Cricket and more specifically, Test Cricket is a unique game. A battle of tactics, a battle of endurance, a duel between bat and ball and a game of chess that can go for 5 days and still end in a draw. It is a total mystery to many and a passion to millions of others around the world.
This particular DVD focuses on a collection of players who are being billed as the Modern Masters of the game. It includes great international players such as Viv Richards, the late Malcom Marshall, Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham and Sachin Tendulkar. Aussie players are well represented, in fact dominate the list, with great names such as Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee, Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Allan Border and Glenn McGrath, among others, included.
The format of this presentation is simple. There is chapter devoted to each player and at the beginning of each chapter a brief voice over introduces that player while we view a slide that summarizes their career statistics. Once the voice over finishes, we are shown interview footage with former players and commentators as they discuss that player, their character, technique and impact on the game. We are also shown footage of one or more significant performance from their career. All of the footage shown is from Channel 9's television broadcasts in Australia between 1980 and 2000.
I am a big fan of test Cricket and am 'mature' enough to have seen all of the players on this DVD at their prime. I particularly enjoyed seeing footage of Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee. I can vividly remember watching Lillee charge in off his long run at the MCG and jag the ball off the seam in both directions. Ah, those were the days!
As you would expect from a documentary using television footage from the early eighties to only a couple of years ago, the quality of the full-frame vision varies from adequate to very good. Some of the footage from the early eighties is a little soft and on occasion suffers from poor shadow detail or some noise. The more recent footage is clean and clear. In all cases this video transfer is clear enough for you to enjoy watching what is being presented.
This is a dual layer disc with the layer change occurring at 76:44. It is pretty well placed as it occurs during the display of a static slide.
As this is mainly a dialogue driven documentary, having only a Dolby Digital 2.0 track is no impediment to enjoyment. The dialogue spoken by interviewees and commentators is always clear and always in sync.
