Fire in Babylon

They brought the world to its knees and a nation to its feet. Between 1975 and 1994, the West Indies dominated cricket's Empire, feared for their ferocious pace and the brutal beauty of their play. This disparate group of men—laborers, civil servants, sons of fishermen, drivers, and prison wardens—from islands across the Caribbean Sea, came together to play for a nation that existed only on a pitch; fighting under a flag that only flew from a pavilion roof. The team dominated for 19 years. Their success on the pitch went far beyond the game—it gave meaning and liberation to a nation still fighting the legacy of 300 years of slavery, to a people scattered across the globe. Tracing the remarkable journey from the "Calypso Cricketers'" notorious defeat to Australia in 1975 to world dominance shortly after, Fire in Babylon will definitively tell the story of how determination, controversy, and "pace like fire" came to change the lives of many, and become one of the great sporting tales.

Simon Lister is a BBC senior news producer and a cricket writer. His first book wasSupercat, the authorized biography of Clive Lloyd, which was short-listed for the British Sports Book of the Year award. He has covered county cricket for theSunday Telegraph and written about the game in the Financial Times. He is also a regular broadcaster about cricket matters on Radio 4.