Mid-way into the IPL encounter between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians, commentator Ravi Shastri took a pause to announce the news about the sad demise of veteran cricket writer, Tony Cozier.
Darren Sammy, who was alongside Shastri, was quick to offer condolences to Cozier's friends and family and also recalled how he was an inspiration for him. Sammy also added that Cozier's voice will forever remain in his head.
For many who were not aware of Tony Cozier, he was a cricket writer and commentator on West Indian cricket from 1958. Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, Cozier was very well known for his immense knowledge and analysis on cricket and was referred as having an "encyclopaedic" knowledge of cricket.
As a tribute to his contributions to cricket, the press box at the Kensington Oval was named after him.
Take a look at how Cozier proved to be an inspiration for many and how bold he was with his commentary:-
1) ESPNcricinfo
Tony Cozier encouraged me to pursue a career in journalism and was a source of motivation and support all through writes FIRDOSE MOONDA.
Tony was one of the first people I emailed when I wrote my first story for ESPNcricinfo, two years after that. He followed my career, often emailing me when he thought I had written something that caught his eye. Click here to read more.
2) Dailymail UK
Lilting voice, but a fearless cricket critic...
Cozier was not just a brilliant commentator but something akin to the conscience of West Indies cricket, whose often turbulent history he had chronicled since the early Sixties for a wide array of outlets. Click here to read more.
3) The Guardian
Thank you Tony Cozier for those exhilarating rides on the airwaves
Cozier was a superb journalist and writer on the game, his columns in his own Nation newspaper, the Independent here, and latterly incisive stiletto‑sharp comment on Cricinfo, were unmissable. Almost to the very last, he was writing a scathing polemic about the dysfunctional West Indies Cricket Board. The decline of the game around the islands left him not just saddened but angry. Read more.
4) The Telegraph
Tony Cozier steered right path between the dryness of Australian commentary and self-indulgent English commentary
Cozier was the radio commentator who told the world about the reign of West Indies as the world champions from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Click here for more.
5) Firstpost
The legendary voice of West Indies cricket falls silent
Tony Cozier was quite simply the voice of West Indies cricket for some fifty years – and documented their rise, fall, and we hope the first signs of their re-birth. Read more here.
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