7 Best Cricket Movies You Can Watch While You Wait For Coronavirus Pandemic To End

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on all the sports across the globe and cricket is not an exception either. In the last one week or so, almost all the major series or tournaments have been called off. Last week, India’s ODI series against South Africa was called off. England also cancelled their two-match Test series in Sri Lanka before Australia called off their ODI and T20I series against New Zealand.

Bangladesh decided the same with their last leg of Pakistan tour while the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been suspended too till April 15. On Tuesday, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) also called off the Pakistan Super League just before the semifinal as the cases of coronavirus patients spiked in the country.

With all the major events now off, cricket fans around the world must be getting bored as they have nothing to see on their television sets. But while they desperately wait for the resumption of cricket once again, they can spend this time watching some movies made about cricket.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top Cricket movies:

7. Iqbal:

The movie is for everyone who need motivation to achieve their dreams. Produced by Subhash Ghai and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, the movie has Shreyas Talpade as the lead. The lead actor played a deaf and mute cricketer. The plot of the movie encompasses the struggles of this unusual cricketer who finds a tough and at the same time encouraging coach in Naseeruddin Shah.

6. Wondrous Oblivion:

Released in 2003, Wondrous Oblivion is a British film. The movie tells the story of a friendship between a young European Jewish immigrant boy and his family’s next door neighbours, a West Indian family.  Set in South London in 1960, the film brings up issues of race, friendship and romance, with the relationship between the boy (played by Sam Smith) and neighbour Dennis (Delroy Lindo) formed by their mutual love of cricket.

5. Victory:

Released in 2009, this Bollywood movie saw special cameos from the likes of Simon Jones, Sajid Mahmood, Brett Lee, Allan Border, Dean Jones and Waqar Younis. The film tells the story of Vijay Shekhawat (played by Harman Baweja), who achieves his dream of playing for the Indian national team, but then sees the pitfalls associated with such fame. The movie did not do great business but it is definitely worth watching considering a host of big names from the game playing roles in it.

4. Hansie

The movie tells the story of South Africa’s former captain Hansie Cronje who went from national hero to international disgrace because of his involvement in a match-fixing scandal. The movie was released in 2008 in South Africa. Directed by Regardt van den Bergh, it covers the Cronje’s extraordinary fall from grace after he became involved with Indian bookmakers, resulting in the 2000 match-fixing scandal.

3. Fire in Babylon:

Released in 2010, Fire in Babylon is a British documentary film about the legendary West Indies team of the 1970s and 1980s. What makes the documentary even more worth watching is the contributions from numerous former players including Michael Holding, Clive Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards. It covers the growth of Caribbean cricket as the West Indies became the most feared team on the planet.

2. MS Dhoni: The Untold Story:

Released in 2016, MS Dhoni is one of the most successful sports movies in the history of Bollywood. The movie covers the inspirational journey of MS Dhoni, the most decorated skipper in the history of Indian cricket. The Bollywood hit stars Sushant Singh Rajput as Dhoni, along with Disha Patani, Kiara Advani, and Anupam Kher.

The film chronicles the life of Dhoni from a young age through a series of life events. It showed how Dhoni defied all the odds to become one of the biggest cricket stars in the world.

1. Lagaan

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, a 2001 Bollywood film is unsurprisingly at the top of the list. The super hit movie was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2002 Academy Awards. It missed out on the top prize but it remains arguably the best cricket film of all time.

The movie covers the story of a phase when cricket was still a rich man’s game. It tells the story of peasants in an Indian village during British colonial rule, who challenge their rulers to a game of cricket to cancel their crippling taxes for three years.