R.I.P Tony Cozier – a truly iconic Bajan and cricketing legend!



By Stanley Collymore

You were the true essence and the consummate embodiment

of everything that is good about Barbados; a genuine and

proud Bajan whose profound love for and unabashed

devotion was always unquestionably to your dear

Caribbean island home, and whose responsive

fellow inhabitants with an unconcealed and

unstinting pride coupled with the greatest

of affection specially reserved for you

affectionately enfolded you as their

adored native son and a richly deserving international

ambassador; and not only as the astute cricketing

commentating legend over five decades that

indisputably you were but likewise too as

the remarkably amazingly and forever

iconic Barbadian figure which you

have always been, and beyond

question will constantly and

enduringly remain in our

appreciative hearts and

minds permanently

our Tony Cozier!

© Stanley V. Collymore

13 June 2016.

Author’s Remarks:

There’s not a single person in the cricketing world either as a player or a staunch fan of this remarkable game who has not heard of Tony Cozier who has been commentating on our beloved sport for over five decades; and this is particularly true of every Barbadian, other West Indian and Guyanese for whom cricket is much more than a sport and more akin to being a religion. I grew up as a cricket aficionado myself listening to Tony Cozier’s astute and very informative commentaries on local Barbadian other Caribbean and, of course, international cricket, and the same can be said for many other Caribbeans and millions of others around the world in the well-known cricketing nations globally.

On a personal level I got to know Tony Cozier when we both worked as journalists at the Nation Newspaper in Barbados and I quickly discovered that this iconic figure at home in his native Barbados as well as globally was one of the most genuinely modest persons that anyone could ever hope to meet. His passing, just like that of Muhammad Ali has left me shell-shocked even though I knew he was dying of cancer; but for these two iconic deaths to come so soon upon each other and both men around the same age: Muhammad Ali 74 and Tony Cozier 75, is quite extraordinary.

But both men: one a Black African-American and the other a white native Barbadian have unquestionably left their distinctive legacies and specifically so to all those who loved and cared greatly for them. They will be sorely missed; and to my fellow Bajans: relatives, friends and sporting fans let’s remember Tony Cozier as we do Muhammad Ali, and as they’re both worthy of being remembered. They’re assuredly now in Heaven with their Creator and from us mere mortals still here let’s wish them eternal and celestial rest. Amen!