Not just mere entertainment for leisure, cricket is an emotional nomenclature and a reflection of life. The lifestyle of countless people has revolved around this sport for ages. Hundreds of legends have come and gone. Those stories have found an elite place from the small to the big screen. The article has featured some of the top-rated cricket movies and series among them.
Top 10 Best Cricket Movies and Series of All Time
Fire in Babylon | 2010 | IMDb: 7.8
This British documentary is about the record-breaking West Indies cricket team of the 1970s and 1980s. The documentary chronicles the rise of legendary West Indies cricket legendary players who dominated world cricket for almost twenty years. The film featured interviews with several famous players, including Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Derrick Murray, Gordon Greenidge, Michael Holding, Desmond Haynes, Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts, and Viv Richards. The film’s writer and director Steven Riley was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Best Documentary. The movie won a UNESCO award jointly with Reggae Britannia at the Jamaica Reggae Film Festival.
Chennai 600028 | 2007 | IMDb: 7.9
This Indian Tamil-language film was the first directorial film of Venkat Prabhu. In his own writing, he told the story of suburbian friendship, love, and rivalry centered on Indian cricket.
The movie stars Shiva, Premji, Joy, Arvind Akash, and Nithin Satya. Vijayalakshmi Firoz and Christine Zedek made their acting debut in this film. The film was remade in Bengali as ‘Le Chakka’ in 2010, in Sinhala as ‘Super Six’ in 2012, and in Kannada as ‘Bangalore 560023’ in 2015. A sequel to the film was also released in 2016; Chennai 600028 II: Second Innings.
M.S. Dhoni-The Untold Story | 2016 | IMDb: 8
This Indian Hindi-language drama film was directed by Neeraj Pandey. The movie was co-written by Pandey and Dilip Jha. This biopic focused on various important events in the life of former Indian national cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The late Sushant Singh Rajput played the role of Dhoni in the film. Kiara Advani, Disha Patani, Bhumika Chawla, and Anupam Kher also played important roles in the film. Disha Patani won the Stardust Award, Screen Award, and International Indian Film Academy Awards for Best Debut Actress for her performance in the movie.
Iqbal | 2005 | IMDb: 8.1
Written and directed by Nagesh Kukunu, this sports drama film is produced by Subhash Ghai under Mukta Searchlight Films. This coming-of-age movie is about a cricket-crazy deaf and mute boy from a remote Indian village. The boy’s struggle for his dream of playing for the Indian national cricket team has been broadly highlighted here. The film stars Nasiruddin Shah, Shreyas Talpade, Girish Karnad, Yatin Karekar, Pratiksha Lonkar and Shweta Basu Prasad. This film got several awards including National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues.
Lagaan | 2001 | IMDb: 8.1
The full name is Lagaan: Once upon a time in India. Written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, this movie is one of the best movies in the history of cricket. This epic musical sports film was the first project of Aamir Khan’s production. The film stars Aamir Khan alongside debutant Gracie Singh, British actors Rachel Shelley and Paul Blackthorn. The movie shows the residents of a small village in Victorian India playing cricket against the oppressive British rulers, betting on their future. The nationally acclaimed film got the nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as the 3rd Indian film.
Selection Day | 2018-2019 | IMDb: 7.4
This television series is based on Arvind Adigar’s 2016 novel of the same name. Produced by Anil Kapoor and Anand Takar, the series is directed by Udayan Prasad and Karan Boolani. Sumit Aurora added Hindi dialogues. The drama series stars Mohammad Samad, Karanvir Malhotra, Yash Dhole, Rajesh Tailang, and Ratna Pathak Shah. The story of the series shows the life of two brothers named Radha and Manjur, who were raised by their cricket-loving father as quite suitable players. They got the chance to play in the Domestic Cricket League.
Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War | 2012 | IMDb: 7.8
‘Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War’ is basically a book by Christopher Lee, first published in 2012. This book, based on the 1970s, was adapted into a mini-series of the same name with only two episodes. Directed by Diana Reed, the story revolves around Kerry Packer, the creator of World Series Cricket, who assembled bring together the greatest players in the world and set up a parallel cricket tournament. The series stars Lachi Hulme, Matthew Le Navez, Brendon Cowell, Damon Gameu, Abe Forsyth, and Cariba Hein.
Inside Edge | 2017-present | IMDb: 8
This Indian sports-drama series produced by Karan Anshuman is the first Hindi-language Amazon Originals series. The story of the series revolves around the Mumbai Mavericks. Here the dark side of cricket is dramatized with spot-fixing by the T20 cricket league owners. The stars of the series are Vivek Oberoi, Siddhanta Chaturvedi, Richa Chada, Angad Bedi, Tanuj Birwani, Sayani Gupta, Swapna Pabbi, and Amir Bashir. This series has a total of 30 episodes in 3 seasons. The series was nominated for Best Drama Series at the 2018 International Emmy Awards.
Bodyline | 1984 | IMDb: 8.5
The English Ashes series from 1932 to 1933 was an important chapter in cricket history when England went to play in Australia. This TV series has presented that time dramatically through the small screen. This 7 episode series showed the bodyline cricketing strategy developed by the English cricket team at that time which is also known as the fast leg theory. The mini-series was directed by Carl Schultz, George Ogilvy, Danny Lawrence, and Lex Marinos. The series casts were Gary Sweet, Hugo Weaving, Jim Holt, and Frank Thring.
The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team | 2020 | IMDb: 8.9
This Australian docu-series is a joint production of Amazon Prime Video and Cricket Australia. The series is directed by Adrian Brown. Following the Australian ball-tampering scandal in 2018, the Australian national cricket team was going through a very difficult time. That incident and its effects have been captured in this 8-episode documentary. Leading players in the video footage are Tim Payne, Steve Smith, David Warner, Justin Langer, and Aaron Finch.
In a nutshell
So far, we have discussed the best cricket-focused movies and series of all time. Besides portraying the cricket teams or legendary players, these movies/series encourage sports enthusiasts to choose cricket as a career. A prospective Cricketer should always value his/her own talent and sharpen it with utmost effort – that was the real message of these movies and series.
Source: United News of Bangladesh