Out of the Ashes

When Afghanistan were capitulating against South Africa in the last of their two round robin matches in the Twenty/20 World Cup of 2010; Cricinfo.com's running text commentary described the flurry of Afghan batsmen holing out catches to the South African's fast bowling duo of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel as their "Cool Runnings moment"; an observation seemingly highlighting the part in their quite colossal story of sporting rags to world stage riches in which the globe stands up, regardless of the rather poor performance at a grade nobody even believed they'd get anywhere near, and watches them come apart at the seams as the level takes its toll. It described the moment nobody wanted to see but deep down, knew was never going to be too far away from probably happening. The commentator may very well have been onto something in this regard, making a capable link to both a sports film, that is; a connection of a cinematic sort and the rawness behind the tale of Afghanistan's cricket team. Out of the Ashes is the result of this hybridisation, a quite wondrous detailing of the proverbial Phoenix rising before going on to conquer whatever domains they find themselves inhabiting which leads onto other things.

That overlying sense of the team featured within this, a 2010 documentary covering the exploits of the Afghan cricket team, being true underdogs and the unfolding of a quite incredible story of a cluster of athletes gathering together to have a crack where others may mock or look on in disbelief, hovers heavily overhead. Some might criticise the film about the Jamaican bobsleigh squad at the Winter Olympics for being fanciful or contrived, here such an extraordinary tale of training; dedication and commitment imbued within a group of men within the world of sport is very much present and their tale is quite spectacularly a hundred per-cent genuine. Tim Albone and Lucy Martens' film begins on the world stage at that very Twenty/20 tournament, the roars of the crowd; the attention of the television cameras and the ex-professionals getting their words in, while everybody else watches on as Afghanistan bat and bowl against the force of India. A cut takes us right back to a proverbial beginning; a strip of turf somewhere in Afghanistan encapsulating men and boys playing an innings of cricket amidst a barren field of nothingness, a crude pile of rocks forming that of the stumps as kids too young to even join in hammer the odd stone with a makeshift bat pretending it to be the ball. The sequence very much establishes where it is cricket fans will know the Afghan's presently are in their cricket; the cut from the match footage a signalling of the director's intent to get under the skin of the story by going right back to the start of the tale.

The whole thing is, in short, a rather thrilling and enlightening documentary from that of Albone and Martens; a general covering of Afghanistan's cricket team from the doldrums of associate nation qualifiers to the 2011 50-over World Cup qualifying pool-proper; trials and tribulations and warts and all brought to the forefront along the way of journeying to what is the four corners of the world. In Kabul, the Afghan capital, news is often grim. Suicide blasts, fear of shelling and the mass evacuations of areas born out of panic dominate headlines; the film providing us with clips-and-pieces of broadcasts rummaging through such items, the one lone glimmer of pleasure or positivity appear as the brief excursions into the sports news as the Afghanistan cricket team and their exploits are documented in a far breezier and more enthusiastic tone. A sense of this team playing an important role in national pride, or moral, instilled as what it means to them and the news cooperations is put across.

Albone and Martens saw potential in this story, backed up by renowned director Sam Mendes' input whom we're led to believe had a say in proceedings. The team capture the story from the start; a first encountering of the Afghan's at the very beginning of their cricketing journey seeing them practise in some humble nets set up in some Kabul street, the coach named Taj Malik standing there sheepishly, gesturing for these Western journalists to come in. A British foreign diplomat or contact based in Afghanistan watches on, obviously gleeful at the fact these men are practising the sport of cricket but clearly finding most of it rather humorous in its sheer happening. The makers keep things flowing as the team flit from continent to continent; tier to tier; match to match, the team initially led by their exuberant coach Taj Malik whose enthusiasm and confidence sees him turn a waiting period at Dubai airport into a series of Brüno-invoked vox pops interviews on various issues – including that of cricket to an American. The rest of the team encounter various items within the cultures they discover: Jersey's Britishness; Tanzania's exotic beaches and Argentina's demonstrations of tango dancing just a pinch to that of what they experience, all of it fascinating.

As an individual piece, one might favourably compare it to Michael Apted's 2007 documentary The Power of the Game, specifically due to what that did for footballing nations one may not know as much about, Out of the Ashes not necessarily a cricketing film linked to that specific tournament the English and the Australians play for every so often, but doing what Apted's film did for the 'little guys' in sport. With the news that associate nations are stripped of being able to play in 2015's edition of the 50-over World Cup and onwards recently being announced, Out of the Ashes acts as a wonderful footnote in the argument for their inclusion when we observe the immense joy amidst everything else the sport and sense of competition brings to these sorts of players; the likes of which really ought to be embraced.

Sweet, often funny, sometimes sad documentary of the very unexpected and improbable rise of the Afghan cricket team to world level status in 2008-2010.

There's a lot of affectionate fun had with the players and coaches traveling to the west and encountering other cultures for the first time.

There's also a lot of emotion; joy at their successes, hurt at their setbacks.

Not sold in the U.S. since it's about cricket I presume, but I know almost nothing of the game, and that didn't stop me from enjoying it,.

Its really more about the people than the sport, and the excitement of watching a team from a country in near ruins from many years of near continuous war go from being an under- trained open joke, to a real team despite all odds.

I did get lost as to what was going on a few times, and short though it is it felt like it could have been tighter.

But overall a lovely film that took me by surprise.

I have very limited interest in cricket, but watched this at a showing where the director did a Q&A. It's a phenomenal story and I asked the director how did they know that it was all going to go so well? Apparently they originally thought it would just be a short piece - but "they just kept winning!" And they just kept going back and filming.

It is a really inspirational film and even if you've not interested in cricket it's great to see people beating the odds. I came to leave this review almost 10 years since I watched it because I was recommending it to someone else and I had to look up the name. I think I would like to watch it again especially in the light of what has now happened in Afghanistan.

sings an Afghan cricketer at the end of this film, and we can see why. Over two years the Afghan national cricket team rose from never having played international opponents to narrowly failing to get into the World Cup and being accepted as worthy one-day opponents for the test-playing nations. The film looks at the players and their progress. There isn't much actual cricket- in an early scene, a British embassy official- presumably dealing with the team's first trip abroad to Jersey- chortles helplessly at the thought of what the Afghans- dedicated fast bowlers and sloggers- "They play as if it was a war." he says- will do when they face a good spinner, and from the few shots we see against Nepal they do indeed have difficulties against spin: on the other hand, it looks as if one of the Afghans is a pretty good spinner too in a later shot. We never learn anything about any of the scores or much about the games. The film concentrates on the players, their characters and the society they come from. We see them progress through Jersey, Tanzania, Argentina and South Africa as they make an extraordinary progress from tyros to the edge of Big Cricket.

It isn't pretty in some ways: the players are ambitious for themselves and Afghanistan in a way that none of their early opponents- part-time hobby players- would ever be. Perhaps that is why Geoffrey Boycott responds to and admires the Afghans so much; like him, they cannot imagine an unimportant game. When things go well and the government intervene it is ugly. Taj Malik, effective founder of cricket in Afghanistan, brother of two players, manager and coach is dismissed and replaced by a Pakistani ex-Test player. There is good reason- Malik's whole experience has been on concrete pitches; he has never played at that level. Even so, other countries would promote him to an honorary and honourable position and not just boot him out, but the players accept it: too much depends on their success not to. In the end though, Malik is welcomed back to watch Afghanistan's first one-day match against India. The other part of the film is watching the players' response to a world elsewhere: in Jersey, faced with miniskirts, the full English breakfast, line-dancing, stout Labradors ('Is that a bear or a dog?') and the sea ('We have rivers better than this!') they are too busy trying to get by in the game to have much culture shock; but when they get to Argentina one player spends all his spare time in his room and grows a beard to remind him of his spirituality- bikinis and couples kissing distract him- while downstairs his team-mates stare astonished at a raunchy tango which is part of the opening ceremony. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the team's rise to being a big fish in a small pond- do they realise how very small it is?- inspires national pride. In the end, of course, they fail. Mighty Canada gets into the World Cup and the team go home to prepare for the future. As I said, they get to play India- and get damnably licked- and their own small ambitions are fulfilled. Taj Malik, who is probably closest to the ideal of cricket as an amateur pastime to be played for its own sake, has been back to the refugee camp where he learnt to play and still coaches children.