Summary
Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians offers a keen insight into the 2018 season of the Indian Premier League with the Mumbai Indians, who are attempting to reclaim the title.
Following a sports team’s season seems to be a trend in documentaries at the moment but there’s no denying that they offer an immediate value, due to the intensity and the drama of it all. Sport is perfect in the documentary format, so while I do not like cricket per se, Netflix Original Series Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians still has the feeling of an enticing season, as the Mumbai Indians try to defend their championship in 2018.
I’m not going to try and pretend that I know the cogs of cricket, and how sourcing players work, but Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians does a suitable job in giving you a lowdown in how a season works in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The opening episode explains how auctioning works, and the pressure placed on the owners and the coaches to make sure they concretely define their starting eleven.
Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians presents the highs and lows of the aspiring championship team; how a critical injury is a significant blow, the emotions that come with the expectations of winning and how teams at the top respond to a slow start to a season. What I enjoyed most about the Netflix docuseries is the real humbleness behind it. The Mumba Indians emphasized the importance of friendship, family and general wellbeing to be successful as a team. I felt the series got that message across reasonably well.
But like all sports that are enriched with finances, Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians gives us insight into the luxurious life you lead as someone who is involved with a premium cricket team. Money plays a large part, no matter how much the coaches and the players downplay it. The sport offers celebrity status to those who succeed in the IPL. In the end, I got what I would expect from a sporting series about a football team – two different sports, two different cultures, but the desire, and hunger to win at the top.
If you enjoy sport frequently like me, then you will undoubtedly appreciate Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians – my measure of the documentary’s success relied on if I managed to enjoy it regardless of my dislike for cricket; and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
