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Hear the untold stories of enslaved people and learn about historical and contemporary slavery. Explore the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade as well as slavery in the modern day, racism and discrimination.

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Documentary telling the story of how the West Indies cricket team triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted sides in sporting history.

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Line

From

To

-They grovel.

-Grovel.

-To make them grovel.

0:34:11

0:34:14

Documentary which tells the story of how West Indies cricket triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted teams in sporting history. Key players of the 1980s side recount how it emerged to smash the giants of cricket - first Australia and then England. In a turbulent era of race riots in England and civil unrest in the Caribbean, the West Indian cricketers, led by the enigmatic Viv Richards, struck a defiant blow at the forces of white prejudice worldwide. Their undisputed skill, combined with a fearless spirit, allowed them to dominate the genteel game at the highest level, on their own terms. This is their story, told in their own words.

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Subtitles Found! We found subtitles for the program Fire in Babylon. Please scroll down to get them, or go here for a preview Documentary telling the story of how the West Indies cricket team triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted sides in sporting history.

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Subtitles Found! We found subtitles for the program Fire in Babylon. Please scroll down to get them, or go here for a preview

Documentary telling the story of how the West Indies cricket team triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted sides in sporting history.

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Fire in Babylon. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript

Line

From

To

-They grovel.

-Grovel.

-To make them grovel.

0:34:11

0:34:14

Documentary which tells the story of how West Indies cricket triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted teams in sporting history. Key players of the 1980s side recount how it emerged to smash the giants of cricket - first Australia and then England. In a turbulent era of race riots in England and civil unrest in the Caribbean, the West Indian cricketers, led by the enigmatic Viv Richards, struck a defiant blow at the forces of white prejudice worldwide. Their undisputed skill, combined with a fearless spirit, allowed them to dominate the genteel game at the highest level, on their own terms. This is their story, told in their own words.

Download Subtitles

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Subtitles Found! We found subtitles for the program Fire in Babylon. Please scroll down to get them, or go here for a preview Documentary telling the story of how the West Indies cricket team triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted sides in sporting history.

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http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/exhibitions/beyondtheboundary/colonial_cricket.aspx

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“CHAMPIONS.” Trinidad Express, 4 Apr. 2016, http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160404/news/champions

Pride Of The Caribbean | Fire In Babylon | Simon Lister.” All Out Cricket | Cricket News, Interviews And Features, 30 Sept. 2015, www.alloutcricket.com/features/pride-of-the-caribbean.

“The roots of colonial cricket.” National Museums Liverpool, www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/exhibitions/beyondtheboundary/colonial_cricket.aspx. Accessed 19 Apr. 2017.

“West Indies win World T20 final as Carlos Brathwaite sinks England.” The Guardian, 3 Apr. 2016, www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/apr/03/west-indies-win-world-t20-final-carlos-brathwaite-sinks-england#img-1.

“Women’s Cricket has Come Long Way.” Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, 24 Feb. 2014, www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2014-02-23/women%E2%80%99s-cricket-has-come-long-way.

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In doing this course and portfolio, I have not only gained a greater appreciation for the game of cricket but also for its cultural significance and contribution to the Caribbean. As a lover of history, learning about the game’s colonial and historical roots were particularly interesting and enjoyable for me. Additionally, the course Caribbean Civilisations has led me to a deeper appreciation for my society and region at large, specifically the cultures and civilizations that have shaped the Caribbean today. Caribbean Civilisations has introduced me to concepts and facts that I had not known nor have studied prior my participation in this course that are both interesting and educational. I not only learned more about my own society but the societies of my neighboring islands and of the Caribbean as a whole.

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All Out Cricket | Cricket News, Interviews And Features

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Simon Lister, author of a new book inspired by the hit film Fire in Babylon, explores the wider meaning of the West Indies' period of dominance in international cricket.
My first cricket was England's cricket. Simple and straightforward. From April to September I willingly sat in my father's car as he drove the Saturday A-roads and Sunday B-roads of 1970s Shropshire. league matches at Wellington, Wem and Whitchurch. Friendlies at Shifnal and Sheriffhales.

Cricket seemed an easy, likeable game. Its history was convenient and digestible. English shepherds discovered it first, then men in top hats. There were great England players. Other countries started playing the game too, but never as well.

Then, in 1976, a very different journey with Dad. On the 133 bus in south London from Streatham to Oval station for a Test match. Hot sun, the smell of plastic cushions, washing-up-water beer and baking concrete. Noise, excitement. And black people. Black boys on the bus, black men in the next seats, black players on the pitch.

These were West Indians. One of them with the ball in his hand was a young fast bowler called Wayne Daniel. He was from Barbados.

Earlier this summer, nearly 40 years after that Oval Test, the BBC broadcast two programmes called Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners. Using records from the national archive, the programme revealed the extensive number of ordinary people living in Britain who owned Caribbean slaves in the early 19th Century. One of the interviewees was Professor Hilary Beckles, the esteemed historian and cricket academic, some of whose thoughts were also recorded for my book, Fire in Babylon.

Beckles was asked about Barbados - the island of Wayne Daniel's birth - in the days of slavery. This was a "militarised, highly capitalistic, entrepreneurial, brutal, terror-based society." This beautiful island was unique, said Beckles, because Barbados was "the incubator where the greatest experiment in human terror in the modern era was first put in place." That experiment was slavery. And the experimenters were the English. What was more, the threads of Caribbean cricket and those of colonial savagery were impossible to unknot.

I knew it not in 1976, but Daniel and his teammates were cricketers from a region with a very different history. Far less straightforward, not at all convenient.

It's safe to assume that almost none of the young men who sat around me at the Oval that day were academics or historians. Many of these fans had been born in England and labelled by the government with the threatening and troublesome socio-historical tag 'the coloured school-leaver'. They may not have studied in any detail the history of their region, but most watched cricket - and their players played cricket - with a purpose.

The year 1976 was a good time to be an urban British West Indian fan. You may have been misunderstood by your parents, ignored by your neighbour, dismissed by your teachers or employer, but for that summer and the 18 which followed, the power-play of the West Indian Test and one-day side brought great pleasure. For some, it was payback pleasure. Enough, at least, to make getting out of bed and going to school or work a little easier.

The alchemy of that power-play was simmered and served by one man - Clive Lloyd. Lloyd was the captain of the side who at the end of 1975 had overseen a humiliation in Australia. His men had their asses whipped by Lillee, Thomson and the Chappells. It would never happen again, Lloyd demanded change. What he craved was a formidable bowling attack. Four men that could be relied on to take 20 Test-match wickets in a working week.

It came to pass that those men were fast bowlers and the best of a large crop were Andy Roberts, Mikey Holding, Colin Croft, Joel Garner and then Malcolm Marshall. The effect this team had on those who watched them was potent.

The broadcaster Trevor Phillips is one of the subjects of Fire in Babylon. As a student activist in London in the late '70s he watched those bowlers (and the great batsmen of Lloyd, Richards and Greenidge) begin their modern domination of world cricket. It meant a lot.

Phillips was one of the young men who "felt the everyday experience of being black - the grating humiliations you suffered every day". Yet the way this cricket team conducted themselves against their opponents was demanding of respect. "That translated into something very important for our generation because there were hardly any other black people you could point to and say 'that's the way to deal with it'. On the pitch they were anybody's equal - and I suppose for young people it was quite simple; these guys didn't take any shit from anybody."

What Lloyd and his team did for the next 10 years, through one victory after another, was restore a joy and respect to the region and the Caribbean diaspora. There was no West Indian nation to look back fondly on, no towering figures to admire. There was no Drake, no Shakespeare, no Nelson. Their collective birthing had been at a profound level both shameful and humiliating. Followed by an enduring disaster. West Indians wanted to run from their history, not savour it. But now, after 300 years, local heroes could be clearly pointed out. And they played cricket for a living.

It sounds simple, unremarkable even, that this group of cricketers began to play so well, but as Lloyd himself says: "When you consider our painful history, the bitter impositions forced upon those who came before us and the particular ordeals that the inhabitants of the Caribbean had to overcome each day of their lives, you can begin to understand why winning cricket matches for the West Indies meant so much to us all - those at home and those making their way around the world. Excellence had arrived. Our collective and individual skills had at last been recognised and could not be denied any longer. We represented a people who could make a difference."
Fire in Babylon: How the West Indies cricket team brought a people to its feet is published by Yellow Jersey and available now

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Simon Lister, author of a new book inspired by the hit film Fire in Babylon, explores the wider meaning of the West Indies' period of dominance in international cricket. My first cricket was England's cricket. Simple and straightforward. From April to September I willingly sat in my father's car as he drove the Saturday A-roads and Sunday B-roads of 1970s Shropshire.

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Dwayne "DJ" Bravo - Champion (Official Song)

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http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160404/news/champions

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http://www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2014-02-23/women%E2%80%99s-cricket-has-come-long-way

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There is usually disparity in sports with reference to gender where most of the teams or the sport celebrities are dominated by men. This was evident in cricket as, even though the sport was supported by both men and women, there was the gendered view that it was a man’s game. As cricket began to embody a national and regional identity for the Caribbean, it became more inclusive of women. Organized women’s cricket teams began to emerge and break down the gender barrier around the game. In 2009, the Women’s West Indies cricket team was established and has recently won against Australia in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 2016 cricket tournament. Today, the development of West Indies women’s cricket is continuously enforced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). (The articles included were published April 4th, 2016 and February 24th, 2014)

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Carlos Brathwaite broke the hearts of an England side, which for the first time in a wonderful, fluctuating game of cricket, had sensed that the World Twenty20 title was in their grasp.

When Ben Stokes was tossed the ball for the final over the match West Indies needed 19 runs for victory. Marlon Samuels, 85 not out, was still there but at the non-striker's end. Perhaps England felt this was a good thing. It transpired that this was not the case.

In the previous two matches Stokes had been so effective when bowling the death overs; it is unlikely that Brathwaite had taken too much notice of that. The mighty right-hander stood tall in the crease and swung. Poor Stokes sought the yorker but he could never find it.

The first ball was swung straight for six; so too was the second. Suddenly the match had yo-yoed yet again, with seven runs needed off four balls. Braithwaite hit another six and for a moment the batsmen thought it was all over.

The players reassembled for the last rites. Whereupon Brathwaite finished the game with one more six. Stokes was inconsolable on his haunches. Earlier he had taken three brilliant outfield catches as England tenaciously worked themselves back into the game. Now he felt the villain having delivered those delicious length balls. All the England players and their coach, Trevor Bayliss, put their arms around him at the end of a melodramatic campaign.

Meanwhile West Indies began to celebrate as only West Indians can. Until the Brathwaite intervention even Chris Gayle had looked nervous in their dug-out. The target had seemed so accessible. On an excellent batting surface England's 155 never seemed enough.

Desperate situations in the field require desperate measures, but these rarely include tossing the new ball to a part-time off-spinner, who looks as if he has just come from choir practice.

Eoin Morgan came up with a cunning plan that at first glance seemed to have many of the hallmarks of those proposed by Baldrick of Blackadder fame. In fact it was a stroke of genius by Morgan to toss the ball to Joe Root for the second over of the West Indies innings.

The West Indies openers were taken aback. Obviously both of them decided that they would have nothing to do with such nonsense. Such an impertinent move demanded that Root should be smashed to all parts of Eden Gardens. Johnson Charles heaved at Root's first delivery, not a bad one, and the ball spiralled to long-on; Stokes steadied himself and took a fine catch.

The batsmen had crossed so it was Gayle who drove loosely at Root's next offering, the ball sliced over cover for four. Root's third ball was handy. Gayle tried to hit it for six; again the ball spiralled; again Stokes steadied himself; West Indies 5 for 2. The match was alive.

When Lendl Simmons was stuck on the crease and lbw to David Willey, whose eyes were burning with passion, it was 13 for 3.

Now West Indies were indebted to Samuels, the man who scored the vital runs in their World T20 final win against Sri Lanka four years ago. He hung in for a while; he was given out on 27 but recalled when there was doubt over whether the ball had carried to Jos Buttler behind the stumps. But soon he hit some crushing blows to the shorter leg-side boundaries. Then came Brathwaite.

If the end of the game was nightmarish for England, the start did not go to plan either. Jason Roy has obviously never faced Samuel Badree before and he did not seem able to establish where the ball was coming from. Roy missed the first ball of the match and it struck his left pad; the appeal was declined; he missed the second and it struck the leg stump.

In the second over Alex Hales flicked at an innocuous leg-side delivery from Andre Russell and the ball flew straight into the hands of Badree standing at short-fine leg.

There was a solitary boundary for Morgan before he too was duped by Badree, who propelled yet another skidding top-spinner; Badree appears in the guide-books as a leg-spinner, which should invoke the trade description act. He hardly ever bowls a leg-break. England must have known that but this was not obvious from their batting.

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Joe Root plays a pull shot during another fine innings, of 54, for England. Photograph: Jan Kruger-IDI/IDI via Getty Images

Joe Root looked on phlegmatically, clipping boundaries whenever he could. Buttler offered reassuring assistance for seven overs. In all he hit Sulieman Benn for three sixes and West Indies were challenged at last. In pursuit of another maximum he found Darren Bravo on the mid-wicket boundary. But the partnership of 61 had given the innings some impetus.

It could not be sustained as England lost three wickets for one run when they were threatening at 110 for 4. Unfortunately one of those was Root, who had batted with his usual deftness while making 54. He was dismissed when trying the most elaborate shot of his innings, a scoop over the left shoulder, which sent the ball gently to Benn at short fine leg.

Willey managed to crack two sixes and England were able to bat their quota of overs but there was no disguising West Indian delight at their work in the field.

Their fielding was almost flawless with Sammy cleverly managing to hide his most senior citizens, Gayle and Samuels; as has been the case throughout the tournament the bowlers went about their business intelligently; Badree was unrelenting and simple in his approach; the quicker bowlers varied their pace shrewdly; only Benn and Sammy were collared, but none so devastatingly as poor Stokes in the final over of a mesmerising contest.

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West Indies win World T20 final as Carlos Brathwaite sinks England

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Carlos Brathwaite broke the hearts of an England side, which for the first time in a wonderful, fluctuating game of cricket, had sensed that the World Twenty20 title was in their grasp. When Ben Stokes was tossed the ball for the final over the match West Indies needed 19 runs for victory.

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Cricket has become more than just a sport or a national pastime, it is a symbol of unity. When it was brought to the Caribbean, it emphasized inequality and encouraged disunity among the whites and coloured: the plantocracy and the enslaved. Today, cricket contributes to a single, unifying West Indian /Caribbean identity. Although each island of the Caribbean has their own distinguished culture, a cultural artifact that is no stranger to the islands is the game of cricket. The West Indies cricket team is comprised of members from the different Caribbean islands that come together to satisfy one common goal. This mirrors the impact cricket has on the supporters from each island as insularity, isolation and inter-territorial competitiveness within the region melt away whenever we come together to support our cricket team. Their victory in the World T20 final popularized one of the players', Dwayne Bravo, song “Champion,” in which he acknowledges some West Indies’ cricketers, other Caribbean icons as well as citizens from different Caribbean islands all as ‘champions.’  (The song included was uploaded March 14th, 2016. The article included was published September 28th, 2015.)

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Cricket in the Caribbean has completely changed from its introduction to present times. Although the game itself has not undergone much physical change, it has undergone much figurative and cultural change. When cricket was brought to the Caribbean, only the Europeans were allowed to play it formally. This however was no match for the Caribbean natives' nature of resistance. They found ways to innovate and play the game themselves, they created bats out of branches to emulate the white cricketers and formed their own cricket. Cricket was no longer a shackle of mental slavery and its cultural importance has been redefined away from its colonial foundations. Coloured men of the Caribbean began taking positions in the West Indies’ cricket team but the truly pivotal moment was when Sir Frank Worrell became the first black captain of the West Indies’ cricket team in the 1950s. Worrell’s position as captain was more than just a personal accomplishment but a symbolic feat for the region, symbolising a movement away from colonisation the Caribbean claiming cricket as a part of our culture. In 2016, West Indies won the World T20 final against England; we had gained total independence from our colonizers but we had also won it on the pitch. (The article included was published April 3rd, 2016)

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To me, one of the most fascinating discussions during the Caribbean Civilisations course was the origin of cricket as a cultural artifact in the Caribbean. Cricket has a significant cultural importance but also has a colonial history. Cricket was brought to us by the English as a facilitator of cultural imperialism. Although it was brought as a cultural artifact, the idea of introducing the game to the Caribbean was a well thought out scheme to perpetuate the power of the colonizers. Initially, the game was intended to influence the mind. The colonial subjects, the Caribbean natives, were not allowed to formally play but were to solely spectate as the whites partook in the game of cricket. The game was taught in missionary schools to teach English values to the natives. The motive behind the plan was to create obedient, docile and “good colonial subjects” as well as to further the Europeans’ geopolitical ends and political domination by stirring a sense of inferiority to the whites within the Caribbean spectators. The cricket clubs and even cricket teams that represented the Caribbean were made up of members of the white plantocracy. Fortunately for us, this cricket conspiracy concocted by the Englishmen did not unfold how they had expected. (The article included was accessed 19th April, 2017)