Cricket-The Vintage Performances (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio Featurette-More on Gilchrist/Langer Partnership Featurette-More on Greg Chappell's Last Match Featurette-Tim May's Bowling Performance in the Closest Test Featurette-Last 2 Overs of Michael Bevan's 1 day International Victory
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	85:24 (Case: 80)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (74:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    With summer now upon us, the sound of leather on willow will once again be ringing out in back gardens and parks, and on television we will settle in to listen to the dulcet tones of Richie and the rest of the Channel Nine commentary team describing the ball-by-ball action as the mighty Aussie team whip the Kiwis and the South Africans into line. There isn't much else that signifies that summer is finally here than listening to the excitable Bill Lawry exclaim "got him - he's gone - it's all happening!!!"

    If I wasn't spending all my spare time watching and reviewing DVDs, I reckon I'd be opening bowler for my local team right now. My passion for DVDs would only be surpassed by my love of the great game of cricket. In fact, just like the Prime Minister, I'd consider myself to be a cricket tragic (the term used for those that love the game more than the actual players do!). In fact as I type this review, I am perched in my lounge chair with my laptop and the TV tuned into the 3rd Test between the almighty Aussies and New Zealand from the WACA in Perth...hang on a second, Glenn McGrath's coming in to bowl...

    ...anyway, what better way to warm up for the summer barrage of bouncers and boundaries than with a compilation package of the some of the best moments in recent Australian cricket history. I don't know about you, but I get a tingle up my spine whenever I see some of the defining moments in recent cricket history, such as the 1993 Ashes Test where Warney bowls Mike Gatting with his first ball bowled in England, and what about the magic moment when Australia beat South Africa in the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup (the latter is sadly lacking from this disc)?

    Cricket - The Vintage Performances has been put together from material shown on Channel Nine's coverage over the last 25 years. Highlights included are such gems as The Centenary Test at the MCG in 1977, the closest ever test between The West Indies and Australia in Adelaide in 1993 that ended in a 1 run result, the famous 'first ball' delivery by Shane Warne to Mike Gatting during the 1993 Ashes tour, Mark 'Tubby' Taylor's epic 334 in Pakistan (the back cover lists it as being in India), right through to more recent footage such as Glenn McGrath's superb hat-trick against the West Indies at the WACA in December 2000 (for which I was privileged to be seated right behind the bowler's arm at the ground that morning).

    Each of the highlights are presented as chapters with an introduction by Channel Nine's Ken Sutcliffe and interviews with the players featured in each moment as they reminisce about their 'vintage' performance. This adds a bit more value to the package, and means it is not simply a highlights compilation like many of its VHS predecessors such as 'Crick-Ups'. I had only intended sampling this disc while watching the third test, but got so caught up with the nostalgia that I watched the whole lot right through and missed a couple of wickets in the New Zealand innings! - the things we do to bring you our reviews!

    The overall running time is a reasonable 85 minutes, though exclusive to the DVD release is some additional footage from four of the vintage performances. In the case of the Closest ever Test and Michael Bevan's winning one day innings, we get to see the full last two overs rather than just highlights. This bumps the overall running time of the package to over 2 hours.

Video

  Presented full screen 1.33:1, the transfer is not 16x9 enhanced. Naturally enough, it is television broadcast quality throughout ranging from mid 70s quality footage through to very recent material.

   While the footage is of mixed vintages, it is all of reasonable quality. The 70s and early 80s moments are a bit fuzzier and not as sharp as the recent material, but the technological advances in broadcast camera equipment makes this perfectly understandable.

    The colours are well rendered and there are no problems to contend with.

    No MPEG artefacts are evident and despite the age of some of the other source material, it is in surprisingly good shape. A few instances of low level noise pop up but the bright outdoor footage never lets it cause a problem.

    Somewhat surprisingly, there is a set of subtitles available on this disc. They are English for the Hearing Impaired, and 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. The change at 74:40 is right at the end of Merv Hughes discussing his hat-trick and the pause causes the last couple of words of his sentence to be clipped, thus rendering it incomplete. Possibly the worst layer change I have ever seen.

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Audio

    Seeing as the disc is comprised 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.

    There is only one audio track available, this 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 or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Main Menu Audio

Featurette - More on Gilchrist/Langer Partnership

    A further 8:27 minutes of highlights from the Gilchrist and Langer partnership in the 1999 test against Pakistan in Hobart. This is straight highlights for the first couple of minutes and then continues in real time for the last few balls before Australia's record-breaking win. There is no interview or additional audio other than the standard commentary from the day. Presented full screen 1.33:1 and audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Featurette - More on Greg Chappell's Last Match

    An additional 7:24 minutes of Greg Chappell's last test match in 1984. Starts with highlights of Greg Chappell taking several slips catches including the one to take him to the record number of catches by a fielder other than the wicketkeeper, then moves onto his batting efforts where he scored 182 to pass Sir Donald Bradman's Australian Test Aggregate record of 6996 runs. Presented full screen 1.33:1 and audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Featurette - Tim May's Bowling Performance in the Closest Test

    Not really a good title for this extra as it only has two and a half minutes of Tim May's bowling effort in taking 5 wickets and then the remaining ten minutes is dedicated to the full last two overs at the end of the match where Tim May and Craig McDermott are batting and trying to get the remaining runs that Australia needed to pinch an improbable win. Video is 1.33:1 full screen and audio is Dolby Digital 2.0. Total running time is 12:46 minutes.

Featurette - Last 2 Overs of Michael Bevan's 1 day International Victory

    Running for a total of 15:27 minutes, this extra shows the full last two overs of the one-day international match between Australia and The West Indies at Sydney in 1996 where Michael Bevan hits a boundary off the last ball of the game to win. Full screen 1.33:1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio round out the package.

   Have you ever tried explaining cricket to an American? It is a near impossibility. Firstly, the concept that a sporting contest can actually last for 5 days is just completely beyond their comprehension and then trying to describe fielding positions such as Gully and Silly Mid-On brings much mirth. As one would expect, this disc is not available in Region 1 and is most likely to not ever appear there.

    I loved every minute of this. An absolute must-have for any self imposed cricket fanatic and a very highly recommended stocking-stuffer present for anyone with a cricket fan in the family. Watching these highlights brought back many, many memories.

    The video and audio quality is spot-on given the nature of the source. The overall package is well produced and we even get some extra footage that pushes the overall running time to over 2 hours. Great value.

    I look forward to the next two instalments in the series with much anticipation.

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