On Cozier, Becca, Croft & Mason...
Thu, Apr 25, '02
In this second 'Cussout' on the state of the cricketing
media in the West Indies, I will avoid the events at the Queens
Park Oval. Those speak for themselves. We will come to that later
as the series progresses. There is still a lot of cricket to be
played.
In the first
'Cussout', I concentrated on some recent examples that
illustrated what we are working against in the Caribbean. The
'doyens' are deemed as such because they are either widely heard or
read, or have such a long history within the region that you cannot
help but hearing of them. They engender respectability.
is the primary doyen. In fact he probably represents the good
and bad of everything in West Indian journalism. His chronicling of
WI regional and test cricket through the Shell Shield, Sandals, Red
Stripe and Busta Cup eras have been like gold. His often singular
quest (using his own resources I might add) to travel the world
being the voice of Caribbean cricket has made him instantly
recogniseable both on radio and television.
I can tell you that as a young boy listening to the West Indies
playing in Pakistan on radio and sitting through hours and hours of
Urdu commentary (scores were given in English) only became really
worthwhile when, for half an hour, English commentary would come on
and Cozier would describe what had happened. It was like water to a
thirsty man. He has been an ever present source of information for
West Indies fans.
But, Cozier, like Tony Becca, is heavily compromised. How
so? Let Cussing Commie get into the details. Like many groups of
senior officials in the Caribbean, Cozier and Becca are party to
the same social clique on which they report. Unlike CLR James, for
example, who was a strong critic of the establishment, Cozier
'represents' the establishment.
In this era of Wes Hall's tenure as WICB president, it is no more
likely to have Cozier contribute anything of critical (but
valuable) note as it was in Colonel Peter Short's reign. This in
effect creates an atmosphere of sycophancy which apologises for
everything from genuine concern over the
state of the World Cup plans (did you not see how Cozier speaks for
Chris Dehring on cue?) to West Indies team selections.
We, the fans, in essence have little representation at the highest
level of West Indies cricket coverage.
Becca is Jamaica's retort to Cozier. Fans online especially have
recently been alerted to Becca's style of writing, which draws
wholesale criticism for being longwinded. I have no issue with
his style. It is the substance I worry about. During the
Rousseau regime, Becca was heavily compromised by his relationship
with Rousseau. In effect, it rendered him unable to separate
himself from the errors the WICB committed then and properly report
the events.
On the flip side, we had a now vibrantly indignant Cozier. He
represented the other side of the cabal, waxing lyrical about the
ineptitude of the WICB, unshackled then he was by everything from
the moving of the WICB secretariat to the holding of the regional
finals in Jamaica.
One of the more ironic stories in Rousseau's reign was the one
where, on the ill fated tour in South Africa, both Becca and
Rousseau and their wives were carjacked together. It was almost
symbolic. A family travelling together.
But what can that do to cricket coverage? Well, it distorts reality
by selectively ignoring
tell-tale signs of incompetence. On the tour in South Africa, many
disturbing behind-the-scenes
incidents came to fore. Becca was illuminating only for those who
prefer candles to electricity as a convenience. Cozier was at his
scathing best, producing some of his finest journalistic pieces
that he has ever written, including one, ("Chickens coming home
to Roost") that is a classic description of what is happening
to WI cricket. But it was only possible because he was not
Becca and Rousseau was not Hall.
On the tour of England in the mid 1990s, with total chaos reigning
and a schism between the Leeward Island players and Lara and
Bishop, Richardson 'catching' hell, and Hooper almost breaking down
under his own personal pressure and being forced to open, we got
more generic material and not
coverage of what affected our cricket so badly then. Clue: The
Colonel was WICB boss and Wes Hall was the team manager. Criticisms
were kept in check.
Now of course true to form, Becca is now free from the Rousseau
link and is writing better material (style notwithstanding). Cozier
is now back in generic mode. Criticism is all polite and well
proofed and very careful.
It is a cycle which is not sustainable.
Both are commonly weak in their reactions to the selectors. When
not one Caribbean journalist picks up and explains on why a Darryl
Browne is selected, it leaves us exposed. And when you couple that
with the fact that except for a rare few, most Caribbean journos do
not travel regionally with
their teams and therefore have to depend on local descriptions of
players and their merits, you are left with pretty much a blank
slate which presumes the selectors know better.
In essence the major journalists don't go to the games unless they
are local, have no background on the players, and are therefore
loathe to do anything other than wonder aloud in case their lack
of research is uncovered.
The fans deserved to have had someone explain what Darryl Browne
merited his selection to the West Indies team, when all-rounders
like Carl Tuckett, Ian Bradshaw and Wilden Cornwall had been
dismissed as sub-standard. Not even our 'doyens' could provide
this. Hell, not even local Trinidadian advocates could provide
this. None of them could explain how Dave Mohammed went from
refreshingly surprising pick and touring West Indian player to not
even being able to make the Trinidadian team.
Or, why Sherwin Campbell won a recall to Sharjah ahead of Leon
Garrick and then both are ignored.
If Garrick does indeed have an attitude problem or cannot handle
spin, then write about it. Leaving situations undiscussed
creates more myth and more insularity.
Of course, there is also a void at another level and that is in
following the regional team internationally. Cozier is often still
the lone voice. Colin Croft, the former WI fast bowler,
erstwhile cricketing rebel and fine family man that he is (lends a
new twist to 'backhanded' compliment, eh?), has attempted to step
into that void, providing reports for both Cricinfo and the BBC.
Croft is on a loser from day one. Whether it is fair or not, he is
and always will be forever associated with his compliance with the
apartheid regime of the day in SA by becoming a rebel cricketer. It
is not that incident in itself that made me feel unsympathetic
towards Croft, but
his insistence that he paved the way for change rather than just
admitting that he did it for the money. He is the rebel WI
cricketer poster child. All the others kept a low profile. Good
idea that.
Anyway, stepping aside from the morality Croft provides reports on
WI cricket overseas, colour commentary on the radio and player
interviews. What galls most about Croft is his predilection for
setting up someone for a fall. In the Caribbean it is often called
'goat mouthing'. With Croft
you could say the term actually fits his commentary. It was Croft
who first said that Hooper's captaincy would elevate WI cricket
from its mire and show that Hoops was indeed to be spoken off in
same breath as Worrell and Lloyd. That was before Hooper had
even stepped out in his first series as captain.
His critique of the players is not as bad as it seems (like it or
not, people are biased against Croft's views because they don't
like him). He is strictly a colour commentator, meant to bring up
the hackles of fans and also meant to be put in his place by a
strong lead commentator. Taking him that seriously is not, and
should never be advisable.
Recently, there was an odd case of peculiar similarities between
Croft's and Everard Gordon's writings in the Trinidad
Guardian, but in general Croft's reporting is generic enough to
appear correct until you delve deeper and look at in-depth
descriptions of events and players. What we should cuss is that
Croft is the highest profile WI reporter on tour, bar Cozier. His
ability to market himself on his past career (no, I am not talking
about aircraft piloting) must have worked
because he is getting paid to do this. Again more irony, we have
someone who is not universally liked or even respected as one of
the mouthpieces of Caribbean journalism.
Andrew Mason is interesting. He is interesting because he
represents a phenomenon. Someone relatively young who is active
regionally yet who has never developed beyond his own insular
thinking. That's my opinion, of course.
No commentator in the Caribbean has promoted their own island's
players like Andrew Mason often has throughout the Caribbean. It is
not to say Mason cannot do ball-by-ball commentary, but if you
lived in Trinidad or Guyana or Jamaica and depended on Mason to
compare Courtney Browne and Ridley Jacobs, the
impression would be that Jacobs was a batsman who could keep a
little. The statistics, at every level tells a different story. And
that's where coverage like that becomes
criminal because our perceptions are developed by those who
see the players more than we do. Worse still, Mason's
knowledge of even regional cricket history is poor enough to leave
him exposed to be of scant use in educating listeners about little
details in our cricket.
Lack of analysis kills our cricket. I have not seen one article
describing what went wrong with Ricky Christopher, why
Kerry Jeremy is deemed 'too slow' when none of our bowlers
are quick, why Jermaine Lawson gets called up to Sri Lanka
as a rookie, but now falls behind
Marlon Black and Adam Sanford in the pecking order at
home and what makes Pedro Collins special besides being able
to do that trick where he bowls with his left hand. And I am still
waiting for someone to explain why Robert Samuels was dumped
averaging 37 as an opener after a tough Australian tour.
I will deal with the new guys like CaribUpdate.com's Hamlet
Mark and Ian Bishop in my
final installment. Meanwhile, the Indians leave the comforts and
support of their homes away from home for St Lucia where they will
start to understand they are in a different part of the world.
About time.
