RIP Tony Cozier

[Grumpy]

It's been all over Twitter. Genuinely gutted to hear about this

RIP

Hard to imagine Greig, Benaud, Jenkins and now Cozier have all passed away. They were the voice of cricket for me. Really sad.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

RIP

Sad news.

 

[superkingdave]

RIP - Always loved his voice

 

[Kirkut]

Had the most unique accent of all cricket commentators I've heard.

 

[vcs]

Sad news. Always associated West Indies Test cricket and their '90s stars (Ambrose, Lara, Chanderpaul etc.) with him.

 

[smash84]

was a great voice in cricket rip

 

[StephenZA]

Always enjoyed his commentary. My condolences to his family. RIP

 

[weldone]

really sad news...Richie Benaud, Tony Greig, Tony Cozier have been signed in quick succession to grace the commentary team in heaven

RIP

 

[Zinzan]

Sad indeed. Really was one of the great cricket commentators.






Tony Cozier: West Indian commentator dies aged 75 - BBC Sport

Legendary West Indian commentator Tony Cozier has died at the age of 75.

A familiar and respected voice around the world, the Barbadian will be remembered for a career in TV, radio and journalism spanning 58 years.

Born in Bridgetown in 1940, he made his BBC Test Match Special debut in 1966 and also wrote several books.

"Tony was the master of going between TV and radio ball-by-ball commentary. He was the master of both," said BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew.

"He's easily the best I've come across in 25 years at being able to do both disciplines."

The son of a journalist, Cozier studied journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and began commentating and writing on West Indian cricket in 1958.

He played hockey as a goalkeeper for Barbados and cricket as an opening batsman and wicketkeeper for two Barbados clubs, Wanderers and Carlton.

But he became a household name through his work with major media organisations throughout the world, including the BBC, Channel Nine and Sky.

In December 2011, he was awarded honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club for services to the game, and the press box at the Kensington Oval in Barbados is named after him.

'The perfect soundtrack to any cricket match'

Test Match Special commentator Jonathan Agnew:

"Tony Cozier was one of the finest writers and broadcasters in the game. He started reporting in 1958 and seven years later he hit the airwaves for the first time.

"Fifty years on, he was still commentating on Test Match Special when England toured the West Indies.

"Throughout his career Cozier had to tread the tense tightrope of Caribbean politics, where even the slightest negative observation of a player's performance can provoke a furious nationalistic backlash.

"He withstood this stoically and determinedly, remaining a strong critic of the West Indies Cricket Board's lack of organisation and outlook.

"Tony moved seamlessly between television and radio boxes throughout the world, gleefully describing the West Indies' domination of the 1980s and then lamenting their subsequent demise.

"He was a wonderfully descriptive and disciplined commentator, his melodic Bajan accent the perfect soundtrack to any cricket match."

'Cricketing commentary royalty'

Test Match Special producer Adam Mountford:

"He had a voice which instantly transported you from wherever you were in the world to the sun-drenched beaches of Barbados.

"Tony, or Winston Anthony Lloyd Cozier to give him his full name, was cricketing commentary royalty. It was a privilege to share a commentary box with him.

"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 Test Match Special history, even though he didn't actually say a word.

"During the infamous 'leg over' incident 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."

 

[G.I.Joe]

RIP. Will be missed dearly.

 

[fredfertang]

Really good writer as well - doesn't have quite the reputation of CLR James, but then virtually nobody does, and his voice was infinitely more memorable

 

[OverratedSanity]

RIP

One of the ATG voices. The two Tonys were such an integral part of the cricket watching experience in the 90s for me. Greig screaming himself hoarse as Sachin smashes sixes at Sharjah and Cozier calling another brutal Amrbose spell/Lara innings. And now they're both gone

 

[doesitmatter]

Great loss to the cricketing world...Listening to him i always had the impression of him being a no nonsense cricket commentator..no small talk while commenting ..just explain about the game and things related to the game and move on but his reaction in the below video had me in splits.. .. RIP Tony..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HRUh-7Mf6M

 

[Kippax]

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :
Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :
Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :
Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :
Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :

Nearly six decades of cricket reporting
By JOEL BAILEY Sunday, March 9 2014

THIS IS part one of a series about the life and times of one of cricket’s most famous commentators and writers, Tony Cozier….

Christened Winston Anthony Cozier on July 10 1940, he has made a name for himself for over five decades as the voice of cricket in the Caribbean.

How did he start off in cricket?

“I was at school, at Lodge School in Barbados,” he replied. “My father (Jimmy) was the editor of the Voice in St Lucia. I used to, as young boys do, listen to a lot of cricket and write something on the exercise books, some reports on the day’s play, that type of thing.

“When Australia were in the West Indies in 1955, I would have been just 15 or thereabout. The Voice of St Lucia was a five-day-a-week publication and I said to him (dad), “you think I can cover the match for The Voice?” He said, “yea once you get some time off from the head master”. He gave me time off and I covered that match (in Barbados).

“That was the famous match when (Denis) Atkinson and (Clairmonte) Depeiaza had their big partnership of 347. That was because my ‘old man’ was the editor of the paper and I was reporting for a very small paper in St Lucia.”

Did the writing genes pass off from his dad to him? He responded, “maybe, I don’t know. I was interested in cricket. He covered the tour of England in 1950 for all West Indian papers. When he came back, he did some cricket as well, but he was into more day-to-day journalism, not cricket. He gave that up.”

“Then he became the editor of The Voice of St Lucia, Barbados Advocate then he came here as the editor of the Trinidad Guardian. Then, when I came back on holidays, I would work at the Guardian, the Evening News radio as it was then. Cozier continued, “in 1958, I had just left school, and I was on summer holidays here. I was going to Guyana, I had friends there and I would stay with them. I said to the Guardian “do you want coverage of the West Indies games” because there were West Indies Track and Field Championships in those days. I went to cover those in 1958.

“Then my father and some other investors started a paper in Barbados – the Barbados Daily News – in 1960. In 1958 I went to university in Canada, Carlton University. I studied journalism, but I knew a lot of journalism. It was more a Bachelor of Arts Degree, rather than journalism because I knew exactly what to do from the time I was probably ten years old in St Lucia.”

The climatic conditions did not sit well with Cozier and he did not finish his stint at Carlton University.

“I had one more year to go, but the paper my father started in Barbados was starting then. And I said there was no way I was going back up, I’m going to be with the Barbados Daily News from the start.”

He then reflected on his stint with the Daily News.

“At a small paper, you do all sorts of thing,” he noted. “I was sports editor and I would write all sorts of thing – football, track and field and so on, on a local basis. The paper closed in 1968 by, at which time, I had done two tours of England for the paper.

“In 1963, I went (on) the Frank Worrell’s tour,” he continued. “I said to my father “let me cover the tour for the paper” (and) he said “we’ll pay your way and that’s it. You get there, you got to look after yourself.” I stayed in YMCAs and so on. I got some work on the BBC Caribbean Service. “Then I did the ’66 tour of England on a more formal basis. That was the first time I did radio commentary on BBC Test Match Special. Roy Lawrence, who was the Jamaica Gleaner Sports Editor and was the voice of West Indies cricket, a beautiful voice he had, and he had done a lot of tours around the Caribbean, was coming back from the Commonwealth Games in Kingston to oversee the Jamaica Broadcast Corporation’s coverage. He was doing the BBC (reports) and he left, missed the Test match in Leeds so I filled in for him.”

Making a name for himself on radio
By JOEL BAILEY Tuesday, March 11 2014

THIS IS part two of a series about the life and times of one of cricket’s most famous commentators and writers, Tony Cozier….

A number of old-stagers will remember Tony Cozier, not only for his match reports and television commentaries, but also for his radio commentaries, especially when the West Indies cricket teams were on tours all over the globe.

But he admitted that he had no formal radio training, a stark contrast to the modern era when radio courses are aplenty all over the world.

“As far as radio was concerned, it was quite by chance here in Trinidad,” he said. “In 1960-61 the West Indies were in Australia and there were about seven Barbadians on the squad. When Barbados came down to play Trinidad, I came down just to cover for the Barbados Daily News. (Radio) 610 were covering it and they didn’t know the new Barbados players. So they asked me to come on.”

Cozier continued, “the general manger then was Peter Pitts, a friend of mine. I came on and did a stint just to identify the Barbados players. And they said, ‘stay on’. I think they were pleased with what I did. I stayed on and that’s how I started commentary.”

However, he faced a little challenge during that decade, in terms of his writing and subsequent income.

“The newspaper closed in ’68,” he said. “I then arranged (to work) for the Advocate newspaper in Barbados. Thomson Organisation paper, which bought the Advocate, the Guardian here, they took over. They closed the Daily News. But I had arranged with (the Advocate) before that I would cover the 1968 tour of Australia. So I went on that tour, of Australia and New Zealand.”

Cozier added, “when I came back, I had no cricket except regional cricket and every now and again, for an international tour, I would come and do radio work. But I needed something outside of cricket. I then went and (became) the Associated Press correspondent for the Caribbean.

“I covered West Indian politics and current affairs, the Black Power riots in Trinidad, the Grenada elections. I did a lot of that, and features for the London Financial Times. I was doing a bit of cricket still but then supplementing that with writing on West Indian current affairs.”

The love for cricket did not die, and he was able to continue his coverage of the “gentleman’s game” during those times.

“I then went on every tour of England from ’66, I missed ’69, then went back in ’73 and worked on BBC Radio. I’ve worked on BBC Radio for every tour since ’73 when West Indies were there, and World Cups and so on,” he said.

“From (’71) on, West Indies went through a long period where they did not win a Test match. So we were going through a bad period then but we picked up in England in ’73, won the series and that gave us a kick-on. Clive Lloyd then took over from Rohan Kanhai as captain for the tour of India in ’74-75 which, again, I covered for West Indian papers and also did All India Radio as the West Indian commentator. Lloyd took over, won the World Cup and from there on I was just travelling with the West Indies team all the time. So it became cricket all the time.”

Boosted by Packer experience
By JOEL BAILEY Wednesday, March 12 2014

THIS IS part three of a series about the life and times of one of cricket’s most famous commentators and writers, Tony Cozier….

Barbadian journalist Tony Cozier has also done publications of West Indies cricket, including “The West Indies: 50 Years of Test Cricket (published 1978)” as well as books with former greats Lloyd, Sir Garfield Sobers and Michael Holding.

Cozier noted, “I started the West Indies Cricket Annual in 1970 and that went until 1991 before the sponsors Benson and Hedges pulled out. So I converted that into the Caribbean Cricket Quarterly which was (sponsored by) Red Stripe. That went until 2001, when they pulled out. I said financially it wasn’t viable so I pulled out of that.”

He also reflected on the rise of the West Indies team, during the famed glory days.

“But going through the ’80s it was quite magnificent. I can’t imagine teams stronger than that. You turned up for a tour of Australia or England, or wherever, and never wondered if the West Indies would lose, just wondering when they would win, if in four days or three days. It was just a foregone conclusion. They were very confident.

“The (Kerry) Packer experience (in Australia) in ’78-79 then gave them autonomy, they didn’t have to worry about the Board, they had to worry about Packer because he was a very hard taskmaster,” Cozier noted. “They became very fit, very disciplined and that was the big advantage when Packer left the scene and they came back in ’79. From then on, the West Indies did not lose a Test series. It was the Packer experience which got them up to that level of experience, which they maintained.”

And it was also during the Kerry Packer World Series Cricket (WSC) that Cozier made his entry into TV commentary.

“I never did television before,” he commented. “Packer started television there and I knew he did not have a West Indian commentator so I was going to go down anyhow to cover for the West Indian papers, just to see how it (the Packer series) went. But then the manager of the West Indies’ Packer team was Dr Rudi Webster. “I rang him and said “I understand there is no West Indian commentators, could you see if they can use one, a West Indian voice, because there were about 24 West Indian players there, the West Indian team, the Australian team and the World team.” So he checked it out and they said “okay come and we’ll put you on and see how you go.” At the end they said up until Christmas, which was the end of the West Indies involvement, and the top West Indians would go into the World team. That was it.”

A person who Cozier credited for his growth as a TV commentator was Australian producer David Hill “who was the top director (then) who is now a top man at Fox Sports in the US, we got on really well and he liked my style of commentary.

“He said “we want you to stay for the full season” but I couldn’t do that because I left home to (return) for Christmas. He said “we’ll fly your wife out” and they did that. I then stayed on and was with Packer then, and then Channel Nine when (the West Indies) went there regularly.” Cozier added, “from then, which would have been 1978 with Packer and then all the way until ’92, whenever the West Indies were in Australia. The last time I worked with them was in the ’92 World Cup and then Michael Holding took over from me. I had that experience with them. “I never did television in England, always radio. I never did television outside of Australia because we didn’t have television outside of the West Indies until 1990 when England were here. IMG (International Management Group) started it. They were contracted by the (West Indies Cricket) Board to produce the cricket for them.”

Cozier was interviewed in Barbados “and (the interviewer) offered up a price. I said “well I get more than that doing cricket for Radio Montserrat”. I let him know because he thought I was a poor West Indian fellah and I would take it, but it wasn’t that way. So I went on and worked with them on every West Indian series.”

Cozier’s TV commentary stymied
By JOEL BAILEY Tuesday, April 1 2014

THIS IS part four of a series about the life and times of one of cricket’s most famous commentator and writer, Tony Cozier.

During the recent NAGICO Super50 Tournament held here in the twin-island republic, as well as the home series against England, Cozier’s voice was conspicuously absent from the television commentary panel.

He has been involved in every home series since the 1990 visit of England, with the exception of the 2012 encounter against New Zealand when he was absent due to health reasons.

But the Mumbai, India-based Ten Sports won the rights to broadcast the West Indies home series last year.

“I worked all the way through but I’m not too sure what the position is here because this tournament (NAGICO Super50) I was written by HAS, who was contracted by the West Indies Board to do this tournament,” Cozier related. “HAS contacted me and said they’ll like me to do this tournament. They gave me terms, I accepted and everything.”

He continued, “I was all ready for that (but) then HAS then called me and said “well look, the Board has withdrawn your name, they said they wanted a broader mix of commentators rather than all Barbadians.” But now I see there are three Trinidadians (Ian Bishop, Fazeer Mohammed and Daren Ganga) in the panel so I don’t know what that is all about. I think possibly it has to do with if I criticised them.

“It happened before about six years ago with Tony Deyal, he was the man in charge of the corporate matters for the Board (when) Julian Hunte was in charge. He then e-mailed IMG and said me and Ian Bishop should call the CEO, who was Donald Peters because they had issues with us. I called Peters and Peters didn’t seem to know what he was talking about.

“(Deyal) used to be very abusive, he was very — almost dictatorial. We then said “okay fine.” He e-mailed IMG back and said “I understand that Cozier has spoken to Donald Peters but I’ll be monitoring the broadcast very closely. And if he continues with his caustic (style) on one side, we’ll ask you to take him off.” That may be a similar thing with this situation. I just tell it as it is really, as I see it, my point of view.”

Cozier did radio commentary for the NAGICO Super50 with the Caribbean Super Station and the England tour for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

“I still write a lot for Cricketer Magazine (and) Wisden Cricketer Almanac,” he said. “I do quite a bit of writing and magazines. The company which I have has always put out the Tour Guides (for WI home series). My son Craig looks after all of that. He also was a producer with IMG and he’s done cricket, but now he’s in India doing hockey. That’s where we stand.”

However, Cozier could not help but touch on the declining fortunes of WI cricket, on and off the field.

“To see West Indies now as they have become, down in the bottom, struggling, an administration which is entirely inefficient, if not incompetent, and that has a lot to answer for,” he said. “The fact that the Players Association is so belligerent, calling three strikes for what! What effect do those strikes have now except to bring the West Indies cricket team down. They were negative. I think we’re the only country in the world where couldn’t field teams three times because the Players Association called a strike. They and the Board were at loggerheads, always fighting each other.

“As soon as you get a house divided against itself, and they were integral parts of West Indies cricket, the players and the Board, and they were always fighting against each other, what you expect? What you expect is what we have on the field now which is really mediocrity, an absolute irrelevance in world cricket.”

Never a dull moment with Cozier
By JOEL BAILEY Monday, April 7 2014

THIS IS part five of a series about the life and times of one of cricket’s most famous commentators and writers, Tony Cozier….

All journalists, whether they work in the print industry, or the television/radio stations, will be fully aware that they can offend persons by what they say. And Cozier, during his five decades of West Indies cricket reporting, knows full well about that.

“Here (in Trinidad), when I wrote a very simple piece saying that Phil Simmons will have to give way in the West Indies team because Carl Hooper was coming back in, in ’94,” he reflected.

Cozier was referring to the 1994 home series against England, following the first Test match in Jamaica where the West Indies won by 10 wickets. But Hooper, who did not play in that Test, declared himself unfit for the remainder of the series due to a back injury, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul replaced Simmons for the second Test in Guyana.

However, Cozier faced a backlash from the fans during the third Test at the Queen’s Park Oval. “When I came back here then, the whole Oval, I couldn’t believe the reaction to it, there were signs all over the place (saying) “Cozier is a dog”, “Cozier this” and boos and everything, terrible.

I just couldn’t believe why a small thing like that over a selection would have caused that reaction from the crowd here. But I suppose the people were so passionate and, of course, so into it, that those things happen.”

Another moment which stood out was during the 1991 home series against Australia. “When Gordon Greenidge was coming towards the end of his days (in 1991), I wrote a piece in Barbados (saying) this may have been his final Test match (the fourth Test of the five-match series) because he had gone 25 Test innings without scoring a half-century, and Brian Lara was on the edge and still couldn’t get a place in the side. I was really hectored for that in Barbados as well, and as you would know and, in fact, inevitable, Gordon Greenidge ended up making (226).”

He added, “so that really put me in my place. It was just a speculative piece but the headline in the Nation was “The End for Greenidge”. And that got people up. You can only write as you see it.”

As fate will have it, that was Greenidge’s last Test match on home soil (he played one more Test, in Antigua) as he suffered a knee injury during the tour of England weeks later, which ruled him out of the five-match Test series.

The following home series against South Africa was one of the most controversial in West Indies history, with the omissions and subsequent retirements of Greenidge, Sir Vivian Richards, Jeff Dujon and Malcolm Marshall, the struggles leading up to (and at) the 1992 World Cup in Australia/New Zealand, and Sir Richie Richardson’s rough initiation to the captaincy.

“They interviewed me in radio and I had said it’s not up to me, it’s up to the people if they want to boycott it,” he said, about the ill-fated boycotted Test in Barbados. ‘They wanted me to say “oh no, the people should come out” but no, because at that stage it was a culmination of everything.

“We had gone to the World Cup, they’d dropped Richards, Greenidge and Dujon all at one time (with Marshall going after the World Cup). Richards said that he did want to go to the World Cup even though he’d been replaced as captain. There were all sorts of confusion then. Richie Richardson said that the match against South Africa (in the World Cup), our first ever against South Africa, was “just another cricket match”. All of these things built up.”

Cozier continued, “he (Richardson) got booed in Jamaica, he was under pressure. When they came to Barbados, leaving out (Andy) Cummins and bringing in Kenny Benjamin in the side, Cummins had done pretty well in the World Cup, the crowd said that was enough. But why Barbados, where people know the game, they were not going to boycott something because an ordinary cricketer like Cummins got dropped. No way. They boycotted over issues that (came) out.

“When you talk about an island that has produced some of the greatest of all time, the feeling of the public, all over the Caribbean, was “look, there were a lot of things being unfair, being badly handled and so on”. That was the reason for it.”

 

[Gnske]

RIP, great man. Remember my utter surprise when I first saw the man behind the voice, such a wonderful voice it was.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Gutted. My all time favourite radio commentator.

 

[Pratters]

Used to love hearing Cozier. RIP.

 

[Pratters]

Really good writer as well - doesn't have quite the reputation of CLR James, but then virtually nobody does, and his voice was infinitely more memorable

Which are some of the memorable books by Cozier? I might have one stacked some where.

 

[zaremba]

A really fine commentator. Knowledgeable, passionate yet balanced and of course with such a beautiful and distinctive voice.

For those of us who have grown up listening to this generation of cricket commentators, the last couple of years have been marked with particular sadness as one after another has died. These people have been a big part of our lives, though we never quite knew them, and it is so upsetting to see them go.

 

[straw man]

Sad to hear of Tony Cozier's passing. He was a fine writer and his commentary always brought the right tempo and cadence to test cricket.