Sandeep Dwivedi
About a year back, when Paul Davey decided to make the World Cup-bound Irish cricketers the heroes of his documentary, he didn’t realise that he had just managed a casting coup. A chance meeting with Ireland’s wicket-keeper Niall O’Brien in Australia made the Sydney-born Irish budding film-maker conscious of the fact that the country of his birth didn’t just have a cricket team but had also qualified for the 2007 World Cup.
Today Davey sits on about 10 hours of exclusive footage that tells the incredible story of 15 no-hopers who have caused one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. The three-wicket win over once-world champions Pakistan means Ireland, who had confirmed their Kingston to Dublin booking after the group stage, have got a one-month extension in the West Indies as the Super 15 have almost made their entry into the Super Eight.
This also means a healthy headache for Davey, who wonders how his limited budget would see him survive in the West Indies till April-end. “I will have to use the Irish charm and hope that Saint Patrick will be on my side,” he says.
Though Davey plans to edit his work to about 50 minutes for the festival circuit and eventual television release in cricket-playing countries, the heart-warming and still-evolving storyline could interest even some Hollywood big-wig. This Irish story, with various plots and sub-plots, is Oscar-material. The game against Pakistan certainly had all. A simple, sheep farmer’s son — Boyd Rankin — takes three wickets. Andre Botha, who left South Africa as he thought he wasn’t good enough to play international cricket, comes up with dream figures of 8-4-5-2. “Never ever dreamt of a spell like that, forget on a day like that,” he says. The O’Brien brothers — Niall (72) and Kevin (16 not out) — combine forces for an inspirational match-winning partnership. Coach Adrian Birrell, who all his life worked in grassroots cricket, finally getting global recognition just a few months before amicably parting ways with his boys, who lovingly call him ‘AB’.
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