Fly-on-the-wall docuseries are becoming increasingly popular across many streaming platforms as they give the viewer a fascinating insight into the world of professional sport. Individuals and sports teams have cameras that follow them across a season or competition, capturing the hard work involved when there’s normally nobody watching.
Here are three must-watch docuseries that could appeal to you, even if you are not a big sports fan.
All Or Nothing: Manchester City
Manchester City are one of the biggest football teams in the world. This series follows them through their 2017-2018 campaign, covering how the players prepare for matches, what they get up to in their free time off the pitch, and the pressure they are under to deliver every week.
City are currently coached by Pep Guardiola, a man who has won just about every major honour available in the sport. We see how he motivates his players before, during, and after a match. This gives a rare insight into one of the greatest coaches to ever enter the modern game is truly enlightening.
There are eight episodes in this series and it’s available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians
The Mumbai Indians are a cricket franchise that competes in the Indian Premier League, a lucrative cricket league that has been very successful since it was inaugurated in 2008. This series on Netflix is a particularly good watch as the leading players from around the world travel and live in India for the duration of the competition. We see how they adapt to the weather, food, and the length of travel involved from game to game.
Cricket is the most popular sport in India and the supporters there are very passionate about the game. This is potentially due to the fact that, despite the adjustment period some players take to get settled to the climate and cuisine, Mumbai are the most successful team in the history of the IPL.
Stadiums are packed across the country for domestic and international matches, while those who aren’t lucky enough to have a ticket for a match, ensure they are near a television to watch the action. So, as well as watching series about them, going to matches or watching them on television, another way that Mumbai Indians fans interact with the sport is by placing wagers on their favourite team, as a means of showing their support.
Cricket betting is so popular in India that comparison sites are available specifically to help fans find the best cricket betting apps. Some of these sites are tournament specific so they specialise in the IPL and offer many more markets on top of the standard ‘to win the match’ odds. Others are more general and cover a broader spectrum of cricket, demonstrating the demand for betting on the sport and the passion of the fans.
Fans in India aren’t the only ones, this world-famous cricket team, and IPL matches in general, are streamed and wagered on all over the world. The sport is especially popular in the UK and the US, with fans in Australia, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Although whether Netflix has made the series available in all of these countries is unclear!
Hard Knocks: The Dallas Cowboys
Hard Knocks is an annual series that follows an American football team as they prepare for a new season in the NFL. This year, the Dallas Cowboys have been documented ahead of their 2021 campaign.
What’s most striking from this series are the facilities the Cowboys have available to them. They train on a huge complex in Frisco, Texas that covers 91 acres of land and it will be like nothing you have seen before.
You don’t need to know anything about American football to enjoy this series. There are some great stories about players who have overcome the odds to make it to the NFL. One player grew up in the Ivory Coast and arrived in the USA as a refugee and there is also a British coach on the team, which is something you would not expect in the American sport.
In the NFL, the most important position in the game is the quarterback. In this series, we see how Dak Prescott returns from a terrible injury in 2020. He returns to the field following intense rehab over the last nine months and it’s interesting to see the hard work it takes to fight back.
Enjoy watching all three docuseries and you may even find yourself following the respective teams in their upcoming campaigns in their sport.