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’. Add to that the suspense because of the rain delay, the subsequent fall of wickets, the roller-coaster run-chase, emotionally-attached wives and die-hard slogan-shouting fans from the stands, and, finally, the ultimate climax. Captain Trent Johnston, despite a suspected fracture in the arm suffered while taking a breathtaking catch, coming up with a six to score the winning runs. The screenplay too is impressive as one finds out while talking to new-ball bowler David Langford-Smith who, as a farm equipment salesman, has the normal middle-class cash-crunch because of his 300-dollars-a-week pay check. “We are ordinary people who play cricket only because it’s our passion, but we defeated the multi-millionaire pros who stay in palaces,” he says. It’s stories like these that inspired Davey to pick up his camera and follow the Irish cricketers. “It’s something I can relate to, since I have got an ordinary job in Sydney. I am an IT guy, but during the World Cup here I have turned into a film-maker. The key thing is the fact that these guys will go to their normal lives after all this,” he says. To stress his point, he narrates the shooting schedule he had with pace bowler Paul Mooney. “I had gone to meet Mooney during Christmas and he got off from his tractor to come and meet me. And I tell you, he was quite nervous since this was during the lunch break,” he says with a smile. What makes Davey sound excited about his movie is the capacity of the players to touch the right chord with their attitude. He talks about the catch that John Mooney took at the end of the Pakistan innings, close to the fence that had a bunch of Irish fans on the other side. “He soloed the ball after catching it. It is a move in Gaelic football — the most popular game in Ireland. It was a tribute to the Irish fans. They loved it. These guys don’t just limit themselves to cricket, they are multi-talented,” he says. Nor does the movie, as Davey reveals how this is a cricket story with many folds to it. “It is cricket-centric but it is also about the political situation in Ireland and the religious divide. Today at the ground, one saw the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland supporters mixing with each other. This has broken some borders and barriers”.Forget Hollywood, this is a Bollywood kind of script.
