It is a rare treasure as Tony travels the world covering West Indies cricket and is rarely at home these days. His newspaper articles and TV commentaries are top class and little wonder he is now a household name across the cricketing globe. Tony is recovering from a recent illness and the opportunity arose as a result of a dinner invite from our good friends Colin and Christine Nash, long-time friends of the Coziers and perennial visitors to Barbados over many years.
Colin is a sports fanatic, but ironically his greatest claim to sporting notoriety comes from being the brother of Malcolm Nash, the former Glamorgan captain, who was hit for six sixes in one unforgettable over in 1968. Over the years Sir Garry has played down the feat claiming it was slogging rather than skilful batting, but it is amazing that after 45 years cricket lovers still recall it with great passion and affection.
There is nobody more passionate about West Indies cricket than Tony Cozier, but his love for the game has been tarnished by the demise of the Caribbean game over the past two decades. It is a freefall he doesn’t see ending and he seriously fears for the future of West Indies cricket because of the widening divisions within both the administration and the players. These rifts have been compounded by political influence, a movement that has been exacerbated by recent statements from government heads in Jamaica and Guyana. The evening coincided with an abysmal performance by Barbados that afternoon having been bowled out by Guyana for a paltry 59. For someone steeped in Barbados and West Indies cricket all his life these are tough times for the doyen of local writers and it shows. Long gone are the halcyon days of Sobers, Walcott, Weekes and Worrell, Hunte, Nurse, Griffith, Hall, Greenidge, Haynes, Garner, and Marshall.
Tony has recently completed some excellent CDs of some of these former stars for the Cricket Legends, a company business partly sponsored by the government to support the island’s greatest cricketers in their old age. The CDs are sure to be collector’s items when they go on sale in a few months.
“And what of Irish cricket?” I asked my distinguished companion.
“They have been wonderful ambassadors of cricket since they burst into the big time. I’ll never forget their supporters at Sabina Park in 2007 when Ireland beat Pakistan. They were so colourful and such great support to the Irish team who played brilliantly. I’m delighted Phil Simmons has taken them to even greater heights since then because he is a very good coach”.
It was too good an opportunity to miss so I asked the loaded question every Irish cricket supporter is asking these days;
“And do you think Ireland can attain test status?”
As expected Tony was careful and measured in his reply-
“I don’t see it happening as the top countries aren’t going to change the format without a fight. Test cricket is very different from ODIs and Twenty20 because the skill levels are different and it needs a good infrastructure to support it. Also, there are big financial and television considerations that have nothing to do with cricket. The Irish team has been doing so well in the shorter versions of the game so I don’t know why they would see this as a big priority. Crowds at the top test matches have slumped dramatically in recent years and players are easily lured to the IPL and other big money Twenty20 tournaments. Test cricket is under a lot of pressure although it remains the purest form of the game”.
And perhaps therein lies the biggest reason for the current West Indies slump as the absence of Chris Gayle has left a huge hole in an already limited team. With other Twenty20 specialists like Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo putting money before country it seems the immediate future for cricket in this region is going to be bleak.
Tony is now in St. Vincent covering two ODIs against Australia and hopefully he’s keeping a watch on Ireland in Dubai. We used to laugh about it in the past, but maybe Ireland will pass the West Indies on the way up as this once great cricket nation nosedives in the other direction.
Great for Irish cricket perhaps, but a dreadful thought for the game overall.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
