Cricket in the 80s: Rookies, Rebels and Renaissance (2004)

Genres: Sport, History, Media, Documentary Origin: Australia Certificate: E Languages: English Running Time: 169 min

synopsis

This next instalment in ABC TV’s highly successful ‘Cricket History Series’ focuses on the turmoil that beset Australian cricket during the decade of the 1980s. Tremors of varying intensity shook Australia’s national pastime to its very foundation.

The schism caused by the World Series Cricket revolution in the late ‘70s, the rise and dominance of world cricket by the West Indies, the simultaneous retirements of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh followed closely by the defection of sixteen players to play cricket in isolated apartheid South Africa in return for lucrative financial inducements saw Australian cricket slump to possibly the lowest point in its once illustrious history.

The way Australian cricket coped with this adversity, slowly recovered and eventually triumphed by the end of the decade is a tribute primarily to the character and resolve of two men, Captain and premier batsman, Allan Border as well as Manager and Coach, Bob Simpson.

This video also features nearly an hour of bonus material not screened on television.Includes interviews with Ian Chappell, Allan Border, Kim Hughes, Graham Yallop, Kerry Packer, Ian Botham, Dean Jones and many more.

Rated: E (exempt from classification)

Duration: 112 mins plus 57 mins of extra features.