Out of The Ashes review

I don't know if anyone else has seen Out of The Ashes but my pre-Ashes deal to get Sky in return for my wife getting a dog meant that I have watched it now. It was eagerly anticipated by John Wright and by most cricket enthusiasts I imagine.

Overall view? It was ok. I know - hardly a sweeping judgement one way or the other, but perhaps it didn't live up to the hype? Maybe I was expecting too much, like knowing the score when you were watching the clips of matches, without which you only had the audio to guide you on the match situation and that happened all too rarely.

But there was one massive highlight for me. After a Shane Watson/Jonathan Trott style running mix up, two players were left at the same end. As the batsman that was out came off the pitch he shouted something which was translated below in English: "He's a bi-sexual. Why did you make me bat with a bi-sexual?"

That's what international cricket is all about....

Out of the Ashes

Just over a year ago I burbled about a new cricket film that might actually be good, Out of the Ashes. Then I said that the film was due out at the end of 2009, but the makers sensibly waited to film whether the team reached their goal of qualifying for the 2011 World Cup on the advice of the cricket-loving film director, Sam Mendes.

To re-cap, the Afghan national cricket was formed in 2001, rose from Division Five of the ICC's World Cricket League (current Div. 5 teams include Fiji and Jersey) in 2008 to having ODI status today. They played in this year's Twenty20 world cup and although they were knocked out in the group stages, they impressed with their performances and enthusiasm. In particular, Hamid Hassan who can bowl at 90 mph+ and played for Skegness, stood out. He will play for the MCC against Pakistan this summer.

Luckily for us, the team was followed along this incredible journey by a documentary team and Out of the Ashes is the result. The clips look great (see below) and those in the UK can watch the film in full when it is shown on BBC 4 in the summer.

Best film about Afghan cricket ever?

Afghanistan are currently playing in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers against teams like Denmark, Bermuda and Holland. Today they were beaten by U.A.E., which means they still qualify for the Super Eights round but are very unlikely to play in the 2011 World Cup. Considering that Afghanistan has practically no organised cricket, no proper pitches and just one bowling machine it is incredible that they have gotten this far, rising through Divisions 5,4 and 3 in the World Cricket League (beating Hong Kong along the way).

It's a heart-warming tale that has inspired a couple of excellent articles on Cricinfo, one with an interview of an Afghan player and another about a group of film-makers who have followed the team over the past 15 months. A trailer for the film, called Out of the Ashes (due out by the end of the year) is below.




Could this be the best cricket movie ever? Aside from Lagaan, I don't think there's much competition. Can Burblers out there recommend any other cricketing blockbusters?