Fire in Babylon will make you cry

Carry a hanky to Fire in Babylon (FIB) — it’s going to make you cry. And not just in joy as you watch the West Indies playing such beautiful cricket, as Michael Holding recollects, “No other sporting team anywhere in the world dominated their sport for 15 years.” Instead, you’ll cry when you see the push behind the West Indies’ rise, when elderly Caribbean Bunny recollects, “The Caribbean people were brought by colonialism to be cheated of origin, will and bravery, transmitted by the chain, the lynch and the lash, conditioned and trained to be a ni***.”
You’ll cry when you see an age many of us never knew, when racism was rife and people denied everything because of their skin colour.You’ll cry when you see South African blacks gunned down by an Apartheid regime. Cricketers battered by the bowling of Australian pacer Dennis Lillee, whose supporters shouted, “Lillee, Lillee, kill kill kill.” And you’ll cry when the old Caribbean prophesises in his lilting tone, “After humiliation come riches and blessings. Forever and eternal.” Provided you fight ‘Babylon’ which refuses to treat all beings as equal.
A richly researched documentary, FIB depicts how a team of West Indies fighters channelled anger into sporting aggression, snatched victory from a world which wanted to, as English captain Tony Greig said, “Make them grovel” — and did it so stylishly, Colin Croft remembers Rastafarian icon Bob Marley telling them they were his heroes! As the team dismissed as ‘Calypso cricketers’ began playing hardball, Croft recalls, “We were called terrorists. Murderers.” But the boys ignored unfair jibes. Andy Roberts says their attitude became, “If you can’t take the heat, get out,” while Viv Richards smiles, “The only way you could get me out was if you knocked me out.” Viv recalls being unafraid, “My bat was my sword.” What he sported was a gift from Bob Marley — “An armband with the colours of Africa. Green for the land itself. Yellow for the gold stripped away. And red for the blood that was shed.”
Even as your eyes fill at West Indian cricket overcoming the harshest prejudice, reserve that hanky for the end. You’ll need it for those hot-shots of gorgeous Viv making English girls swoon. And then recollecting with humility, “Desmond Tutu told me how I had helped fight Apartheid in my own little way."
Imran Khan, captain of the Pakistani cricket team during the period when the West Indians ruled the world of cricket speaks to TOI from Pakistan
What do you think about the film?
It’s a significant film that should have been made earlier because people needed to be reminded of that West Indian era. My only grudge with the film is that it should have shown a little more of coverage of their actual cricket just to show the quality of the cricket they had.
You have always said that Vivian Richards is the greatest batsman ever — Why?
I didn’t see Bradman or Gary Sobers, but of the players I bowled to Vivian Richards was by far the best.
I believe you told Stevan Riley that when you chose your team against the West Indians you used to take the most fearless players in your team. Can you tell us about this?
You needed to have mental strength to face them. Apart from the physical ability or the technical skill, you needed the mental strength to face the onslaught of their bowlers. Each one of them was a match winner.
— Priya Gupta