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Another DVD in the Connoisseur Video Series and the
second I have had the pleasure to review. If you read my earlier review on ‘Cricket - The Vintage Performances’ you
would know that I am a lover of cricket. If you also are a lover of cricket
again you will thoroughly enjoy this DVD.
The DVD entitled ‘Cricket - The Modern Masters’ is a
celebration of the careers of some of the finest cricketers ever to grace cricket ovals
around the world. Channel Nine has selected a mix of current and former Australian players
along with now since retired former greats such as Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee & the
master blaster, Viv Richards.
The DVD is a collection of 13 selected careers and again like ‘Vintage
Performances’ each one has been given it’s own chapter so you can go straight to
your chosen one very easily. The chosen careers are:-
- Introduction by Ken Sutcliffe
- Viv Richards (One of the coolest players ever !!)
- Glenn McGrath
- Sachin Tendulkar
- Richard Hadlee (Some great footage of here of the banter, confrontations between
Lillee & Hadlee. Although it appeared Lillee had the last laugh when Hadlee dropped
him off his own bowling, not good after you’ve been sledging the man).
- Greg Chappell
- Steve & Mark Waugh
- Malcolm Marshall (Another fast bowling favourite of mine)
- Doug Walters
- Dennis Lillee & Rodney Marsh
- Allan Border
- Ian Botham (Watch him slam 22 runs off one over from Merv Hughes).
- Shane Warne
The inside cover incorrectly indicates that Chapter 7 is ‘The Waugh Twins
Record’, this is not on the disc at all. Each career performance segment contains an
introduction by Channel Nine’s Ken Sutcliffe and comments, opinions and interviews
with the actual players involved, channel nine commentators, former opponents and team
mates etc. My only gripe with the DVD is the choice of some of the chosen players for the
‘Masters’ being that Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, The Waugh Twins & Greg
Chappell. I have no doubt that they are ‘Masters’ in every way but they were
also featured in one way or another on the ‘Vintage Performances’ series DVD and
with the wealth of cricketing talent that we have seen over the years who are not featured
on either DVD such as Geoff Lawson, Clive Lloyd, Wasim Akram, Allan Donald and so on , in
my opinion it would have been better to include players not previously featured. Buy hey,
that’s my personal opinion on the content only and am sure others will disagree. |
So how does this transfer hold up?
VIDEO
I am pretty much going to re-hash what I said in my review of ‘Vintage
Performances’ here as they are both pretty much identical in terms of video
transfers, so I will. The video transfer is presented in Full Frame 4x3
mode (aspect ratio of 4x3). The transfer is of good quality but as designed for
television, it is abit better than broadcast television quality. Again, some of the older
cricket footage of performances are a little soft looking and don’t have the
clarity& detail that we have with todays television of cameras and film. Interviews
with players, commentators such as Allan Border and in my opinion the worst cricket
commentator still on air today, Ian Chappell are sharp & clear. |
AUDIO
Same comments here as well. The audio is presented in Dolby 2.0
channel. It’s pretty much dialogue driven with the interviews and the
footage of the moments. Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there are no use of
the surrounds or subwoofer as expected. |
EXTRAS
I found the special features a little bit on the disappointing
side. First off we have a number of short interviews with Ian Chappell where he reminisces
about the "Masters", in one instance he goes on in great length and detail of
the time when Viv Richards got struck heavily on the head with a ball bowled by Greg
Chappell (Viv Richards never wore a helmet, even to the fastest of bowlers, see I told
you he was cool) and that instead of falling to the ground he burst out laughing, and
then that’s it on to the next topic! . Here’s my gripe I don’t want to hear
the moment he’s just described , I want to SEE it !! His thoughts along with the
actual footage would have been great but not his thoughts on it and that’s it come
on.
It’s the same all the way through will all this
reminiscing, thoughts no footage. Chappell then ‘reminisces’ again on other
topics including Mark Waugh continually getting out in the 90’s, the fielding of Mark
Waugh compared to Steve Waugh (boring, why not talk about the time when his brother
Greg directed his other brother Trevor to bowl that famous underarm delivery), Richard
Hadlee reaching 300 wickets, Greg Chappell’s last test appearance (again covered
in great detail on the ‘Vintage Performances’ DVD).
Also included is Greg Chappell reminiscing on Dennis Lillee vs Viv Richards. Allan
Border reminisces about Richard Hadlees neatness, Malcolm Marshall’s determination
and Dennis Lillee’s aluminium bat (what was he thinking ?).
Lastly we have the entire television footage of Glenn McGrath’s hat trick against
the West Indies & Shane Warne’s hat trick against England. Again, these are both
on the Vintage Performances DVD and I think it’s a waste to have them here as well
when we could have seen something new.
Overall it’s a great DVD but one that could have been so much better. Some of the
content is bit too similar to Vintage Performances to my liking but they go well hand in
hand. I’d like to see more of these in the future, ‘Great One Day moments’
would be great with so many games going to the last ball, and so on. Overall though
it’s recommended for cricket lovers everywhere! |
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