night in the middle of the BBL season that is engaging all sorts of great TV and crowd numbers you can’t help but feel Collins, Kimber and everyone else in the theatre is fighting a losing battle – everywhere you look market forces are telling us that. And it’s not a bad thing that more people are watching the sport, is it?
The film attracts an all-star cast of past and present players to speak and they speak almost unanimously in favour of the long-form. So the more you think about it, the more you realise any seismic shift back to Test cricket sanctity and balance in the brave new world needs to be player-driven.
Whether the players are up for that sacrifice is another thing. All of the nobility and spirt of cricket jargon might also need to be dropped, it can obfuscate the real issues and play into the hands of the dinosaur argument used against Test traditionalists.
For over 100 years it was the establishment who fought tooth and nail for the status quo as radicals took shots from the outside to modernise cricket in different ways.
Now it’s the radicals like Collins and Kimber who are taking on the establishment to preserve a status quo and they had a small army who looked a lot like the establishment turn up to watch the film last night. Strange days indeed.
correction
Guest
Didn't 50,000 turn up to day 1 of the test in Melbourne today, whilst only 20,000 went to the BBL the other night? Not too bad and that is before you take into account tv ratings and how bad West Indies are. South Africa would have doubled the gate.
vocans
Guest
The players get the cash now, and I'd guess CA will hope to be raking it in in the not too distant future. The players also have an eye on the bundle to be had in India. TV is also hungry for content.
BrainsTrust
Guest
Why is it called the Bash for Cash, as far as I estimate Cricket Australia would have invested about 100 million into it and its only now breaking even for them.If they were solely running on the Big Bash they would be have been liquidated years ago. Test cricket is paying for the Big Bash not the other way around.
Vocans
Guest
Personally, bash cricket bores the hell out of me. Most of it relies on those big bats. The one thing I enjoy is the fielding. It is instant coffee to test cricket's fine espresso. I don't hanker after the world of the past, but I do want the world to be a place where test cricket is valued way and above the bash for cash.
Vocans
Guest
Interesting ... Shorts are held to be disrespectful in most of the Middle East.
BrainsTrust
Guest
Test cricket is rating higher in the evening sessions, people are paying more tickets and the best West Indian players along with the rest of the worlds best player are in the Big Bash. What exactly are the costs associated with test cricket, Cricket Australia is receiving 200 million from test cricket essentially a year yet gettkng 20 million only from the Big Bash.
BrainsTrust
Guest
In Cricket the administrators are rushing to prostitute the sport despite their being little appetite for it. Lets not kids ourselves that Test cricket was pure, the Pakistan cricket team reduced test cricket to a match fixing joke. It was obvious to me that after Imran Khan left the team they were fixing stuff but little notice was taken. The difference in money between the more weallthier nations has made the sport a joke even before T20. Kerry Packer was the one person who was willing to look past nationality, and paid for the best cricketers not like today where the Australians were well paid and the West Indies were paupers in a stupid test series. WHat happens if Allen Stanford who swindled investors for that ridiculkous T20 series decided male lingerie t20 would be even more succesfull and payed for all the journalists to travel to the first match and put them up in 5 star resorts.. The TV ratings for the first male lingerie T20 would be astronomical and the newspapers here would then write how it would replace normal T20 and goodbye test cricket. This is basically whats happening now. We are seeing enormous amounts being wasted on T20, you have all the production costs and then you have low ticket prices, and then even then they exagerrate crowds. Then what about all the wages to attract all the international players. Meanwhile test cricket ticket prices are much higher fir a single day and there is no multi million marketing budget.. Who is kidding who about T20, is this the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme outside of India. I also found it perplexing how the Ashes was always considered so important when England were next to useless and they would not bother televising test cricket from the continent even though it was a better time slot. Now that India is the pot of gold there seems to be a lot more interest in India than there was before.
Johnno
Guest
Like an empire fading. Young people don't care about Test-cricket, it costs to much to develop and maintain, and the establishment don't care either. Minorities rarely set the agenda, and I like test cricket, but the younger generation love T20, the majority or the future fans anyway. If you all so care about Test cricket so much, get out and watch the west indies play, and start going to the sheffield shield if long form of the game means so much to you. Oh and T20-fans do turn up to T20 games.
fp11
Guest
I've seen the movie. Very good movie. Exposed lots of cricket politics to the wider audiences.I read Jarrod's blog all the time (cricketwithballs.com) and he is very talented writer. However, I think that Jarrod and Sam could have achieved much more by dressing a little bit more professionally. Jarrod especially seemed to think that shorts are OK for all occasions. This was evident toward the end of the film when they were waiting in Dubai to ambush chairman of ECB Colin Graves who was happy to be interview earlier in the piece. But when Jarrod and his shorts jumped at Mr. Graves (who walked out of the lift in a five star hotel), poor Colin had not option but to run for his life. What were they thinking. Also great Gideon Haigh agreed to be interviewed but the boys missed their chance to really get the answers out of him.
Simoc
Guest
As a previous chairman of selectors said to me, the players adore T20. Crowds, money; only 4 overs for a fast bowler and excitement. The bit they all say about test cricket being most important is for the media, because that is what the establishment wants to hear.
Allanthus
Guest
Thanks Brutas, nice, thoughtful read in between opening the presents and waiting to crack open the first beer!