Tony Cozier: The voice of West Indies cricket

I covered my first Test series in England in 1963 for the Daily News,a Barbados newspaper owned and run by my father Jimmy Cozier. I somehow ended up doing radio work for the BBC and thus began my journey of following West Indies,the most diverse and volatile team in world sport.

Where did it all first start,though?

I went to one of the top schools in Barbados and opened the batting for Lodge School. We would play against first-class players. My first match,I played against Wes Hall,who had already played for the West Indies. But I covered my first Test when I was 15,because my father ran the St. Lucia Voice. Then he sent me to Ottawa University to get a journalism degree. I hated it there. The snow remained on the ground from November to March,and I saw icicles on the windows. I had only seen them in the freezer compartment of the fridge. West Indies were touring India then and I got a radio to listen to BBC and get the scores. Next year,I fiddled with it and the commentary came loud and clear through the Windward Islands Broadcasting Service. And I rarely went to college after that.

But was commentary in your original plans?

You hear the Arlotts and when you were playing,you would do your commentary. But for me it was mainly newspapers,and that’s what I thought I would get into. My first proper radio commentary stint was in 1965 here against Australia. They formed the Caribbean Publishing Association and decided that we are going to get a West Indian team of commentators. The legendary Alan McGilvray was here from Down Under. That was my first full Test series.

When did the big break come?

My first overseas commentary stint was a tour to Australia in 1968-69,which came about after Roy Lawrence was suddenly called in for the Mexico City Olympics. And then I went to New Zealand. I was there close to six months in Oceania. Great experience. I was 28,and everyone (in the West Indies team) was a contemporary. I had played against the ones from Barbados. I was part of the team. The first time I saw my son Craig,he was three and a half months old. Then I went to India in 1974. The Packer revolution soon followed and it was then that I got involved with television commentary.

It’s there that I met David Hill,the brilliant producer,who would be a great influence on my commentary. When we first went on,he would ask questions like ‘what’s a googly?’ and ‘where’s backward square-leg?’ He shared the mike with the likes of Richie Benaud,Fred Trueman,Bill Lawry and Frank Tyson but he would ask questions that the viewers were asking. He put up graphics explaining fielding positions and explaining googlies. He introduced the duck. He asked me to keep it light. When the moon came up,I sang Blue Moon and he loved it.

How was it to have a ringside view when the West Indies ruled the cricket world?

We had a great run in the 1960s,when we beat Australia,England,India and everyone else. From 1969,when we lost in England,right up to 1973,we didn’t win a single Test match and lost a number of star names. It took a long time to rebuild. Kanhai took over in 1973,and won in England. Richards came in,we won the World Cup in 1975. Then we got slammed in Australia by Lillee and Thomson. Packer changed everything along with the arrival of (physio) Dennis Waight. We got bored almost by their supremacy. We knew we were going to win. Just a question of when and by how much.

Then came the turnaround.

The discipline was gone. Even in the 1970s,those guys weren’t the most disciplined when there was no cricket on. They liked the nightlife. Garner,Sobers,Gibbs had a good time. On the field,they were fiercely competitive. I could tell during the 90s,the leadership of the team was woeful and the board allowed a lot of things to pass. That’s what caused the downfall. We still had talent. They became shameless though. Losing meant nothing. And when that’s the case,you lose.

It was around that time that your love-hate relationship with Brian Lara reached its pinnacle?

I had a lot of tiffs with Lara. There was a bar here at the Hilton. All the players were there. He saw (my son) Craig once and accosted him and abused him,saying stuff about him. Once in Australia,the Trinidad Express had arranged for this huge Christmas card to be couriered to me and in turn I had to present it to him. And Lara came out and said,“I won’t do anything for Cozier.” He wasn’t good for West Indies cricket. He could bat like a dream. But he got away with too much in his career. He apologised to the board seven times in his career for various misdemeanours. But he wasn’t pulled up once or banned or even suspended. Kanhai as coach once complained about being abused by some of his senior players. And the board sacked him and the players were retained. I once walked into the hotel in East London and saw Dennis Waight having a beer in the afternoon. I was surprised and asked why he wasn’t training. And he told me that Lara and Hooper complained to coach Clive Lloyd that he was overtraining them. Mandela never met that team. There was a time then that I was very upset. Down and out.

Was that the lowest point of your career?

England 2000 was the most miserable tour. The discipline was gone and they had lost all five in South Africa. Having won the first Test in England,they were crushed in two days (in the second) and still the boys went to watch Dwight Yorke play for Manchester United. West Indies cricket had reached irrelevancy. Nobody wanted to play them anymore. Then four years ago,I was told that I would be taken off the commentary team if I didn’t tone down my criticism of the board.

A lot has changed over the years,and we are in an era where Indian cricket calls the shots.

What really astonished me was when India demanded that (Steve) Bucknor be removed from the Perth Test match a few years ago. The authorities buckled and put him on a plane and asked him to go back home. They removed him,and just as astonishing was the fact that the other umpires stood in. If they had been united,the umpires would have said we are boycotting the Test,we all go home. From that moment I realized that once you allow one team to dictate terms like that,there’s no stopping them. When India came here without their top players in 2011,it was disrespectful to West Indies cricket.

Do you think the emergence of T20 cricket has been a major cause for the lack of motivation among players to play for the West Indies?

Quite a few of them I speak to,they have adopted that mindset already. But the youngsters don’t realize that when their careers are over,they will not be judged by their T20 exploits. They might be millionaires. You will end up making a hell of a lot of money but nobody will rate you unless you do well in Test cricket.

Was there ever a flip side to your popularity?

I had once said that Phil Simmons had to be dropped to reinstate Carl Hooper. And the next ODI was in Trinidad. I was warned not to come here. But when I did,I was booed by a packed crowd,abused by them and some of them even held up posters claiming ‘Cozier is a Dog’. Then Simmons went onto score 87 and they had posters insisting that I replace the two Trinidadians who were on death row at that point.

But there must be many more positives with being Tony Cozier?

We have the press box at Kensington Oval that partly carries our family name. I’ve got so many awards,the wife says bring something else now. I was made an honorary member of the MCC,which is rare for a journalist. I got the silver crown of merit in Barbados,the second-highest honour for us. Recently one of the members of parliament said that I should be knighted because Barbados is still under the Queen. If it comes my way,though,I will not accept it.

You are considered an institution in India. How have your experiences been over your visits to this part of the world?

My first trip there was in 1974-75 and it was an eye-opener. The hotels outside of the main centres were interesting — like in Jalandhar,where it was bitterly cold and there were concrete floors so you couldn’t walk on them. I also worked with All India Radio. A West Indian batsman hit a six,which fell right in front of us and the umpire called it four. It clearly was six but he didn’t change his decision. And because I broached it,I got a call from a lady who was the Director General or at a similar high post,insisting that I never question an umpire’s call in a match.

How was the IPL experience in 2008?

I didn’t know what was going on. You had to say DLF Maximum and Shah Rukh Khan. He might be a big star in Bollywood. I couldn’t call his name right. And then they had the catches named after something that sounded like Kamran Akmal,who ironically couldn’t take a catch. Citi Moment of Success and Karbon Kamaal catch. Who pays the piper calls the tunes. Ravi Shastri would do the toss. And he’d go out there and scream,“Chennai,are you ready?” and the crowd would go berserk. So next time I went and attempted the same routine,and there was no response from anywhere. That was it for me.

Is there a period of play that stands out as your most memorable stint?

A Barbados Test match in 1991 where Devon Malcolm was bowling at a million miles. Richards came out and tried to go after him,and there was one over where he was lightning quick and Richards hooked him for four and then top-edge just flew over Jack Russell and then he cut him for four and the crowd was going bananas. And I was going bonkers on air too. I also remember a Jeffrey Dujon century where I kept saying,“Play that shot again Dujon.” Also Holding’s famous over to Boycott,where I actually got it wrong by saying that the leg-stump went flying where it was the off. And of course Brian Lara’s miraculous 153 not out at Kensington in 1999,and a fiery spell from Thomson in 1978 where he bowled like a man possessed.

Having entertained audiences around the world for five decades,any plans of taking a break?

Richie Benaud is 82. Brian Johnston was 80-plus and he died while still working and John Arlott was 78 when he stopped. So unless I’m forced to stop,I don’t see any reason. I have had health issues over the last couple of years but I’m still here at the cricket. I am obsessed with the sport. I stay up late or wake up in the wee hours. I even stay up to watch Zimbabwe play Bangladesh but that doesn’t last more than an hour. The IPL I don’t see. I had a hernia operation that went wrong and I almost missed out on going to the Champions Trophy but I told him that I had to go and I did. I still write columns for three papers on a Sunday. I’m not going anywhere yet.