TELLING IT LIKE IT IS....

It seems a shame that as the football season reaches its querulous climax, the cricket season has begun in its now accustomed minor key.   No Super Sundays, no Magic Mondays, no sound and fury, no blazing headlines, just the quiet beginning of the summer game.   And it is particularly unfortunate that the passing of one of cricket`s true gentlemen has largely been confined to inner pages and sparse comment.

Tony Cozier, the voice of West Indies cricket, has left us at the age of 75 after half a century of writing and commentating on summer`s beautiful game.  Whilst admired and revered in his native Barbados, his mellifluous, almost exotic voice brought wisdom, knowledge and insight to cricket listeners the world over.

He was fiercely proud of Caribbean cricket, so much so that when things did not go as well as perhaps they should, he was quick to voice his opinion to those in control of the West Indies game, to tell it like it was and to tell it how he saw it.   And he was invariably right.

I`ve noticed today`s obituaries have without exception been fulsome in their appreciation of him, not only as the hugely authoritative commentator he so clearly was, but also as a man.   Not long ago, we cricket buffs mourned the loss of Richie Benaud and now we see the passing of Tony Cozier.   We are much the poorer for having lost them both.