Death of a Gentleman starts off as an observation of the health of Test cricket and segues into the murky world of its administration and administrators. Giles Clarke of the ECB comes across as an incompetent and arrogant man at best, N Srinivasan does slightly better than him but anyone following Indian cricket for long enough know about his shadow of murk. All this is sandwiched between a tenuous hook in the form of Ed Cowan who enters and exits international cricket.
I felt the two different worlds, that of the cricket of the players and its fans and that of the political playground of the sport never quite gelled well enough (like in real life). While Cowan's story was an affecting one, it just feels too feeble because of the sinister machinations the films begins to follow on the side. Once Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber get into the investigative part of the film, there really is very little room for the emotional core.
I also found the slight dramatisation of the nexus a bit weak and it is not too difficult to see why. The story of the boards need not be dramatised. It is very clearly a game of politics and manipulation at the administrative level. These are minor quibbles though.
For someone who has known this game for most of my life, this came as a reminder of what is wrong with the sport. Clarke at one point hedges his bet on the sub-continent loving cricket in the future too. He, and administrators like him, are like ostriches with their head stuck in sand; except, they're also searching for gold at the same time.
This film may have been made better had they planned for it, but I doubt it would have done any more than what it does now. This is film for every cricket fan to watch.
