RIP Tony Cozier

Donsteppa

Another great voice of the game gone, aged 75. A nice reflection from Michael Holding:
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/story/1012673.html'>http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/story/1012673.html</a>
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">

'Tony Cozier's right up there with Garry Sobers' - Holding

<div>As told to Raunak Kapoor</div>
<div>Michael Holding pays tribute to Tony Cozier, who was covering cricket when Holding began playing for West Indies, and then helped the fast bowler start his commentary career</div>
 
On his first memories of Tony Cozier Michael Holding: First of all we have to appreciate that this is a very, very sad day. Not just for West Indian cricket, but for Tony's entire family.
Tony was involved with West Indian cricket for so many years, long before I started playing. I remember my first close encounter with him was at a cocktail party after a Shell Shield game in Jamaica. I was at that game, perhaps 19 years old, still in school, and I was standing with Maurice Foster, who was the captain at the time. Of course Maurice knew Tony Cozier because he had been playing with the West Indies.
And Maurice Foster pointed him out to me and said, 'That's Tony Cozier out there, one thing I can tell you, if he writes well about you, you have a chance of playing for the West Indies.' That was just the impact of Tony Cozier. From those days, everyone knew he was pretty much the doyen of West Indies cricket.
I spent a lot of time with him. He wrote my first book. First time I appeared on television doing cricket commentary was because of Tony Cozier. I had been in radio since 1988, just a couple of years, and then when TV Nine came to the Caribbean to cover West Indies cricket for the first time, putting it on television, the contract they had at the time, as I understand with the West Indies Cricket Board, stipulated two West Indian voices. Tony Cozier was obviously one, and Tony recommended me as a second. So he pretty much started my career in television.
I owe him a lot. I've spent many, many years with him in the commentary box, radio, television, travelling around the world. It's certainly a great loss.
 
On how Cozier earned the trust of the players Holding: Initially when Tony Cozier started covering West Indies cricket, some of the cricketers used to talk to him a lot about it everyday. Garry Sobers and people long before my time. And he said that he and the journalists had a great relationship with players. They would go on tour and they were allowed to even travel on the bus with the cricketers, which of course has changed now. So Tony's coming from that era where the journalists and the cricketers sat down, had dinner together, drinks together, travelled on the same bus, to the point where journalists started being looked upon as people who don't and shouldn't be mixing with them too much. You have to be careful of what you say around them.
So he has gone through every era of cricket. Relationships have changed, but Tony Cozier has always been a respected person. He has always been someone that the players have never been afraid to be around, or to say things around, because they know if they say something that perhaps shouldn't really be printed, it won't be printed. But at the same time, Tony was not afraid to express his opinion on whatever he thinks. And sometimes it irks some of the players or administrators but Tony believed that he had to express his opinion. That is what he is being paid to do, that is what he has always done.
He expressed his opinion on his own Bajan cricketers which, knowing the Caribbean politics, doesn't happen. I remember on one occasion he wrote that Gordon Greenidge should be dropped because he wasn't performing at a level that everyone was accustomed to seeing him perform. The next game, Tony Cozier is in Barbados, Greenidge gets a century in Barbados, and the Bajan people are on his back. But he just saw his job as something he had to do and he kept on doing it.
 
On how big a loss Cozier is to West Indies cricket Holding: A huge loss. When you look at West Indies cricket and the respected voices, and people who write about West Indies cricket over the last sixty years, it's Tony Cozier first by some distance in my opinion and then Tony Becca. We haven't seen too many people coming along to replace people like that. Who is the next person who is going to step up and be revered by people in the Caribbean? To whom people will look at and say, 'if this man writes about it, or this man says it, then we have to listen to what he is saying.' I don't see anyone taking that position at the moment.
 
On what made Cozier - the commentator - succeed Holding: Well, his insights. Tony Cozier knew the game. He was following the game for so long, especially West Indies cricket. He was also a former player, not at the highest level of course, but he did play at the highest level for hockey. He kept goal for Barbados in hockey, but he also played club cricket. So he knew the game, he had insight into the game, and he was always respectful of the game and the people who played it. So it was easy for people to accept Tony Cozier and acknowledge his brilliance. He knew everything about the game. Not just the tactics of the game, but statistics of the game. On so many occasions I remember calling Tony from different parts of the world. People arguing about a fact on cricket at any hour, in some bar or some place and they'd say immediately, 'I'm going to call Tony,' and they'd just ring his number because so many people had his phone number. So people always relied upon Tony, not just to discuss cricket on the day, but because they knew he had all the statistics and knew everything.
 
A distinct memory with Cozier Holding: I've had a lot of meals with Tony Cozier, and one thing I can tell you about him is that he loves ice cream. Tony would never finish a meal without a little bit of ice cream. So I hope that wherever he's gone to now, heaven or wherever else his spirit is, there's ice cream there, because that will keep him going.
 
On Cozier's Legacy, and how cricket should remember him Holding: Someone who loved the game. Someone who worshipped West Indies cricket and someone who was not afraid to speak his mind whether he thought that people might not like it. He was always someone who spoke, in his mind, what the truth was and assessed the game and assessed conditions and everything surrounding the game and wrote and spoke about it fearlessly.
As far as the Caribbean is concerned, he's right up there with Garry Sobers. I think people will call Garry Sobers the best cricketer ever, around the entire world. I wouldn't say Tony Cozier is the greatest writer and commentator across the world because I've heard so much about people like John Arlott. But from what I know having played cricket and during my association with cricket, I've known no one here better in the Caribbean.
<div>Â© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.</div>
</blockquote>
 
A life well lived.

booboo

Did like Tony Cozier. 
I remeber being astonished when I eventually saw him on tele after years of listening to his voice that he was white! 
RIP

NTA

^ that. Squared.

Siam

I had him looking large like Ian Bishop

MN5

"A voice as smooth as Jamaican Rum" is how I heard him described once. Definitely lived and breathed cricket. When the Windies toured here in 08/09 whenever a new guy came out to bat/bowl he had extensive knowledge on all of them, I know it was his job but still... I too was shocked that he was white, a bit like when I first heard Manu Tuilagis English accent years later it just didn't seem right !

dogmeat

One of my favourite commentators
 
Great obit on BBC <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/36254041'>http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/36254041</a>
 
Tino Best
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
 
"We grew up with Tony. He was an outspoken person. If he saw you weren't playing well, he would speak about it. That's what I respected about him. He was a person that never sugar-coated things.
"Selectors did listen to him - he did get some of the guys dropped. It was never a problem with me, because he spoke the truth. He was a bit harsh at times, but honest."
â€‹
</blockquote>
 
TMS Producer
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
 
He had a voice which instantly transported you from wherever you were in the world to the sun-drenched beaches of Barbados
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
"He appeared on Test Match Special for the first time 50 years ago this summer at Headingley, the ground where the 2016 international season begins next week.
"In the 50 years since that summer, Tony became one of our most popular overseas commentators on Test Match Special, possessing one of the most recognisable voices in all broadcasting.
"He actually played a part in one of the most iconic moments in TMS history, even though he didn't actually say a word.
"During the <a class="" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8157299/Test-Match-Specials-greatest-gaffe-the-Leg-Over.html">infamous 'leg over' incident</a> which caused such hilarity between Jonathan Agnew and Brian Johnston, Tony was actually in the corner of the commentary box.
"He could have stepped in at any moment to intervene, but instead chose to watch on and allowed one of our most magical moments to play out."
</blockquote>

Catogrande

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="579192" data-time="1463088901">
<div>
"A voice as smooth as Jamaican Rum" is how I heard him described once. Definitely lived and breathed cricket. When the Windies toured here in 08/09 whenever a new guy came out to bat/bowl he had extensive knowledge on all of them, I know it was his job but still... I too was shocked that he was white, a bit like when I first heard Manu Tuilagis English accent years later it just didn't seem right !
</div>
</blockquote>
 A bit like Jan Molby the Danish footballer who spoke English with a really thick scouse accent. Just really odd, although not when you think about it.

MN5

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Catogrande" data-cid="579202" data-time="1463090784">
<div>
 A bit like Jan Molby the Danish footballer who spoke English with a really thick scouse accent. Just really odd, although not when you think about it.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
Probably not in the world we live in nowadays but I picture Samoans having their own accent or a real kiwi one. Not English....

The Silver Fern

RIP Tony Cozier