Tony Leslie passes away
Tribute to backbone of cricket support
The passing of Tony Leslie provides an opportunity for us to pay tribute both to the man himself and to the dwindling number of stalwarts who have provided the backbone support for West Indian cricket in England. That is both for club cricket and a following for the West Indies regional teams on tour. The last time I spoke with Tony was at Bristol last summer for the one-day international match in which the West Indians surrendered supinely to England. It took much loyalty to support a side in such circumstances.
It was impossible to miss Tony. Just short of average height, ebullient, with moustache and eye-glasses, he kept up a stream of advice and encouragement to the players “in the middle”. In club cricket he performed a range of roles from player, umpire, administrator and awards-dinner master-of-ceremonies. A few seasons ago I heard the man-on-the-loudspeaker at a charity game at Milton Keynes confuse Tony Leslie with Clive Lloyd. I am not quite certain how either of them achieved that. Tony managed to be involved and associated with the competing club activities organised by both Steve Stephenson and Frank David – though being Jamaican he gravitated more to the former.
Frank, too, passed away a couple of years ago, and, already, I am feeling sorry for the players in any celestial cricket match who are being subjected to a non-ending (and in this case everlasting) delivery of advice from him and Tony on how they should be performing (smile). Fortunately we all know that the Almighty is a cricket fan even if He has given little evidence recently of being particularly a West Indies fan.
The sun for West Indies cricket in England is setting. It may not have disappeared over the horizon completely yet, but the loss of Tony Leslie has taken it a further notch in this direction. He was a voice, if not the voice, of the Caribbean game, and remained a reminder of the vociferous and committed crowds which flocked to the matches played by the West Indians , especially on their “home” ground at the London Oval, in the 1970s and 1980s. He, also, gave a meagre attendance at a club game, whether at the North Middlesex ground in North London or not, the appearance of indeed being a crowd.
For news of Tony Leslie’s passing CaribCommx is indebted to – as in so many things relating to West Indian cricket – Colin Pryce and to Michael Bacchus. In a more mundane aside, I remember that on my first visit to a Test Match in Barbados the sports editor of one of the main local newspapers kept calling me “Tony”. When I explained that it was not my name he said that as so many commentators on West Indies cricket were called Tony – Cozier, Becca etc – he felt safe in using that name to every-one. Perhaps if parents started calling their children Anthony again the former base of support may be re-built.
Clayton Goodwin
3rd February 2010
For tributes by family and friends of Tony Leslie please see:
http://t-les-simplythebest.memory-of.com/About.aspx
