For someone like me, who learnt about the Richards and Lloyds and the famed pace quartet, their size, shape, menace and excellence through first-person tales from my dad, ‘Fire in Babylon’ gave me a glimpse of what was behind arguably the greatest team to have played the game of cricket. The film shows us how they used their talent in the game to create a voice for the racially suppressed, to strike a blow for their people against the assumed superiority of the white colonial masters.This is a cricket documentary, but the game is just a brush to paint a richer cultural and racial overtone. The narrative starts with the concept of Babylon, a term in the Rastafari religion that is used to describe regimes that have suppressed and racially vilified the black race. West Indian cricketers like Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Dereck Murray, Colin Croft and Joel Garner recount almost in rhythm, the shame that had been inflicted on their race by England and on the cricket field by England and Australia and the pain they shared with their brothers around the world and especially in countries like South Africa, where the aparthied was at its peak.
The ‘Calypso Entertainer’ label was worn very grudgingly by this generation that inherited the title from a previous generation that saw cricketers like Gary Sobers, Wes Hall and Lance Gibbs to name a few, win global acclaim but were never considered world beaters, just good entertainers. The journey begins in Australia in the 75-76 series that sees the Windies lose 1-5.The on-field loss and the on and off field racial sledging hurt their pride, which led Clive Lloyd to say ‘Never Again’.
In 1976, India was the first victim of the Lloyd’s new strategy, of aggressive, dominating cricket albeit played within the rules of the game. I remember Gavaskar writing in his book 'Idol's about wanting not to get killed, a sentiment shared by many of his team mates. The West Indians took this strategy to the English shores, where they were further instigated by South African born Tony Grieg’s racial comment on making them ‘grovel’. After decimating England, the Windies return to Australia, where they display their new brand of cricket and stun the Aussies and every other team in the world right up to 1995.
Stevan Riley’s direction provides a unique mix of perspectives – cricketing and cultural. The cricketing commentary in the film is provided by the cricketers themselves, laced with cultural undertones. The cultural commentary is provided by an array of musicians, authors, researchers across the Carribean ranging from a member of Bob Marley & The Wailers to a groundsman.
With Bob Marley’s famous tunes ranging playing in the background, the footage is an interesting mix of match recordings, advertisements, interviews and still photographs expertly put together to create an environment of chaos, similar to what the opposition faced when they crossed swords with this team. The intensity and passion in the voices and the fire in the eyes of these West Indian cricketers is something that the current team should see and imbibe if they have not done so already. Their association with the pain of slavery, of the historical looting of Africa is obvious in the way they speak about the green, gold and red colors as depicted in the Rastafari symbol.
The documentary is very clear in its focus only on Test cricket, with Tests being the highest form of the game. However, if they had chronicled the West Indians’ One Day International (ODI) record during that period, they would have seen a similar dominance that included 2 World Cups and a 5-0 blackwash of the then newly crowned world champions India and a Win-Loss record of 172 games in 267 played. The omission of the Windies’ rivalry against Pakistan in the 80s and the closely fought series against Australia in the early 90s is conspicuous by its absence.
‘Fire in Babylon’ is a wonderful depiction of the almost mythical stature of a group of men, who made an entire generation of African-origin people across the world, believe in themselves and raise their voice against racial oppression.
