"I don't like cricket, oh no, I love it" - Fire in Babylon (2010)

I do not know how many Americans, when they hear the word cricket, still think of the insect that chirps its heart out (mostly at night). But if you google the word cricket, the first results you will see are for the sport that is not widely known here. Except through immigrants who have come from countries where cricket is king. Or queen.

Cricket was unavoidable in Pakistan. Even if you were not a fan of the sport, you could not help but hear about it on the news, read about it in the papers. In the mid seventies, which is the period I remember the most, we had a great team, with Mushtaq Mohammad as the captain. There was Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal, Sarfraz Nawaz, Wasim Raja, Wasim Bari, Majid Khan, Mushtaq's brother Sadiq, and of course the unforgettable Imran Khan, among others. Javed Miandad appeared on the scene as well, and was simply marvelous.

I know I watched a number of matches, but the one that really stands out for me is the series between Pakistan and India in 1978. I recall how this was more exciting that year than any of the other matches because it was the first time we were playing against India after seventeen years. Bishen Singh Bedi was the captain of the Indian team at the time. The great Gavaskar was there. And it was Kapil Dev's debut - damn good one too. And Pakistan won the series thanks to some awesome batting by Majid Khan and Miandad, among others, and the fast bowling of Imran Khan and his fellow bowlers! We were in school, and radios were forbidden but one of my classmates smuggled one in anyway. I think just as I did with the "rumble in the jungle" between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, I feigned illness during one day of the series.

When watching cricket, I did not focus on any other team but Pakistan. Names like Botham, Lillee, Richards, Boycott, I remember, peripherally, as opponents. And let me tell you, if I had known more about Vivian Richards between 1974 and 1979, which was the last time I would watch a cricket match on television, he would have toppled Imran Khan as my favorite cricketer!

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This past weekend, I was switching channels, and was shocked at seeing cricket on ESPN classic. What is this? I thought. What my eyes continued to see was not only entertaining, but incredibly inspiring.

Fire in Babylon is a 2010 documentary about the West Indian cricket team of the seventies, captained by Clive Lloyd. This team is remarkable not only for overcoming the perception of "calypso cricketers" - cricketers who were entertaining, but not winners - but also for how Lloyd brought together a group of men from different countries in the Caribbean (Jamaica, Guyana, Antigua, Barbados . . .) to form what would become the longest winning cricket team in the history of the sport.

Horribly stung from their defeat by Australian fast bowlers in 1975-76, Clive Lloyd and his team are determined never to lose again. The West Indian bowlers develop their style of fast bowling as well. However, it seems that certain factors come into play when the Windies decide to practice fast bowling. The manner in which they do it is seen as brutal and intimidating, and they are criticized for it. As Andy Richards points out, nobody complained when the Australians did it. It is not difficult to understand why the West Indians would think they were being singled out, when there were other fast bowlers on other teams. And given the colonial history, and how West Indians had been perceived in years past, it is not unrealistic to think that race played a factor.

Another ignominy was on the part of the English captain in 1976: Tony Greig's remark that they were going to make the West Indians "grovel". This remark made at a time when racism was still very much a part of British society, and apartheid was in full force in South Africa.

Greig and his teammates paid dearly for that remark when the West Indians crushed them.

This is a team that not only played the game for the sake of the game, or their livelihood, but for a much bigger picture. They played to show that they were men who were no different than their white counterparts, they played to increase social awareness, and to give their compatriots all over the world a sense of pride. They would not grovel. They would not give legitimacy to state-sponsored racism.

But there were West Indian players who did agree to play in South Africa at the height of apartheid. One of those players was the fast bowler Colin Croft. These players were denounced by the cricket board, by their people. Colin Croft was one of the players who got a lifetime ban from the Windies team. He did not return home after the South African trip. The film shows the disgust and anger of some of his former teammates. Michael Holding asks, "What is wrong with the color of our skin?" upon hearing that the players would be given "honorary white" status.

Vivian Richards, the fearless batsman was the target though. Richards was given a "blank cheque". If he considered it even for a moment, he refused. He talks about how Desmond Tutu gives the team a message from Nelson Mandela thanking them for their part in the struggle against apartheid. What could be more affirming and just awe-inspiring than a message from the imprisoned Nelson Mandela?

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One of the other interesting things about the documentary was the commentary from journalists and personalities from the Caribbean. I wish I knew who the one Rasta was who made remarks like Viv Richards was "rastarized", how he was the "real deal", and quoted Bob Marley from "Pass it on": "Live for yourself and you will live in vain. Live for others, you will live again." Had I seen the film from the very beginning, I would have known his name.

I have heard someone say that Bob Marley's songs/music were not protest songs/music. I do not know how one cannot see protest or affirmation in many of his songs. Bob Marley and the West Indian team of Clive Lloyd were traveling the same path.

I loved how history, culture, struggle, and sport were all tied together in this. There probably could have been more about some of the cricketers' lives, what brought them to the game, but this is great enough. This is still relevant, and important to remind those who are still playing that there is always more to the sport than just the match.

I loved the lyrical way in which some of the former players, some now commentators, like Michael Holding, spoke, and the patois that escaped understanding, but still you get a glimpse of the differences between the cricketers - and the things that held them together.

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I have been away from cricket for decades. Every once in a while, if I went to the Bombay Cricket Club in Portland for a meal, there would be cricket on television. I remember trying to explain the rules to an American and feeling incredibly perturbed at having forgotten so much.

This was an excellent reminder of what I have missed for so long. If you have a chance to catch it on ESPN, again, or on Netflix - you don't have to know much about cricket to watch it!