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Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower’s field of dreams … The Edge.
Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower’s field of dreams … The Edge.
Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower’s field of dreams … The Edge.

The Edge review – the glorious reinvention of English cricket

This article is more than 4 years old

With its closeup duels and aerial shots of teeming stadiums, this perfectly timed doc plugs into the sport’s cinematic power

The stars align around certain releases. Landing days after the extraordinary scenes at the Cricket World Cup final at Lord’s, Barney Douglas’s documentary account of the reinvention of English cricket under the aegis of coach Andy Flower and captain Andrew Strauss is almost as well-timed as a Joe Root cover drive.

That World Cup final demonstrated how, at its best, this sport writes its own outlandish script. What Douglas underlines – defying decades of film-making indifference – is that cricket can be cinematic: at once widescreen (the Sky archives have been raided for aerial shots of packed stadiums in sun-dappled locales) and closeup in its duels between batsmen and bowlers. Unpredictable, too: some intriguing turn in this narrative elevates the film a notch or two over standard sports-doc fodder.

It’s primarily, Douglas realises, a matter of squad management. England’s rise to No 1 in the rankings is described firsthand by the flinty Flower, circumspect Strauss and key personnel (droll James Anderson, larky Graeme Swann), each deployed, as on the pitch and in their subsequent media careers, to find some new angle on the often grinding and convoluted business of five-day cricket.

Time and distance allows for a sensitive re-evaluation of the Kevin Pietersen situation, a Twitter-heightened flashpoint that threatened to undo burgeoning morale – and which remains a sore spot in certain quarters. Here, Douglas opens the door to sports psychology, and the film starts to reposition itself as a more nuanced proposition than the flag-waver it initially presented as.

The Edge’s second half provides an unexpected analysis of the cost Flower’s militarised push for glory took on his troops, seeing off 10 years of post-match interview spin to pursue a more candid line of testimony. Wicketkeeping warrior Matt Prior concedes: “Life as a professional sportsman doesn’t necessarily lend itself to you being a good person – because it’s about winning.” A painfully vulnerable Jonathan Trott breaks down in tears.

Toby Jones’s narration sounds purplish by comparison, but there’s something useful (and very English) in the way Douglas interrupts this moment of sporting celebration to sound a cautionary note, and offer another a reminder of why these elongated, intensely pressurised matches are referred to as Tests.

The Edge is released in the UK on 19 July.

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