The Tony Becca Story (Part 2)
Sun, Sep 18, '05
Let's talk World Cup 2007. You've been to a few and the last one in South Africa has been described in superlatives. Honestly speaking, and given what you know about the inner workings of West Indies cricket administration, what are our chances of even coming close to replicating any of that?
I am very worried Michelle. I am worried because we as a people, we have a history of finishing something for tomorrow tonight.
Jamaica people have a saying that 'every day bucket go ah well, one day the bottom must drop out' and I am worried that some of these new stadiums that we are putting up, or the renovated ones are not going to be ready on time. I am worried that even if they are ready on time to be used, they won't be ready to the extent that we want them to be ready.
I think that we will have to, and I am disappointed that it has not started as yet, because the World Cup is just a year and a half away, we are going to have to educate the people of the Caribbean and particularly the people of my country, about the things that they will not be able to do.
I am sure that the majority of the seats at Sabina Park for example are going to be sold overseas so there will be a limited number of Jamaicans getting there. I don't think my people are going to appreciate that, you understand, because they will tell you they are the ones who've been here every year.
The security that was so so strong in South Africa, I don't know how the Jamaicans are going to...Caribbean people on a whole... They want to go in with their handbags, whatever. I can imagine a journalist turning up at Sabina Park and a security wanting to check his laptop and I can imagine this big popular Jamaican fellow who been going to Sabina Park for thousands of years who believes everybody should know him and should know that he's not going to carry a bomb.
Those are the things I am worried about that we are going to have to educate our people to prevent this turmoil that I think is going to happen.
You were invited about three years ago to be involved in a discussion on West Indies cricket.
I went to two of them. I think one was in Antigua. One definitely was in St Lucia.
Can you remember any major recommendations that came out of those discussions and if any of them was implemented?
I don't remember all of them but I know one of them was to have a Caribbean Club Cricket Championship.
Would that have been a professional league?
No, the idea was to get it professional eventually, but it was not to be at the start, but there were so many things discussed. The Board getting involved at the school level. None of those things has come on stream.
Isn't that generally how it has been? Even you would hear of Managers saying they go on tour, they make reports with recommendations but it's as if the report is shelved and nothing is done about it.
That's West Indies cricket, no question about it. We talk a lot and we don't do anything about it, no question about it. I have a concern with all this talk about this group of players that they want to contract. I heard the President say the other day that he was in England and he spoke to some people there including Mike Atherton and that he asked them if there is any single thing that they could point to why the England team is doing so well and he talks about this same retainer contract and it is good.
But my concerns with it are (1) where are they going to get the money to pay these players consistently and (2) how are they going to manage the players. In other words, when the guy is supposed to turn up at 9 o'clock to be trained and coached or whatever it is, who is going to ensure that he gets there? We as a people are so star struck that we have never been able to deal with stars.
It happened under Rousseau you know for one year and they sent some players here; some of them didn't play at all you know. Some just went on to the field and I told Rousseau at the time every Jamaican have a grandmother and a grand aunty and somebody in Canada or America and these fellows are going to find all sort of excuse about who is sick. I'm telling you.
It's a good idea, you know, no question about it, but to me it's going to be a waste of money because we are not going to get back anything for it.
If somebody could devise some way that could show how the players are going to be monitored, you're all for it?
All for it. Definitely.
The cricket reading public would perhaps say that you are more for 'the establishment' than you are for the players. Would you agree with that?
No, I wouldn't agree with it. What I would say is they couldn't say that about me 10 or 15 years ago.
You were pro player then?
Well, I don't believe I was ever pro anything, but I believe I was more fighting the battles of the players. I still believe and I still try to be balanced but probably because of the experience I have had in life, the president of the club for 16 years, it taught me that running organizations, administering anything is not easy, it's not easy.
For instance, people expect the Board to pay the players a million dollars a day [hypothetically speaking!]. I know it's not possible because to pay, you have to have and I know the difficulty in finding sponsorship for cricket in the Caribbean despite all the people who talk about they love cricket and the importance of cricket to the region. So I don't believe I'm pro establishment but I believe I try to understand why they do things and why they do not do things.
When I spoke with you after Teddy Griffith's televised speech in March, you said that you agreed with Mr Griffith, and you further commented that WIPA is too militant. What three examples would you give to back up your opinion of WIPA?
Well again as I said, because I am in administration, you sort of understand how they operate, but basically Michelle, I am a person, and anybody who knows me will tell you that I don't like controversies, I don't like confrontation. I will step back just for the sake of peace, that's how I was from I was born. My ego never forced me to do anything. I will move away, because I know in time what I am defending will be defendable. So I don't like confrontation.
I don't like people who don't try to make peace before they do whatever they want and at every level of WIPA in recent times, everything that has happened, they seemed to have always waited until the last minute when there is nothing else that can be done.
The other day, when they had the regional four day tournament, the semi final, they shut that down. I don't know what that was for. The same thing with the team going to Australia for the VB series. It's always as if they are sticking up the board against the wall and say 'do this or else' and I don't like that.
The people in cricket in the Caribbean, the people who you call the members of the fraternity, the clubs, whoever runs West Indies cricket, they vote for the West Indies Cricket Board and WIPA must accept that. WIPA must accept that the WICB runs West Indies cricket and the WICB must have respect for them because WIPA represents the players so they must have respect for them, but WIPA does not run West Indies cricket.
Alright, but suppose WIPA has found that the way that West Indies cricket is being run is to their members' disadvantage. Is it that you're saying the manner in which they go about airing their differences is what is wrong?
That's what I'm saying. It's what is wrong. They seem to want the Board to pay the players what the board doesn't have. Now, they probably have a point that the Board does not have money because it is weak, they probably have that point, but when they do what they do, that is not going to make the Board get money. They should use another way to force the Board to get money, probably use their influence in the territories to vote out those Board members.
Can a journalist influence change and action?
I think so.
Is there any time when you've written something and it has resulted in change or action?
Well certainly in Jamaica, I believe I have influenced change here. According to one former selector, it is because of me why they selected a player, who didn't do well when he was first selected, but who eventually became one of Jamaica's finest players!
Do you care to say who that was?
Cleveland Davidson.
Oh right. Ok. That's West Indies cricket and it's a headache to read about what is happening.
Now a few months ago, you had more important things to be worrying about than West Indies cricket, after your very serious car accident. How has that changed your outlook on life?
A lot of things have changed my outlook on life and maybe that's why as I say, I don't like confrontations; I don't like problems; I don't like controversies and so on.
When one of my two daughters died in 1988 while I was covering the West Indies tour to England in a car accident in Florida; she was going to college. I spoke to her like every three evenings before she died. I was supposed to call her the same night when I was at the ground at Nottingham and got a telephone call that she had died. That shook me up and I made a pledge that nothing in life is going to worry me, because you can be here today and gone tomorrow. Here was this young person, gone.
Then the other day my twin brother died in a car accident, I spoke to him two days before, only for his wife to call and tell me this and once again that only underlined my situation.
And then my thing now. I am at home listening to cricket I am coming down here at the club to watch, I think an England blind team was here, to come down here to watch them and the next thing I know I am in the hospital. In fact, eyewitnesses called my house and told my wife if she don't know that her husband just died in a car accident down the road!
So it sort of, everything put together, it sort of make you more quiet. I don't make things worry me in life again.
Because you know of the fragility of life.
Right, yes.
All things being equal, how long will we have Tony Becca around, plonking out his stories, cigarette in hand (where allowed!), black coffee nearby, from his specially reserved spots in media centres around the world?
I don't think I will be going after the World Cup.
So that's your second retirement.
Well, retirement from cricket. The first was from the Gleaner. That's why I retired from the Gleaner too you know, because of my health. So the World Cup should be my last.
A great many overseas cricket journalists speak so fondly about your hospitality and kindness, something I can personally attest to. Who are the ones that you will miss the most when you really retire?
Right now in the world of cricket, Richie Benaud and Tony Cozier are the only ones who were in the press box when I started, and another one, Pat Gibson, writes for the Times, my good friend I met him in Australia in 1975. Those three are the only people now who were in the press box when I started, so I am really from the old school. I don't know, I certainly will miss Pat Gibson, obviously I will miss Tony Cozier and Reds Perreira. Fortunately they are two West Indians and I hope I will be able to afford to go down the islands sometimes and watch some cricket, or they will be here. (laughing)
But you know what... I'd liked to commend Tony and Reds, because there were people before them in Trinidad, in Barbados and Guyana who covered West Indies cricket, but they were the first ones and myself who went out of the Caribbean, well, not only went out of the Caribbean, but went from one island to another to cover cricket. 'Stebor' Roberts from Jamaica did it a couple of times, J S Barker from Trinidad did it a couple of times. But Tony started it, myself and Reds followed it.
If I may say so myself, I think we have contributed something to West Indies cricket in that respect. The players were happy to know that there were West Indians there, not to give their side of the story but to ensure that not only the other side came out and I am very happy what I see happening now, when I see Simon Crosskill, Andrew Mason, Michael Holding, Ian Bishop, Colin Croft and Fazeer Mohammed as the radio/television people. In newsprint you have Keith Holder, Haydn Gill, Garth Wattley, people like those coming. They're covering West Indies cricket right throughout the West Indies, some of them are going abroad now. I am so happy for it. I think it has come a long way since the early 1970's.
That's a function too of money of the organizations that they work for because some print media will tell you they just can't afford to send the journalists outside of the region..
And to an extent it's true you know because take the Gleaner. The Reggae Boyz don't move and the Gleaner don't cover them. Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, they do. But the difference is that cricket is almost all the year round now and when you go on a tour, it's one month, two months, sometimes 10 weeks of hotel bills and so on. So it's not easy and the newspapers that do as much as they can like the Gleaner, obviously the Nation in Barbados, they should be commended.
And what is really good about it is not only that they are there and doing it but I will tell you, they are much better today than they were 15 to 20 years ago. This present set of youngsters is really quite good.
So when you are no longer doing this, you can turn to their reports.
Right. (laughs)
What legacy would you like to leave? When people talk about Tony Becca, what would you like them to be saying about the work that you did?
Well, I would like them to remember me first of all as somebody who really really loved sports; who really really believed that sports is important to any civilized society; that success in sports is important to the psyche of a people. I'm not going to say that there won't be so much murders if somebody wins a gold medal, but I know that people are happier when you're doing well in sports.
But particularly for cricket, I would like them to remember me as somebody who spent a lot of time in cricket, not only writing about cricket, but in writing about cricket, trying to develop West Indies cricket to the greatest it can be.
Nobody knows how it hurts me to see what has happened to West Indies cricket in the last ten years, not because we are losing but because of how far we have plunged and I think it all happened because the people in the WICB and in the various boards around the territories, either didn't see it coming or did not really care.
The Australians are going to fall you know, they must fall somewhere along the line but I'll take a bet with you. They will never drop as far as the West Indies, because somebody will see it coming.
I am also a bit sorry that some people in Jamaica and West Indies cricket didn't really listen to me as much as I believed they should have listened to me (laughing).
Any particular point that you kept hammering that they didn't listen to?
The discipline of the players, the attitude of the players; you could see it, you could see it anywhere you went, at home and abroad and when you look at other teams, they have their problems too you know, but the discipline of the West Indies team, from about 1993/4 had gone so...it was unbelievable.
As President of Melbourne is that something that you tried to instil here?
Oh yes, definitely. Definitely. I was always strong on the discipline of my team going out there, the way they looked, the way they behaved, the umpiring decisions. I was always strong about that.
Did it make you unpopular with your club players?
In the last two to three years yes, it did, but not before, because this again is a younger generation coming in now, but in the last two years it did. But they respected me because I would call them one evening if I see them passing and talk to them about what happened on Saturday. I wouldn't bawl them out, shout down at them or anything. No, no.
I think the indiscipline which has come out of the attitude of the players is the reason why we are where we are. When I look at the talent that is in the Caribbean, there is no reason why we are supposed to be there but that talent, those players with that talent, they have not done enough to develop that talent. Almost all of them I think are operating at 50% of what they can.
Is it their fault, or do we blame the management and the administration?
You must blame the management for not seeing to it that they do what they're supposed to do and therefore the WICB must take some blame for that too because they deal with the management, but in the long run, nobody can make a champion. A champion makes himself.
He has to do what he knows what he should do, whether because he has listened to other people, whether because he has read and seen what champions do to become champions. It must be them. If the management says train two hours a day, you must train six hours a day.
But a lot of people blame what you see as indiscipline and the negative attitude of the players, on the fact that society has gone to the level that it has because you don't have that strong family structure anymore in many of the territories around the region.
So if that is true, and you can say whether you agree or not, doesn't it put more pressure on the administration and the management to do the things that they know that they have to do to circumvent what is coming out of society?
A man by the name of Sir Neville Cardus, one of the greatest cricket writers of all time, from the Manchester Guardian, once wrote that sport, cricket, mirrors a society and I agree that the society is such that people are doing whatever they are doing, and therefore it is difficult, or more difficult than it was years ago when I was a boy. But you cannot become a champion, except you do that, except you are disciplined.
But I don't know that, because I wasn't taught that in my house; that I need to be disciplined all throughout life because that will make me a better person.
But certainly when you have these West Indian cricketers who, a number of them have travelled and played cricket around the world, they must be smart enough to see what other people are doing, how they behave, how they train, how they practice and also that they are better than the others. Now if they can't see that, and if they can't learn from that, I tell you, they have no right playing for the West Indies and they will never get any where.
The other thing is that the women live in the same society.
And you're saying that women excel...
Well look, certainly in Jamaica. Look at all of the sports that the men and the women play. Hockey, Track and Field...the women do far better than the men and when you look at them, you see a discipline, you see pride in them that as a Jamaican I feel proud of them, when I don't feel so proud of the guys.
I have a difficulty sometimes when I hear past players, lets say from the early 70's saying 'but what they need all of this for, when I was playing, we didn't have any coach, we didn't have this.'
Times have changed and they certainly must accept that. That's another problem I have too you know, that the past players have let down West Indies cricket but then again times have changed.
When I was a boy at Wolmers', the ex Wolmers' boys who played for the West Indies ? the Allan Raes, the Jackie Hendriks', name them, they used to come around to the school and help you. They would also go to their clubs and help their club. Today, the ex West Indian or Jamaican cricketer hardly believes in that. If you ask him to say hello to a fellow, you probably have to put your hand in your pocket to pay him.
The first time long ago that I saw you write about anything other than cricket, I was surprised. So what other sports that you would normally have concentrated on?
When I first started, I did cricket, soccer, track and field, golf, tennis, table tennis, I did all of it. I stopped doing a lot of those sports with the more responsibility I got when I became the Sports Editor. I had to cut down some of them. The other thing is that when I travelled for cricket, the guys on my staff ? this was from the Daily News days and it came over into the Gleaner days ? the guys never complained that the Sports Editor not here for three months.
They filled in and did whatever. We worked as a team and therefore when there were times that the Editor or somebody wanted me to do something when Jamaica or the West Indies was playing, everybody knows that I am covering cricket. I'm going to cricket and so I would try to do that for the other guys.
So I would say to the guys 'you learn and follow your football, you track and field so that when the time comes for the little perks that goes around' ? because the media houses look on these things as if it is perks you know ? 'that it will be you.' I don't have to make a decision, or the Editor wouldn't have to make a decision. So the important thing is that you must study the sport, watch the sport follow the sport, that when you write about the sport, people want to read what you are writing about the sport. So that is how I ended up doing cricket alone basically today.
When you retired, you said that one of the things you would be doing would be spending more time with your wife, Cecilia. Have you been able to achieve that? Perhaps I should ask her to get the true answer!
Yes, perhaps you should ask her (laughing). But yes, I have been spending more time at home because having retired from the Gleaner, plus less duties at the club, I spend more time at home but I still do some things at the club. From time to time the guys ask me to do things, like the festival which is coming up.
More importantly, when can we expect the book?
Well I am trying to get it finished in time for the World Cup.
Well we look forward to the book but we don't look forward to your retirement after the World Cup. That's a definite?
That's a definite.
Anything that you want to say on the outlook for West Indies cricket?
I just think that West Indies cricket is far from dead. I think that West Indies have enough young players here, because I don't believe that there is a talented generation and then there is not a talented generation and then there is another talented generation. I believe that each generation has its own talent.
I just believe that this generation of cricketers, I don't get the feeling that they want. I don't get the feeling that they set a goal and say 'well this is where I want to go and this is how I am going to do it.' I think they accept things too easily but I think if they work hard, they will become one of the best teams in the world in another three years maybe but I think as we said earlier, we live in a society where they probably need to be pushed and this is where I blame the boards around the territories and the West Indies Board, that they have not been pushing the players in the right direction and as much as they should. If they do that, I believe it won't be long before we'll have another champion team.
Is Bennett King the one to take them there?
I don't know. He could. He could. I don't know. Deep down, I just believe it is an insult to me as a West Indian to have had to call in a foreign coach to come and coach a team when we have had from 1928 until now, all those years of cricket we have been the best in the world for a long long long long time, I don't see why we needed to do that.
We don't need a professor to coach a cricket team you know we may need somebody who is very very bright to set up the systems by which they will operate but we don't need a professor to coach somebody how to bat or how to bowl and that's why I'm against it.
