Cricket-The Modern Masters (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio Featurette-10 Additional Interviews & 2 Hat-Tricks
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	104:45
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (79:19)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

   Cricket - The Modern Masters is the second disc in the Cricket Connoisseur Series from Roadshow Home Entertainment. The first disc was the suitably titled Cricket - The Vintage Performances which was released just prior to Christmas 2001. I found that disc to be of decent quality and held high expectations when I popped this one in the player.

    The format for this release is almost exactly the same as the first disc. It has been put together from material shown on Channel Nine's cricket coverage since 1980 and is again hosted by Ken Sutcliffe. While the first disc in the series focused on particular moments in single matches by both teams and individuals, this disc focuses only on the individual players that have been dubbed 'masters' over the last 25 or so years. It covers in more detail their statistics and features footage of the more memorable moments in their careers. Great players of the past such as Australians Dennis Lillee, Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Doug Walters, and Rodney Marsh, together with West Indians Malcolm Marshall, Vivian Richards, and Englishman Ian 'Beefy' Botham are among those featured. There are also some current players featured including the Waugh brothers, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, and Indian Maestro Sachin Tendulkar.

    Each of the players featured have their own chapter (Lillee and Marsh share a chapter) and these commence with a graphic showing their test career stats (there is virtually no one-day international footage on this disc). We also see interviews with some of the 'masters' and other various players that competed against or with them in addition to the various clips of footage. Some of the rare moments that are replayed include;

• The day at the Gabba when Richard Hadlee took 9/52 against Australia.

• The moments that Allan Border passed 10,000 and 11,000 test runs.

• The over when Ian Botham smacked Merv Hughes for 22 runs.

• Highlights of Shane Warne's first test match against India in 1992.

• A classic and hilarious moment when Dennis Lillee is batting against Richard Hadlee. It had me in stitches.

    The overall running time is a reasonable 104:45 minutes for the main feature and with the additional footage running for 27:45 minutes, the total running time of 132:30 represents pretty good value for money.

    There are two errors on this disc that deserve mentioning. One is a simple packaging error. It states that Chapter 7 is The Waugh Twins Record.  This is incorrect and is actually the title of Chapter 7 on the first disc in the series. As a result, all the chapters after this point are out by one from the actual disc. There are only 14 Chapters present on the disc but the packaging states that there are 15.

    The second error is far more serious and is tantamount to blasphemy. They spelt Dennis Lillee's name wrong! On the chapter selection menu we get Dennis Lillie. Some things just cannot be forgiven.

    Oh, and Glenn McGrath's name is spelt incorrectly as well. There are two N's in Glenn, not one.

Video

    The quality of the video is exactly the same as the first disc in the series. Presented full screen 1.33:1 it is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. Naturally enough, it is television broadcast quality throughout, ranging from 1980 onwards through to very recent material.

   While the footage is of mixed vintages, it is all of reasonable quality. The early 80s footage is not as sharp as the recent material and does exhibit some slightly distracting grain at times. The recent video is excellent, being crisp, clear, and grain free.

    The colours are well rendered and there are no problems to contend with other than the 1980s material looking a bit more washed out.

    No MPEG artefacts are evident and despite the age of some of the other source material, it is in surprisingly good shape. There is virtually no low level noise.

    Somewhat surprisingly, there is a set of subtitles available on this disc, English for the Hearing Impaired, which are available throughout the entire presentation. They are quite good, not completely accurate, but close enough and don't encroach on the screen graphics that are so prevalent in cricket broadcasts. They move up the screen whenever any graphics appear on the screen - a nice touch.

    This is a dual layered disc that features a rather clunky and clumsily-handled layer change, much like the first disc in the series. The change at 79:19 is right at the end of Tony Grieg discussing Allan Border's cover drive and causes the last couple of words of his sentence to be clipped thus rendering it incomplete. Among the worst layer changes that I have seen.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is virtually identical to what was offered on the first disc in the series. Comprised mostly of television highlights, we get television quality audio. This is not to say it is bad. It does its job and that's all that can be expected of it.

    There is only one audio track available, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    Dialogue is clear and concise at all times.

    Apart from the Wide World of Sports introductory theme, there is no music.

    There is no surround nor subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

    The main theme playing in an endless loop.

Featurette - 12 Additional Interviews

    Some additional interview or reminiscences featuring the likes of Ian Chappell, and Allan Border discussing various moments and providing some analysis on aspects of the game. Topics covered include Viv Richards getting hit on the head, Mark Waugh getting out in the 90s and the day Dennis Lillee debuted his aluminium bat. There is no actual cricket footage presented in this section (other than the hat-tricks mentioned below).

    There is also a complete replay of Shane Warne's hat-trick against England at the MCG in 1994, and Glenn McGrath's hat-trick against the West Indies at the WACA in 2000. Both of these pieces of footage are also on the first disc in the series.

    The total running time for these 10 short interviews and 2 hat-tricks is 27:45 minutes. They can be selected to play sequentially from the beginning or individually.

    A Region 1 disc about cricket would be a sight to see. Cricket is a very strange game to most in the North American continent (though I seem to remember Canada competing in a world cup many years ago). This disc is not available in Region 1 and being very much aimed at Australian audiences, I would seriously doubt that it will ever appear there.

    The quality of this disc is on par with the first one in the series and aside from the rather clunky layer change, cannot be faulted.

    I again enjoyed this disc, though not to quite the same level as the first title in the series. There is some footage presented here that is repeated from that disc and as such isn't quite as interesting. The moments presented, while great from a nostalgia viewpoint are not quite as memorable as those featured in The Vintage Performances disc.

    Nonetheless, this still comes very much recommended for cricket fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall