Shane documentary review: An extravagant yet uninspired look into cricketing legend Shane Warne

2.5/5

Story:

A sports documentary that puts the focus on the fascinating career of cricket’s greatest leg-spinner, Shane Warne.

Review:

Cricket has rarely been a platform where the ‘bad boys of sports’ thrived. Dubbed the gentlemen’s game, the biggest cricketing names in history have often shared a similar characteristic - they are role models and are more often than not soft-spoken. Sir Gary Sobers, Jacques Kallis, Glenn McGrath, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Alastair Cook, A B de Villiers, are just a few names of cricketing legends revered for their disciple and their attitude, both on and off the field. Even the fiercest pace bowlers from the mighty West Indies dominant era to the modern era often shy away from off-field drama. So in many ways, Shane Warne is a cricketing anomaly.

While the Aussies do have a reputation as the only ‘bad boys’ in cricket, Shane Warne truly stood out on his own. He describes himself as someone who liked beer, cigarettes, and could turn a cricket ball like no other. And it is also no secret that he liked the company of women, a little too much. The British press made sure every embarrassing detail about his private life was made public. In retrospect, it speaks volumes about the ethics of some of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers than of Warne’s Infidelity. The documentary, for obvious reasons, has tried to be respectful towards Warne, his ex-wife Simone Callahan, and his three children, Brooke, Jackson, and Summer.

The documentary attempts to liken Warne with some of the other global enigmatic sports personalities who lived like rockstars, such the Manchester United legend, George Best and former Formula One World Champion, James Hunt, even though it’s never explicitly mentioned. However, despite cricket being one of the most viewed sports in the world, its popularity is specific to just a few countries from the Commonwealth, and Warne simply was not able to gain that global appeal some of his contemporaries from other sports enjoyed. This, unfortunately, contradicts the image the documentary has painted of Warne.

There is great production value and excellent access to multiple high-profile cricketing legends and celebrities providing interviews for the documentary. Former cricketing stars such as Allan Border, Graham Gooch, Ian Botham, Ian Campbell, Andrews Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Clarke and Sachin Tendulkar all give their accounts of Shane Warne as a person and a cricketer. Bizarrely, for some reason, the filmmakers decided to include Chris Martin and Ed Sheeran in the documentary. As one would imagine, the pair offer very little substance to the narrative. The inclusion of the singers gives the impression that they were shoehorned into the narrative in order to make the documentary appealing to a wider audience. This is indicative of the lack of quality in terms of in-depth analysis of Warne’s life.

Most of the events portrayed in the documentary have been widely covered in the media over the years. For an average cricket fan, the documentary offers surprisingly limited information or unknown facts about Warne’s life. His involvement in match-fixing allegations is barely addressed. However, there are a few bright moments scattered throughout its runtime. The most notable ones being the scenes where Warne discusses his former mentor, Terry Jenner’s influence in shaping his career, his ‘ball of the century’ against England in the Ashes, and his 700th Test wicket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The documentary also focuses on his family which in itself is a mixed bag and fails to bring anything relevant to the table.

Verdict:

The documentary titled, Shane appears to be an expensive production with some high-profile interviews that fails to offer a compelling narrative into the life of one of cricket’s most enigmatic characters.