Cricket - The Streak

The latest addition to the Connoisseur Series of DVDs from Channel Nine's Wide World Of Sports, this particular disc focuses on Australia's 16 test match winning streak that started against Zimbabwe in 1999 and ended against India in 2001. During the streak the Australian squad beat teams from Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India, New Zealand and the West Indies.

The format of this presentation is simple. There is a chapter devoted to each match in the streak that shows highlights of the game, focusing mainly on outstanding performances from Australian players. Also shown during each chapter is interview footage from commentators and players discussing the key moments of that particular game.

As the streak took place very recently, the quality of the footage used is almost universally good. The footage from Zimbabwe suffers from excessive brightness and contrast in a couple of places which results in some loss of detail. Another example of slightly less impressive video quality can be seen in the footage from New Zealand and also India which is just a tad softer than that filmed in Australia. In all cases this is not a transfer problem, it is a problem with the source material and at all times the image is clear enough for you to enjoy watching what is being presented.

This is a dual layer disc with the layer change occurring at 70:09. It is pretty well placed as it occurs during the display of a static slide.

As this is mainly a dialogue driven documentary, having only a Dolby Digital 2.0 track is no impediment to enjoyment. The dialogue spoken by interviewees and commentators is always clear and always in sync.

The front channels are the focus of the sound stage with the surrounds only getting a look in when music is featured such as at the start of each chapter and during the closing credits.

There is a "Bonus Video" section that can be selected from the main menu which contains the following extra footage:

Michael Slater Batting Package Extended footage of Slater scoring 169 during the second match of the streak played in Brisbane.

Mark Waugh Batting Package Extended footage of Mark Waugh scoring 100 during the second match played in Brisbane.

Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh Batting Package Extended footage of Ricky Ponting scoring 125 and Steve Waugh scoring 150 during the fifth match played in Adelaide.

Shane Warne Batting Package Extended footage of Shane Warne scoring 86 during the fifth match of the streak.

Brett Lee Bowling Package Complete footage of Brett Lee's first over in test match cricket during the sixth match of the streak.

Steve Waugh Speech Footage of Steve Waugh's speech after Australia defeats the West Indies 5-0 and retains the Frank Worrell trophy. This was after the 15th match in the streak.

Brett Lee Batting Package Extended footage of Brett Lee scoring 62 during the eleventh match of the streak played in Brisbane.

Steve Waugh Batting Package Extended footage of Steve Waugh scoring 121 not out in Melbourne during the fourteenth match of the streak.

The final extra on this disc is: Score Cards Each of the batting score cards from the 16 games can be viewed in this section.

There is an error in this section, the title "West Indies vs Australia - Brisbane" is shown twice. Once in its correct place as the eleventh game and again as the thirteenth game. If you select this second occurrence you are shown the score cards for the Adelaide test which is correct. This results in the title for the sixteenth game being listed as the West Indies vs Australia rather than India vs Australia.

Keen cricket historians and rabid Aussie cricket fans should check this disc out as it is of good quality and contains some priceless footage from this golden period in Australian cricket.