Fire in Babylon
Encyclopedia
Fire in Babylon is a 2010 documentary film
about the record-breaking West Indies cricket team of the 1970s and 1980s. Featuring stock footage and interviews with several former players and officials, including Colin Croft
, Deryck Murray
, Joel Garner
, Gordon Greenidge
, Desmond Haynes
, Michael Holding
, Clive Lloyd
, Viv Richards
and Andy Roberts, the film was written and directed by Stevan Riley and was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Best Documentary.
It begins with an introduction to the West Indies Cricket Team. Using interviews with West Indian cricketing greats, and other people closely associated with West Indies cricket; the idea of culturally and politically different Caribbean
nations playing under the common banner of the West Indies is described.
The history of cricket in the West Indies is briefly described, such as the appointment of Sir Frank Worrell as the first black man to Captain
the West Indies Cricket Team, and the emergence of such cricketing greats as Everton Weekes
, Learie Constantine
, and Sir Garfield Sobers. However talented these individual cricketers were, they were unable to fetch results, resulting in the West Indies being perceived as "Calypso Cricketers"; people who were entertaining, but would ultimately lose.
The early 1970s saw the emergence of a new crop of West Indian cricketers, ones eager to shake the tag of Calypso, and who could dominate world cricket. However, it is said that when you have 10 young men from various islands in the Caribbean, you don't have a team; you have a gang. What was needed was a guiding hand, who could steer this young team in the right direction, and unite them for a common cause on the cricket field
. That man was Clive Lloyd
. Appointed as Captain in 1974, Lloyd's first major challenge came in the 1975-76 West Indies Tour of Australia.
Australians Dennis Lillee
and Jeff Thomson
destroyed the West Indies with their fast bowling
. Frequent bouncers and intimidatory tactics led to the spirit of the team being shattered and the tour ended with Australia winning the six-match test series 5-1. At the end of the series, Clive Lloyd realizes that in order to win, it would be necessary for him to also cultivate fast bowlers as devastating as Lillee and Thomson.
When the Indian Cricket Team
toured the West Indies in 1976, Clive Lloyd tested his new plan of attack, relentlessly getting his fast bowlers such as Andy Roberts, Michael Holding
, and Colin Croft
to bowl short-pitched or bouncers to Indian batsman. While playing at Kingston, Jamaica
the Indian team declared on a second-innings lead of 12, after the management decided that they would rather not risk sending their bowlers such as Bishen Singh Bedi to face the fearsome fast bowling.
Convinced of the effectiveness of pace bowling as an instrument to success, Clive Lloyd's team departed to their Tour of England in 1976
. England Captain Tony Greig
's infamous "grovel" comment is shown in is entirety, and the effect it had on galvanising the team is described. After some highly aggressive fast bowling against the English batsmen, West Indian fast bowling is seen as being dangerous to the game. However, the West Indians feel that if the Australians could do it, so could they. Viv Richards
is shown as dominating the Test series as a batsman, where he scored 829 runs
in four tests
with two double-centuries. Viv Richards' refusal to be intimidated by fast bowling is also seen as the ideal way for a batsman to deal with West Indian bowling.
The documentary then describes the struggle with their board for better pay, and how Kerry Packer
eventually enticed the team to participate in World Series Cricket
in 1977. World Series Cricket
turns out to be a fore-runner of changes in cricket than only became permanent in the 1990s; such as coloured kits, day/night matches, and a greater impetus on professionalism in play. The West Indian team emerges from the tournament fitter, stronger, and with a more professional outlook to the game.
The 1982 Rebel Tour to Apartheid -ruled South Africa
is described. Colin Croft
chooses to go, earning him a life ban from the West Indies Cricket Board
. The main target of the regime, however, is international superstar Viv Richards
. Richards states that he was offered "a blank cheque", but decided to not go as it would validate the state-sponsored racism pursued by the South African Government at the time.
It ends with a description of the West Indies' tour to England in 1984
. With the emergence of fast bowling greats such as Joel Garner
and Malcolm Marshall
to take the place of Croft, the West Indies becomes unstoppable. After Gordon Greenidge
's innings of 214 not out at Lord's, the West Indians become an unstoppable force; defeating England 5-0 in the five-test series. In a turn on the regular term "Whitewash" to describe such a win, the series was instead dubbed Blackwash.
The documentary ends with a description of how the West Indians earned the respect, admiration, and love of cricket fans and even opposing teams from across the world. As the end credits roll, Michael Holding
describes how between February, 1980 to March, 1995; the West Indies Cricket Team did not lose a single Test series.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about the record-breaking West Indies cricket team of the 1970s and 1980s. Featuring stock footage and interviews with several former players and officials, including Colin Croft
Colin Croft
Colin Everton Hunte Croft is a former West Indian cricketer. He provides expert analysis on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Test Match Special.-Cricket career:...
, Deryck Murray
Deryck Murray
Deryck Lance Murray is a former West Indies cricketer. A wicketkeeper and right-handed batsman, Murray kept wicket to the potent West Indian fast bowling attacks of the 1970s ; his efficient glovework effected 189 Test dismissals and greatly enhanced the potency of the bowling attack.Murray...
, Joel Garner
Joel Garner
Joel Garner , also known as "Big Joel" or "Big Bird", is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early '80s West Indies cricket teams....
, Gordon Greenidge
Gordon Greenidge
Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge MBE is a former member of the West Indies cricket team.Greenidge was an opening batsman for the West Indies. He began his Test career against India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore in 1974 and continued playing internationally until 1991. He was half of the West...
, Desmond Haynes
Desmond Haynes
Desmond Leo Haynes is a West Indian cricketer and cricket coach. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1991. Haynes formed a formidable partnership with Gordon Greenidge for the West Indies cricket team in Test cricket during 1980s. Between them they managed 16 century stands, four in excess of...
, Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
, Clive Lloyd
Clive Lloyd
Clive Hubert Lloyd CBE AO is a former West Indies cricketer. He captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 and oversaw their rise to become the dominant Test-playing nation, a position that was only relinquished in the latter half of the 1990s...
, Viv Richards
Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE is a former West Indian cricketer. Better known by his second name, Vivian or, more popularly, simply as Viv or King Viv Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald...
and Andy Roberts, the film was written and directed by Stevan Riley and was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Best Documentary.
Plot
The documentary describes the ascension of West Indies cricket from being a team largely composed of highly talented, entertaining, "Calypso Cricketers" to a determined unit that dominated world cricket for nearly twenty years.It begins with an introduction to the West Indies Cricket Team. Using interviews with West Indian cricketing greats, and other people closely associated with West Indies cricket; the idea of culturally and politically different Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
nations playing under the common banner of the West Indies is described.
The history of cricket in the West Indies is briefly described, such as the appointment of Sir Frank Worrell as the first black man to Captain
Captain (sports)
In team sports, a captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field...
the West Indies Cricket Team, and the emergence of such cricketing greats as Everton Weekes
Everton Weekes
Sir Everton DeCourcy Weekes, KCMG, GCM, OBE is a leading former West Indian cricketer. Along with Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott, he formed what was known as "The Three Ws" of West Indian cricket.-Youth and early career:...
, Learie Constantine
Learie Constantine
Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine MBE was a West Indian cricketer who played 18 Test matches before the Second World War. He took West Indies' first wicket in Test cricket and was the team's leading all-rounder and opening bowler for the entirety of his career...
, and Sir Garfield Sobers. However talented these individual cricketers were, they were unable to fetch results, resulting in the West Indies being perceived as "Calypso Cricketers"; people who were entertaining, but would ultimately lose.
The early 1970s saw the emergence of a new crop of West Indian cricketers, ones eager to shake the tag of Calypso, and who could dominate world cricket. However, it is said that when you have 10 young men from various islands in the Caribbean, you don't have a team; you have a gang. What was needed was a guiding hand, who could steer this young team in the right direction, and unite them for a common cause on the cricket field
Cricket field
A cricket field consists of a large circular or oval-shaped grassy ground on which the game of cricket is played. There are no fixed dimensions for the field but its diameter usually varies between 450 feet to 500 feet...
. That man was Clive Lloyd
Clive Lloyd
Clive Hubert Lloyd CBE AO is a former West Indies cricketer. He captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 and oversaw their rise to become the dominant Test-playing nation, a position that was only relinquished in the latter half of the 1990s...
. Appointed as Captain in 1974, Lloyd's first major challenge came in the 1975-76 West Indies Tour of Australia.
Australians Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...
and Jeff Thomson
Jeff Thomson
Jeffrey Robert Thomson is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he was one of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket and was the opening partner of fellow fast bowler Dennis Lillee; their combination was one of the most fearsome in Test cricket history...
destroyed the West Indies with their fast bowling
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
. Frequent bouncers and intimidatory tactics led to the spirit of the team being shattered and the tour ended with Australia winning the six-match test series 5-1. At the end of the series, Clive Lloyd realizes that in order to win, it would be necessary for him to also cultivate fast bowlers as devastating as Lillee and Thomson.
When the Indian Cricket Team
Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
toured the West Indies in 1976, Clive Lloyd tested his new plan of attack, relentlessly getting his fast bowlers such as Andy Roberts, Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
, and Colin Croft
Colin Croft
Colin Everton Hunte Croft is a former West Indian cricketer. He provides expert analysis on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Test Match Special.-Cricket career:...
to bowl short-pitched or bouncers to Indian batsman. While playing at Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
the Indian team declared on a second-innings lead of 12, after the management decided that they would rather not risk sending their bowlers such as Bishen Singh Bedi to face the fearsome fast bowling.
Convinced of the effectiveness of pace bowling as an instrument to success, Clive Lloyd's team departed to their Tour of England in 1976
West Indian cricket team in England in 1976
The West Indian cricket team toured England in 1976, spending virtually the whole of the 1976 English cricket season in England. West Indies also played one match in Ireland in July....
. England Captain Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...
's infamous "grovel" comment is shown in is entirety, and the effect it had on galvanising the team is described. After some highly aggressive fast bowling against the English batsmen, West Indian fast bowling is seen as being dangerous to the game. However, the West Indians feel that if the Australians could do it, so could they. Viv Richards
Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE is a former West Indian cricketer. Better known by his second name, Vivian or, more popularly, simply as Viv or King Viv Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald...
is shown as dominating the Test series as a batsman, where he scored 829 runs
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
in four tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
with two double-centuries. Viv Richards' refusal to be intimidated by fast bowling is also seen as the ideal way for a batsman to deal with West Indian bowling.
The documentary then describes the struggle with their board for better pay, and how Kerry Packer
Kerry Packer
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...
eventually enticed the team to participate in World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
in 1977. World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
turns out to be a fore-runner of changes in cricket than only became permanent in the 1990s; such as coloured kits, day/night matches, and a greater impetus on professionalism in play. The West Indian team emerges from the tournament fitter, stronger, and with a more professional outlook to the game.
The 1982 Rebel Tour to Apartheid -ruled South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
is described. Colin Croft
Colin Croft
Colin Everton Hunte Croft is a former West Indian cricketer. He provides expert analysis on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Test Match Special.-Cricket career:...
chooses to go, earning him a life ban from the West Indies Cricket Board
West Indies Cricket Board
The West Indies Cricket Board is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in the West Indies...
. The main target of the regime, however, is international superstar Viv Richards
Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE is a former West Indian cricketer. Better known by his second name, Vivian or, more popularly, simply as Viv or King Viv Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald...
. Richards states that he was offered "a blank cheque", but decided to not go as it would validate the state-sponsored racism pursued by the South African Government at the time.
It ends with a description of the West Indies' tour to England in 1984
West Indian cricket team in England in 1984
The West Indian cricket team in England in 1984 played three One Day Internationals and five Tests. West Indies beat England 2-1 in the ODI series and then whitewashed England in the Test series, winning 5-0...
. With the emergence of fast bowling greats such as Joel Garner
Joel Garner
Joel Garner , also known as "Big Joel" or "Big Bird", is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early '80s West Indies cricket teams....
and Malcolm Marshall
Malcolm Marshall
By 1984 Marshall was seen as one of the finest bowlers in the world, and he demoralised England that summer, especially at Headingley, where he ran through the order in the second innings to finish with 7-53, despite having broken his thumb whilst fielding in the first innings...
to take the place of Croft, the West Indies becomes unstoppable. After Gordon Greenidge
Gordon Greenidge
Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge MBE is a former member of the West Indies cricket team.Greenidge was an opening batsman for the West Indies. He began his Test career against India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore in 1974 and continued playing internationally until 1991. He was half of the West...
's innings of 214 not out at Lord's, the West Indians become an unstoppable force; defeating England 5-0 in the five-test series. In a turn on the regular term "Whitewash" to describe such a win, the series was instead dubbed Blackwash.
The documentary ends with a description of how the West Indians earned the respect, admiration, and love of cricket fans and even opposing teams from across the world. As the end credits roll, Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
describes how between February, 1980 to March, 1995; the West Indies Cricket Team did not lose a single Test series.
See Also
- Wisden TrophyWisden TrophyThe Wisden Trophy is awarded to the winner of the Test cricket series played between England and the West Indies. It was first awarded in 1963 to commemorate the hundredth edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Series are played in accordance with the International Cricket Council's future tours...
- Cricket In The West IndiesCricket in the West IndiesThe West Indiescricket is a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries and dependencies that formed the British West Indies....
- History of Cricket In The West IndiesHistory of cricket in the West IndiesThe history of cricket in the West Indies is covered in the following articles:*History of cricket in the West Indies to 1918*History of cricket in the West Indies from 1918–19 to 1945*History of cricket in the West Indies from 1945–46 to 1970...
- West Indian cricket team in Australia in 1975–76
- History of cricket in the West Indies from 1970–71 to 1980
- West Indian cricket team in England in 1984West Indian cricket team in England in 1984The West Indian cricket team in England in 1984 played three One Day Internationals and five Tests. West Indies beat England 2-1 in the ODI series and then whitewashed England in the Test series, winning 5-0...
- West Indian cricket team in England in 1976West Indian cricket team in England in 1976The West Indian cricket team toured England in 1976, spending virtually the whole of the 1976 English cricket season in England. West Indies also played one match in Ireland in July....