June 18, 2011
“Anyone who grew up in the West Indies wanted to play for the West Indies Cricket Team”. In the 1960s and & 70s the West Indies cricket team were called Calypso cricketers because they were entertaining and always lost. But between 1976 and 1991 the team were unbeaten in Test Cricket. This team were possibly the greatest sports team in history and the film depicts how it happened.
This is a documentary of interviews with the players, supporters and videos of the team playing. There are also some entertaining comments from Bunny Wailer (of The Wailers) and musical interludes from a variety of Caribbean musicians. It tells the story from where the team were in the 60s, through how the team came together under the captaincy of Clive Lloyd, the discovery of speed bowlers, the racism they faced and overcoming their “white masters”.
Being a recent fan of cricket I think there were a lot of comments and jokes in this film I didn’t fully understand (from the laughs of the rest of the audience). However, as someone who has only in the last couple of years learnt that there are different types of bowlers, it was really interesting to see how the composition of teams (selection of bowlers) has come about. I now know why batsmen wear so much protection, bouncing balls are killers! The West Indies team took a lot of abuse for that even though Australia had fast bowlers first. It would have been nice to have heard the opinions of some English or Australian players who faced these bowlers but it appears the directors were only interested in showing the West Indies' view point.
It was really interesting to hear about the racism the team faced, particularly in Australia. Also how some of the team played for an Apartheid team in South Africa, becoming “honorary white men” but still weren’t allowed to sit in a train carriage for white people.
This is definitely a film for cricket fans but also interesting for anyone studying racism or black culture. I’m still not entirely sure why there were so many people singing about cricket or particular players, it broke up the film. This seemed like a strange decision for a film maker to me but maybe showing the whole culture was their goal. If so, goal achieved! I would have been much happier just to listen to the players and watch the cricket footage.
This is a documentary of interviews with the players, supporters and videos of the team playing. There are also some entertaining comments from Bunny Wailer (of The Wailers) and musical interludes from a variety of Caribbean musicians. It tells the story from where the team were in the 60s, through how the team came together under the captaincy of Clive Lloyd, the discovery of speed bowlers, the racism they faced and overcoming their “white masters”.
Being a recent fan of cricket I think there were a lot of comments and jokes in this film I didn’t fully understand (from the laughs of the rest of the audience). However, as someone who has only in the last couple of years learnt that there are different types of bowlers, it was really interesting to see how the composition of teams (selection of bowlers) has come about. I now know why batsmen wear so much protection, bouncing balls are killers! The West Indies team took a lot of abuse for that even though Australia had fast bowlers first. It would have been nice to have heard the opinions of some English or Australian players who faced these bowlers but it appears the directors were only interested in showing the West Indies' view point.
It was really interesting to hear about the racism the team faced, particularly in Australia. Also how some of the team played for an Apartheid team in South Africa, becoming “honorary white men” but still weren’t allowed to sit in a train carriage for white people.
This is definitely a film for cricket fans but also interesting for anyone studying racism or black culture. I’m still not entirely sure why there were so many people singing about cricket or particular players, it broke up the film. This seemed like a strange decision for a film maker to me but maybe showing the whole culture was their goal. If so, goal achieved! I would have been much happier just to listen to the players and watch the cricket footage.