Death of a Gentleman

You can't talk about cricket

without thinking about the values that were behind it.

The whole idea of fair play,

you walked, if you nicked it to the wicketkeeper,

you didn't claim a catch that was on the half-volley.

All these things were part of what we were trying to say to the world

about the way we should treat one another.

The spirit of cricket, I mean, its integrity, I think its honesty.

It is its own code. Its own moral code.

And it served the game pretty well for 130, 140 years.

I remember Kofi Annan at the United Nations in New York once

making a comment about something that had taken place in the world and he said,

"That's not cricket."

Kofi Annan has never played a game of cricket in his life,

but he knows what cricket stands for,

and if someone at the United Nations,

the head of the United Nations could use that term,

it means that cricket stands for something

and the game should never be allowed to die.

How could cricket ever die?

It's the second most popular sport in the world,

played and watched by over a billion people.

My name is Sam Collins.

This is my friend Jarrod Kimber.

We're two among those billion cricket fans.

From different backgrounds and different sides of the earth,

we've been mad about cricket our whole lives,

and eventually it brought us together.

Now we get paid to travel the world and watch it as journalists.

In 2011, we set out to make a film about the game we love

and whether it had a future in the modern world.

We couldn't have known then that we would stumble across

the biggest scandal in sport

or what we would learn about the men

who were supposed to be the guardians of the game.

Cricket is going through a turmoil.

It is going to destroy the game and all forms of the games.

We've been involved in playing cricket

and administering cricket forever.

And we have no interest to hurt cricket in any way. That is incorrect.

Although in the end we would stand by helpless

as 140 years of history was buried in the urban desert of Dubai.

This is our story.

It's a story about people,

about greed, about power, about the endless pursuit of more

and the precious things that are lost along the way.

You're watching the Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths.

You're watching the Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths.

You're watching the Chuck Fleet-- I don't know what happened there.

I was trying to make a career as a cricket journalist when I met Jarrod,

an Australian blogger who had come to London

to shake up the establishment.

Quickly realising we had more chance together than alone,

we started making web videos for cricket freaks.

We named ourselves after a famous drunk cricketer

and our mascot Hansie after a notorious match fixer.

The results were often terrifying.

We are the world champions!

You're not though, are you? You're not.

- - England are! England are!

We had two things in common: our sense of humour...

Would you mind if I asked what colour your trousers were?

Well, I know what colour my trousers are.

... and a lifelong love of the oldest form of cricket,

test cricket.

If you ask me what made test cricket unique,

I'd say it is the one sport that is not just about winning.

It's about what you learn over those five long days.

It's called test cricket, and that's what it is. It's a test.

It's a complete test, it's a test of your skill,

it's a test of your courage, and it's a test of your intelligence.

Certainly as a batsman, as far as I was concerned,

a test match was perfectly named. It was a test.

It's about the contest, nation against nation, bat against ball.

It's like a gun fight at Okay Corral.

And it's a nasty game when there's a real baddie.

And it's coming after you.

The opening batter, he's coming after you.

Do you wanna be here because he's gonna hurt you?

About the way different people play it.

Test cricket allows people to be big and small, fat and thin,

ugly and beautiful, slow and fast.

And really no other sport does that.

That's a freak of a game. That's what makes it so special.

About how it brings so many different people together.

Of course, the gentlemen's game has never been perfect,

but it's our imperfect.

But however great we thought it was, we were constantly being told

that there was no place in the modern world

for a game that was a legacy of imperialism and lasted five days.

So what are you packing for?

Australia, India, with Sam.

- Is Sam the other woman? - Is Sam the other woman, exactly.

And seeing as we were cricket journalists,

we thought we should try and answer the game's biggest question.

Was test cricket really dying?

I'll only be away for a few weeks this time. It's not too bad, is it?

Mmm.

The first stop on our journey was Jarrod's hometown of Melbourne.

We had a crew and a camera,

but no script and no idea what we were looking for.

So our first call was to a cricketing friend of ours,

someone's whose journey would mirror our own over those next few years.

Basically, it's only the whole film basically hinges on you.

'Cause it really does. Tell him he's our human angle.

Ed Cowan had just been picked to make his test debut for Australia.

He wasn't your ordinary sportsman.

If I had to cook you a meal to knock your socks off,

I'd probably do salmon, fennel and dill on avocado and mango salsa maybe.

I think you'd enjoy it.

Ed and Jarrod had met online a few years earlier

when he was just another young cricketer trying to make his name.

Now, somehow, we'd persuaded Ed

to let us follow him through the biggest moment of his career.

Gentlemen, gentlemen. There's no gentlemen in here, boys.

We hoped that his experiences would show us

what test cricket was really all about.

Edward was passionate about being the best he always could at everything.

I used to take him to the nets three days a week

and it'd always be four a game

or he'd want a quick hit, which meant about, you know, 400 balls.

Ed's was the sort of story that made so many people love sport.

After years struggling with injury,

he had moved his family across Australia to Tasmania for a fresh start.

Shots and then quick turn.

Oh, he's happy with that, and so is the player.

Ed Cowen, what a great inning.

Now he was making a name for himself.

He's happy. He's fit for Tazzie.

It feels as though all the little moments

feel like they've been justified in a way.

To ruin your wife's career,

to move to an isolated island off the south of Australia

just so I could play cricket, that's a big move.

So in a sense it feels as though that's been justified, I guess.

What we were watching was just the culmination

of a lifetime dedicated to one cause,

playing test cricket for Australia.

Test cricket for me, it is the game.

It's the only cricket how I judge cricketers by.

To all of a sudden be in that cauldron,

I don't know how I'll handle it until the occasion, I guess.

Boxing Day test play? Debut.

When Boxing Day arrived,

80,000 fans descended on the Melbourne Cricket Ground

for the biggest day in the cricketing calendar.

Ed had entered a whole new world.

Walking over here, I was really quite nervous this morning.

Here, obviously, when I saw him get handed his baggy green,

it was a very emotional moment.

This is Ed's dream come true, like, out there today.

His head would be spinning.

This is... He's wanted this dream ever since the day he was born.

Cricket in Australia in our summer's a big deal.

Test cricket, being ranked, that's a big deal.

It's a symbol for kids to dream about

um, and for people to aspire to and for people to admire.

- -

Look at them pounding their way out there.

It's the goose bumps that you feel every Boxing Day.

And just think about it, Cowan, what's he going through?

Twenty-nine years of age, he's got a technique for test cricket.

I'm really looking forward to this.

The beautiful thing about cricket is

you're in control of your actions, so you become very routine focused.

So a lot of the times you don't notice the crowd.

It's a blur, you can't see anyone in the crowd.

You can hear them, but it's sort of that white noise.

When you're at the striker's end and you see the bowler running in,

it's not just physical, it's how you breathe

and the number of breaths and the type of breaths

and it almost becomes a sort of meditative state

that you can get yourself into when you're batting.

You know, 80,000 people are coming to watch you play cricket,

and you're just in your own little world enjoying your own private test match.

So here Cowan to take up the attack to the member's end.

- Ed Cowan on strike. -

Now those 80,000 people in the Melbourne Cricket Ground

and millions more at home on television,

waited to see if Ed Cowan was up to the challenge.

He does tend to leave the ball a lot.

He makes bowlers bowl at him.

He's away!

Great.

It probably wasn't until just before lunch.

That was the moment that I took stock and looked around and thought,

"Oh, my God, there's some people here. What are they doing?"

I just had a moment to myself of, "This is awesome.

I'm having a great time. Just keep going, mate, you're doing just fine."

He's done a very good job today of blocking the attack,

seeing through the new ball.

Now a chance of making 50 on debut?

- That's it! -

It's the start of taking a big opportunity for Ed Cowan,

50 on Boxing Day!

I had no idea where Virginia or any of my family were at that moment

so I probably got a little excited with Razor,

and I thought I acknowledged the whole crowd

and at least I know I would have got to them to some degree.

Three days later, Australia had won the game.