‘The Greatest Rivalry India vs Pakistan’ attempts to explore the drama, passion and history surrounding this contest with former cricketers providing insight.
Cricket, as a sport, is not just another sporting affair when it's played between India and Pakistan! Extensive media coverage, diligently packaged programs and zesty comments by former cricketers set the tone for the marquee event weeks in advance. Not only that, the political and historical sentiments associated with the rivalry also take centre stage, adding to the stakes of the competition. Netflix’s latest docu-series 'The Greatest Rivalry India vs Pakistan' attempts to explore the drama, passion and history surrounding this iconic contest with former cricketers providing some personal and on-field insight.
The docu-series, directed by Chandradev Bhagat and Stewart Sugg, quickly scans through some chapters of socio-political history between the two nations when it talks about the Kargil war, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee advocating for better relations through cricket and more, before diving into some epic contests.
Watch the trailer here!
The primary focus of the three episode series is on the Pakistan tour of India in 1999 and the India tour of Pakistan in 2004. The series tries to revisit those memorable encounters on ground and also the political events that led to the series in 2004 where the Indian team finally toured its neighbours after 15 years. This series has been given more weightage probably because it marked the arrival of two of the greatest heroes of the contest, individuals who were ruthless, passionate and did not fear anything - Virender Sehwag and Shoaib Akhtar, who are also the most recurring voices in this docu-series.
Akhtar, in particular, was an earnest and entertaining presence that gave this not very detailed and in-depth series some much needed colour and excitement. He shared how India vs Pakistan is not like any other game because fans come to witness these matches with the baggage of the political, geographical and emotional history between the two countries. Besides, other cricketing greats like Sourav Ganguly and Inzamam-ul-haq also share their experience of taking on the field in a stadium that roared with both, excitement and raw emotions of thousands of cricket fans.
The series does go beyond the field but fails to provide untold stories and anecdotes from on and off field experiences of players. The non-mention of some classic India vs Pakistan World Cup games and absence of players who were some of the key stakeholders of these fierce battles made the overall watching experience a bit incomplete.
At a time where political tensions have closed doors for any possibilities of a bilateral series between India and Pakistan and with both teams refusing to set foot in each other’s country even for ICC events, the docu-series serves as a window to a new generation of cricket fans as to what the rivalry entailed and made it so iconic. Tendulkar and Sehwag terrorizing Pakistan's formidable bowling attack or Akhtar ripping apart the stumps of Indian legends during the tours between 1999 and 2008 actually made the contest fierce as opposed to the games in the recent past where Pakistan has barely risen to occasion except for one or two times in ICC tournaments.
Having said that, if you're someone who is passionate about cricket and have grown up hearing stories of this rivalry, this docu-series makes for a decent watch.
'The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan' is now streaming on Netflix!
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