Academy Awards: 9 times cricket said ‘hi’ to the Oscars

Cricketers, or cricket movies, have made it to the Academy Awards; some have taken the conventional route, others have taken a somewhat roundabout track.

No, not baseball: cricket at The Oscars. That has actually happened — and multiple times, to boot. Of course, by that I do not mean that they actually played the greatest sport of all on stage: but cricketers, or cricket movies, have made it to the awards function. Some have taken the conventional route; others have taken a somewhat roundabout track. It would have been fitting if Test captain C Aubrey Smith had been a part of the awards, but despite being a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame (and founding Hollywood Cricket Club), the award remained elusive. READ: Star Wars: The Force Awakens in cricketers

Hollywood CC deserves special mention here. PG Wodehouse was their first Secretary. Nigel Bruce, who played Dr Watson in the 14-part Sherlock Holmes series of the 1940s, often led the team; interestingly, Basil Rathbone, who played Holmes in the series, played under Bruce.

Hollywood CC boasted of at least four Academy Awards winners (Lawrence Olivier, Ronald Colman, David Niven, and Cary Grant), three nominees (Leslie Howard, Rathbone, and HB Warner), and one who acted in an Oscar-winning movie (Boris Karloff in Five Star Final).

Connections can be very obscure. Omar Sharif, nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Lawrence of Arabia, partnered Everton Weekes in contract bridge. Robin Williams won Best Actor for Good Will Hunting and was nominated three more times; cricket remembers him for dismissing it with the words “basically baseball on Valium.” Okay, fine, Robin Williams is exempted for being Robin Williams. Of course, these are not considered for the list. READ: Omar Sharif: The cricket connection

This list also does not include superstars who had turned up to watch cricket (who can blame them?) or were invited to the commentary box. From Russell Crowe (cousin of Jeff and Martin) to Daniel Radcliffe, the list is not a small one.

Some other connections, on the other hand, are not as ridiculous.

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1. Confusing Disney

This was perhaps the most unexpected of them all: Tim Rice and Elton John (who, incidentally, babysat Ian Botham’s children) shared the Academy Award for Can you feel the love tonight? (Lion King). John’s acceptance speech was an everyday thing, but Rice, owner of Heartaches Cricket Club, President of MCC, and co-writer of Cricket (Hearts and Wickets), decided to delve into the lands across The Atlantic.

It ran: “Many thanks to everyone at Disney, in particular, as it’s a musical thing, Mr Hans Zimmer. I’d also like to thank Denis Compton, a childhood hero of mine.”

Poor Walt Disney Studious were left searching frantically for Compton’s name on their employee database. Eventually they confessed (in these precise words): “We don’t know who Denis Compton is. He doesn’t appear to be at Disney Studios or have anything to do with them.”

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2. The movie that was cricket

Lagaan, on the other hand, does not need such elaborate introduction. In 2002, Lagaan was the third Indian movie (after Mother India and Salaam Bombay) to be nominated as the Best Foreign Language Film. Of course, the entire movie was based on cricket.

3. Blues of a Cambridge Blue

Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Hugh Hudson’s Chariots of Fire managed a haul of four. A young boy played the captain of Cambridge University Athletics team (he even got his Cambridge Blue blazer for the audition!), and, as he said later, won £10 and a free haircut.

Though he remained uncredited, Derek Pringle played 30 Tests and 44 ODIs for England.

4. Of Hobbs and Tendulkar

Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire won eight Academy Awards in 2009. There are two cricket links — one extremely obvious, the other, not so. It stared at you on your face:

Q. Which cricketer has scored the most First-Class centuries in history?

A. Sachin Tendulkar B. Ricky Ponting C. Michael Slater D. Jack Hobbs

While this is bread-and-butter trivia for cricket buffs, it was an excellent question, given the context of the movie. Of course, Jamal could not have come across Hobbs’ name in his otherwise eventful life!

There was, of course, another connection that continues to remain a delight for cricket quizzers: when South Africa beat India at Belfast in 2007, Tendulkar scored the first 99 of his international career.

It became common practice for quizmasters to show the scorecard and ask the relevance of the question: of course, this is the match you get to see on the television during the movie at Javed’s residence. It also shows the dismissal on 99.

5. “Cricket is…certainly greater than sex”

Harold Pinter received two Oscar nominations, both for Best Screenplay, Based on Material — for Betrayal and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Pinter often dallied with cricket, was Chairman of Gaieties Cricket Club, and often wrote on cricket. His piece on Arthur Wellard is one of his most-read non-fiction passages.

Pinter, however, will be immortalised by the quote: “I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth — certainly greater than sex, although sex isn’t too bad either.”

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6. Rohirrim at Wellington

New Zealand and England played a one-sided encounter at Wellington in 2002. Since New Zealand thrashed the tourists comprehensively, the spectators had a lot to cheer about. The sound was actually the roar used in The Battle at Helm’s Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The movie won two Academy Awards and was nominated for four others. One of the awards was for Sound Editing (of course!), shared by Ethan van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins.

7. Caribbean curiosity

Gerard Butler’s only nomination was, of course, for Zack Snyder’s 300. When Caribbean Premier League was launched, he (probably) surprised everyone by buying an equity stake of Jamaica Tallawahs. As if on a cue, Mark Wahlberg, nominated for The Departed and co-nominated for The Fighter, did the same for Barbados Tridents.

8. The Old Trafford mystery

As we know, the 1938 Ashes Test at Old Trafford was washed out without a ball being bowled. Trying to follow the match from a cricket-agnostic, obscure location called Bandrika were two British men, Charters and Caldicott.

They tried their level best, and made animated discussions on Clarrie Grimmett and Wally Hammond as a riveting mystery unveiled in a train. The movie, The Lady Vanishes, was not nominated for the Oscars, but the director — a certain Alfred Hitchcock — was nominated five times. He eventually won the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968.

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9. Mumbles to Wisden

Not every Wisden edition includes Catherine Zeta-Jones’ name, but the 2003 edition did. It was also the first time that Wisden brought out an audio-book, with Christopher Martin-Jenkins, no less, lending his voice.

After her wedding with Michael Douglas, Zeta-Jones had settled down in their million-pound mansion at Mumbles Village. Mumbles CC President Mark Portsmouth, as if on cue, announced a £100 award for the first player to hit the ball into the house.

The distance was 150 yards (137 metres), and the glasses bulletproof, so the money remained unclaimed. It was, however, a great year for Zeta-Jones: not only did she make it to Wisden, but also picked up her only Academy Award, for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, in Chicago.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

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