The Edge

An almost detached dissection of a great era. Some candid interviews, nostalgia inducing footage and paced like a Test Match. Insightful too.

In 2012, England officially became the best cricket team in the world, after many years of underperformance. They had a great, and settled, side, but it didn't last. Several players eneded their international careers relatively early: the pressures of playing top-level sport almost certainly contributed to that. 'The Edge' interviews many of the players to chart this journey. The problem with the film is its low-brow approach, and its indifference to telling us about any of the technicalities, or detailed history, of the sport. We get some personal insights, but if you didn't know the sporting story, all you would see is a very dumbed-down version. And while psychology is undoubtedly important at the highest level of competition, the necessity of a happy coincidence of natural talent is downplayed: the documentary gives the impression that England started winning, and then stopped again, entirely due to the mindset of the players. The intriguing and complex overlap between a relatively slow-paced, almost reflective, sport, and the intensity of the international spotlight, doesn't come across. There's some interest here, but the film's lack of apparent interest in cricket itself weakens it, for cricket fans and the merely curious alike.

After the sacking of Kevin Pietersen as England Captain, the Test Team set the themselves a target of becoming the first Englamd side to reach to be ranked the world number 1 test side. This documentary charts that journey from a very low point to the ultimate high and then explains how it all fell apart. This is a real insight with the majority of the explanations coming from those coaches and players that were at the centre of that period of English cricket. A much watch for any cricket fan.

I'm a fairly new fan of cricket (2-3 years). So I don't remember this story, but It seems like they add all the exciting parts of what happened at this time (2009 - 2013) without actually giving you any scores, I know cricket scores can be bamboozling to non cricket fans but a few scores in context would have helped. It does seem to be more about the stresses of the game.

You don't have to be a cricket fan to take something away from this amazing sporting documentary. If you do understand cricket though it will help you understand it more. However it's not just about cricket it's about how to get the best out of yourself, friendship, team work, how you can be at the bottom and feel good and optimistic and being at the top it feels like your going to fall off. In short it's all in the mind and like Trot puts it concentration is the absence of irrelevant thoughts.