Dear Editor,

For a long time West Indies cricket commentary was largely provided by Tony Cozier.

To many of us growing up in the Caribbean, the two were inseparable, indistinguishable. His was the clear, unmistakable voice of our cricket, especially in the days before television coverage became widespread — the days when West Indies fans took their transistor radios to bed, enraptured by the cricket being transmitted from distant lands like Australia and India.

Once Tony said it, it was so. Picturing the vivid images he painted with words, one almost felt present at the venue. And whenever commentary duties passed to others in the box, we waited eagerly for his time at the mic to come around again.

It might be only a slight exaggeration to say that many of us who grew up following the game closely listened to Cozier’s melodic voice as much as any other — as much as any teacher at school; as much, perhaps, as any parent.

His mastery extended to the written word as well. We revered his radio and TV commentary, but his writings on cricket were equally informative, entertaining, and highly regarded. I remember often rushing to acquire a copy of the local daily newspaper mainly because Cozier’s report on the previous day’s happenings would feature on the sports pages.

“Yesterday, Graham Gooch batted like a prince,” went a line from his day two report of the 1980 Lords Test. “Today it was the king’s turn.” That line, for some reason, has resided in my mind all these years. The king, of course, was West Indies batting great Viv Richards. His 145, made from159 deliveries, was a masterpiece that totally overshadowed the English opener’s very special innings the day before.

Almost as much as any player, Cozier was a star of the game to those of us who grew up on his commentary. The people of the Caribbean celebrated Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Michael Holding, Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, and all the great players. But they celebrated Cozier too. He excelled as much in his field as they did in theirs.

Their deeds were made flesh and brought to life by his gripping descriptions. For years, despite the stellar contributions of other journalists, he remained the main codifier of West Indies cricket. To him fell the main responsibility of explaining Caribbean cricket to the world.

Cozier published and edited the Benson and Hedges West Indies Cricket Annual from 1970 until 1991 when the sponsors moved on. He then started The Red Stripe Cricket Quarterly, which lasted a decade until those sponsors pulled out. There might have been other publications that focused on West Indies cricket during that period. None matched the authenticity of Cozier’s magazines.

Journalists must have envied Cozier’s breadth of experience. Recall that he began in the early 60s. Imagine that he saw and reported on the greatest of them all — Sir Garfield Sobers — in full bloom. Imagine, also, that he was there to see Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith in their prime. After their demise, he saw the West Indies struggle to find fast bowling options. And then he had the good fortune of having a close-up view of the exciting emergence of an unbelievable line of pacemen and witnessed the destructive capacity of the formidable four-pronged attacks.

Cozier observed and reported on the artistry of Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs, and Lawrence Rowe. He regularly viewed the majesty and ruthlessness of Richards’ strokeplay. He revelled in Lara’s exquisite timing and expansive range. He saw the team he loved rule cricket for almost two decades.

Sadly, he also had a ringside view of the prolonged demise of West Indies cricket. He watched the gloom descend and cover the sport. He grew weary at the back and forth and the conflict and mistrust that characterised the relationship between players and the authorities. His own relationship with Cricket West Indies (CWI) deteriorated, and in his last few years, he became a harsh critic of the way the game was governed in the Caribbean.

Admirers of his work were galled by the fact that he was no longer being heard on commentary, and Cozier responded by filing a lawsuit after then West Indies Cricket Board President Dave Cameron offered this as explanation: “There is no ban on Mr Cozier. The challenge is Mr Cozier has gotten to an age — and everyone needs to agree, that he is not actually seeing very well anymore. And we are being very, very frank about that.” The suit was still pending at the time of his passing.

Yet despite the issues with the West Indies cricket authorities that plagued his later years, Cozier is likely to have had a mostly fulfilling life. He had the good fortune of having a job many of us would kill for: that of travelling the globe watching and reporting on the game he loved dearly. He touched many lives. He made the world better.

Garfield Robinson

garfield.v.robinson@gmail.com