Our obituary to Tony Leslie, who passed away last month, has set a record – even though we haven’t kept any specific statistics at such. It has attracted more hits than any other story, except for the occasional headline murder, than any other posted in our eight year history. That is a tribute to the popularity of the man and to the loyalty of his family and friends. Tony is already much missed, a fact that will become even clearer when the new cricket season dawns.
The interest shows up something else – the reason for the decline of the UK West Indian press. Tony Leslie was a community cricketer, a keen cricketer, but essentially a community cricketer: he did not adorn the national or the international game. Yet we have had more hits for his obituary for any report of a Test Match or profile of a first-class cricketer. The UK West Indian press has overlooked this sector at their peril, and, quite reasonably, have paid a heavy penalty for their arrogance and ignorance.
Over many years the late Connie Mark chided editors/managers of the Weekly Gleaner to fill their stories with the names of as many people as possible. People like seeing their name – and the names of their friends and colleagues - in the newspaper and will encourage their friends to go out and buy a copy. The more names that there are, the more copies that are sold. Al Hamilton and myself have urged the Weekly Gleaner / The Voice to concentrate more on sports personalities at a local level instead of perpetuating the obsession with “celebrity”. Their best features have indeed been on the stories nobody else has carried.
It stands to reason. Readers can find out all they want to know about the internationally-known “names” from the national press, from radio and from television. They do not need the rehashing of press release sent out to those same outlets, or interviews, which may or may not be exclusive, but inevitably go over the same ground which the interviewee has divulged elsewhere so many times. Where are the stars of tomorrow? Where are the stars of yesteryear? Who are the personalities whom the public know personally?
Tony Leslie didn’t make too many headlines while he was alive – though he was always there. He might have been surprised that his obituary has attracted many more hits than our report of the West Indians’ cricket match at Bristol last summer – the last occasion on which we met. It says something about the newspapers, and it says something, too, about West Indian cricket – by neglecting the community characters, the personalities around which the game is generated, they neglect themselves and their own true interests.
Clayton Goodwin 20th February 2010
Tony Leslie
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:
