Dear Editor,
When you really come to think about it, Tony Cozier’s voice must have been the best known of any voice in the whole history of the region. For six decades he spoke to us of cricket, one of the very few “imaginative possessions” we share as West Indians. Like WB Yeats, the great Irish poet and playwright, Tony gave a voice to his nation.
In an address I gave in Barbados in honour of Tony, I think it may have been his 60th birthday, I said the following:
“Over the years Cozier has developed into a formidable writer on cricket. He writes a clear, strong, unadorned prose and says what he has to say with a straightforward vigour that at once engages the attention. In some of his best pieces he reminds me of William Hazlitt ‒ the same plain force in the language… Certainly, Cozier has learnt the first lesson Hazlitt himself made clear: ‘We never do anything well until we cease to think about the manner of doing it.’ And, come to think about it, that is also true of Sobers’ batting so Tony is in particularly good company.
“However, to millions of cricket lovers around the world, and to millions of West Indians in particular, Tony Cozier is a household name as the man who does the running commentary when the West Indies are playing Test matches.
“And he is now the best in the business… Cozier’s professionalism, his deep knowledge of and love for the game, his sense of cricket tradition, his quick-thinking reaction to significant turns and twists in the game as it progresses and his fairness are second to none in the history of cricket commentary and make him now the very best there is anywhere. I can’t imagine him liking the thought of being either a doyen or a cynosure, but that is what he is in the world of cricket. He never gets tired of it, he shows how much he loves it and he communicates that feeling to his listeners. I think again of the great essayist William Hazlitt: ‘The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.’ Cozier relishes his job. He relishes the game of cricket.
“To do cricket commentary really well is desperately difficult. To start with, it requires profound knowledge of the skills and techniques of the game, a biographer’s interest in the career details of individual players, and an encyclopaedic memory for historical facts. It requires great sensitivity to the best traditions of this centuries old game as well as a deep awareness of its current controversies. It requires the ability to convey not only the excitement and exhilaration of the moments of high drama but also the significance of what is happening in those longer periods when, to the unknowledgeable, the game seems to have gone to sleep. Then the good commentator must be articulate and quick on his mental, toes. He must not only be able to describe background and explain precisely what is happening ball by ball but also he must be able to convey the tactics and strategies of the opposing teams and identify quickly the turning points which every game of cricket quickly develops. Good commentary also requires a fund of anecdotes and cricket stories, apocryphal or otherwise, to enliven those times, which are inevitable, when the game turns deadly dull. Tony Cozier meets all the requirements. He has met them through hard work over many years allied to natural wit and ability…
“It is no small thing Tony Cozier has achieved ‒ to be our best keeper of the flame in the national game that is for us so much more than a game. His achievement goes to the heart of what it means to be a West Indian. So let me make a suggestion. I believe Caricom heads are considering the naming of outstanding people from the various territories to become West Indian
citizens, symbolic of our nationhood. It is a splendid and imaginative idea.
“These men and women will be a select few. One such man, already grown to legendary stature, must clearly be CLR James. And to join him in the pantheon I put in nomination Tony Cozier ‒ dedicated and extraordinary ambassador for the West Indies wherever cricket is played ‒ wherever, that is, West Indians come together with certain pride as one.”
That was a suggestion made years ago. I have no idea what became of the concept of West Indian citizenship. But I am happy now to support strongly the excellent, off-the-cuff idea put forward by Minister Rupert Roopnaraine in his address at the launch of the Hand-in-Hand History of Cricket in Guyana on Friday ‒ that Tony Cozier be given, posthumously, an honorary Guyana award. I greatly hope this can be done ‒ Guyana leading the way at this special time of national celebration.
Yours faithfully,
Ian McDonald
