I’d like to see another sport included at the Olympics. What about cricket?

If the Olympiad can keep on adding sports every four years, why not another?

Not that everyone has heard of the game cricket. But if you are one of those people, then I recommend seeing Fire in Babylon (2010, United Kingdom) to inspire you about the game.

It’s a film for fans of cricket, but I hope it would also make others take notice. The hook of this film is sporting triumph over tragedy, which makes this cricketing story of universal interest. But sporting fans should come on board, irrespective.

Fire in Babylon isn’t a feature film story. Unlike fictional representations of sports scenes–like the rugby in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus or the compulsory inclusion of a cricketing shot in a British film in Gandhi–Fire in Babylon is a documentary. We are getting real life footage of games.

The team on display is the West Indies cricket team of the 1970’s and 1980’s. You may have heard of them. If you haven’t, they were cream of the crop of international cricket teams at the time.

The film’s hook

The ‘hook’ of Fire in Babylon is that before the West Indies made it in the ‘big league’, they were minnows or prone to getting beaten most of the time. This gives the film a human interest theme.

When captain Clive Lloyd, batsman Vivian Richards, fast bowler Malcolm Marshall, and others, stepped into the West Indies team, there was a do or die scenario. Either they continue in the old ways or step up to the plate.

They had do something about their losing streak. They decided to win and became cricketing legends.

International teams started to fear the West Indies.

As an example, excellent New Zealand batsman Bruce Edgar said he prepared to face the West Indies bowling attack (bowling is the equivalent of pitching in baseball) by getting a bowling machine to pitch cricket balls at his head. In that way, Edgar thought he could better defend himself against their steam-rolling bowling attack.

The West Indies became every team’s challenge, though the team, that struck fear into hearts of players in the 1970’s and 1980’s, came to an end in the 1990’s. They left their mark.