Fire In Babylon

The origin of cricket dates back to the sixteenth century, where it was a sport mainly played by Englishmen. Cricket gained popularity in Commonwealth countries occupied by Britain. Britishers played cricket as their favorite pastime sport, with the locals picking up the sport when they played against the Englishmen. For people not familiar with cricket, the game is played between two teams, with each team consisting of eleven players. There are specialized batters (equivalent to a hitter in baseball) and bowlers (equivalent to a pitcher in baseball) in each team, and the game is played on an oval-shaped field. Much of the action takes place in a twenty-two yard green strip, which is in the middle of the field. Batters have to score as many points as they can by running back-and-forth on the strip; points are called as “runs” in cricket. Bowlers have to get all eleven players out, and the fielders are placed strategically at various positions on the field to help the bowlers. Cricket is played in multiple formats, but the documentary “Fire in Babylon” (2010) mainly covers the five-day format in which both the teams play two innings each. Yes, this seems long, but this format is all about endurance, technicality, strategy, and patience, plus it is the oldest format, which makes it one of the most-popular and lovable formats among cricket fans.

Now that I have given a brief introduction to cricket, let me address the nuts-and-bolts of “Fire In Babylon,” a documentary about the West Indies cricket team from the Seventies that dominated the world of cricket for twenty years.  The main interviewees in the film are Sir Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Clive Lloyd, and many more great players. The film begins with an introduction of the West Indies cricket team, as we see montages of bowlers running on the beaches and fields transposed to the actual action on the field. The montage shows how the West Indies Cricket Board found prospective players from local towns, beaches, and neighboring islands. If great Brazilian soccer players are found in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, then the great West Indies cricketers were discovered on Caribbean beaches.   

The word “fire” has a special significance to the entire tone of the film. First, the film primarily focuses on a group of bowlers comprising Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, and Colin Croft, that tormented batters around the world with their pace and accuracy and were popularly known as the Pace Quartet. They were lethal bowlers, bowling consistently at ninety miles per hour, which was a lot in those days. Holding was called as “whispering death,” and Roberts was nicknamed “Hit Man.” One interviewee rightly says, “It’s like a bullet; if you don’t get out of its way, you could be dead.” In the early days of cricket, there was no protective gear for protecting the head. The batters would only wear a cap, with basic protection on the legs and other areas. With head exposed, a hit on the head could cause a serious injury, and in some cases death.

In 1974, Clive Lloyd was appointed the captain of the West Indies cricket team, and his first major assignment was the tour of Australia in 1975-76. Things didn’t go well for the West Indies (W.I.) team and they lost the series by a 5-1 margin. Two bowlers from the Australian team, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, inflicted the damage on the W.I. batters, as they had no answer to their deadly pace and nagging accuracy. Later, Lillee and Thomson were hailed as the fastest bowling pair in the world; Thomson became the fastest bowler the world has seen, with a speed of 112 miles per hour. The defeat shattered Lloyd’s team, but Lloyd took the defeat as a challenge to build his team. Some say after the tour of Australia, Lloyd transformed himself as a genuine leader. He started a countrywide search for fast bowlers, and he later tested his Pace Quartet to bowl varying lengths at the batters. In 1976, the new-look W.I. team withstood a stiff resistance from the Indian team, but the W.I.’s pace was too much to handle for the Indians, and W.I. won the series by 2-1 after India surrendered the forth match due to injury concerns. Later that year, W.I. toured England, and they won the series by 3-0 after Tony Greg, the England captain, uttered the infamous word “grovel,” and it energized the W.I. team. These victories were only the beginning and later made the W.I. team the most unbeatable in the world. As Holding says at the end: “From 1980 to 1994, West Indies didn’t lose a single series.”

Cricket was seen as the game of colonization. As we learn from interviewees, slavery and colonization stripped the past generations of their dignity. The new generation of players wanted to show their emergence as a nation. West Indies is comprised of several islands, and these players set aside their differences to play under one banner. Greg’s comment on “groveling” was seen as a racial comment, which was commonly used during the slavery period. West Indians felt their victories were emancipation from the White rule, and it uplifted the spirits of the nation. In addition, the Australian team routinely spoke discriminatory words against the W.I. players on the field. Nowadays, a word is coined for this behavior--“sledging”--which is normally employed to unsettle a player. Some players use “sledge” within the spirit of the game, but there a few who are always willing to test the limits of “sledging.” Nonetheless, this aspect of the game has always been problematic. West Indies’ approach to fast bowling generated a lot of controversy around the world. Many teams felt that the W.I. bowlers were intentionally targeting the batters with the pace and variable bounce; according to them, this aspect is against the game’s spirit, as cricket is always seen as a gentlemen’s game. I don’t think the W.I. bowlers were deliberately injuring the batters, but, in fact, the world was stunned at the pace and athleticism of these bowlers. In retrospect, one can say the batters didn’t have the right technique to counter this type of bowling. As Andy Roberts says in the interview, “Sympathy is here (in my heart), but I can’t show that.”

As a film, “Fire In Babylon” captures the aura of the W.I. team in the Seventies and Eighties. Through several interviews we get a detailed picture of fast bowling and the team at its pinnacle, achieving a greatness for years to come. Structurally, Stevan Riley’s film lays out an important timeline in West Indies cricket. Each interview segment provides a breakdown on game-changing series and how the players were transformed under the astute leadership of Clive Lloyd. Good teams have well-rounded talents, but to achieve greatness, a team has to work with the parameters of every talent present, honing every skill possible, pushing the limit, and learning from mistakes. The West Indies team under Lloyd had all these. Too bad the W.I. team hasn’t seen a team similar to what Lloyd led, and it has been on a downturn since then.

My main criticism of the film is that it focuses too much on fast bowling, and with the exception of Richard’s batting, we get no insights on other batters in the team. Also, there is no mention of one of the best chases ever in the 1976 series with India, when India chased down 402 runs at Port of Spain, stunning the W.I. team in the process. While I understand the film’s primary purpose is to cover the Test Cricket format, it would have been nice if the filmmakers had talked about the one-day format as well. In 1983, India won the World Cup by beating West Indies and spoiled the West Indies march to win their third World Cup in a row. The West Indies team was great in the one-day format, too, but this documentary misses this aspect.  However, these are minor complaints, and “Fire in Babylon” remains one of the best documentaries on cricket ever made.

Video:

New Video presents “Fire In Babylon” in multiple formats. The interviews are nice looking, but the film mainly presents archival match clippings that are grainy, with some damage.

Audio:

We get a 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo track. Since we only get interviews, the movie is driven by the front channels. The dialogue is clear and audible throughout.

Extras:

We only get a brief interview with the director and producer, in which they discuss the movie and West Indies cricket team of the Seventies.

Parting Thoughts:

“Fire In Babylon” is a snapshot of West Indies cricket when they were literally matchless. They were undefeated for almost fourteen years, mainly due to their fearsome bowling attack and aggressive batting. The film represents the professional sports at the highest level. There are not many movies about cricket, and “Fire In Babylon” is simply the best.