Becca’s goodbye and the CWI’s future

‘“Character is what you are deep down inside you. Reputation is what other people think you are. When your character and reputation are the same, you are a person of integrity”. That was Tony Becca.’

THE NEWS of the death of Tony Becca was stark and shocking.

“Did you know that Tony Becca died this morning?”

I didn’t even know that he had been ill. The tributes that continue to pour in from people (from all walks of life) who came in contact with this man reminded me of a quote that I read some years ago. The quote was: “Character is what you are deep down inside you. Reputation is what other people think you are. When your character and reputation are the same, you are a person of integrity”. That was Tony Becca.

My first contact with Mr Becca was not as a reporter of cricket. Tony Becca used to write articles about table tennis. As a young boy with a physical disability, and warnings not to run up and down too much, I fancied myself as the next great table tennis player in Jamaica and the world. Baz Freckleton used to describe the incredible flair and talent of the Foster children, Maurice, Dave, and Joy – and after Baz passed away, it was Tony Becca who kept me abreast of the happenings of the great table tennis players of the time.

Except for “Kings” during break time at Wolmer’s, playing beside the bicycle shed and eventually making the UWI team at an Inter Campus Games in 1968, my career as a table tennis star went absolutely nowhere, but Tony Becca was the only one who would report on this “marginal” sport.

His writings on cricket are legendary, and the suggestion by Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira to have a compilation of his cricket articles is one that should be pursued by the representatives of the Ministry of Sport.

I spoke to Tony a few weeks before his untimely passing. One morning my phone rang and the person on the line said, “Good morning, Paul. I am Tony Becca. I read your column today”. Immediately, my heart leapt.

I have often been told that only five people read my column in The Gleaner. I had already identified four people, all members of my family. At last, I found out who the fifth person was: the great Tony Becca. He had agreed with my comments about a schoolboy sporting ambassador and called to congratulate me on my position. His parting words were: “Call me anytime”. I did.

My last conversation with Tony was about the decision to halt a first-class cricket match because of an under-prepared pitch, only to restart the game hours later. I thought that that decision was wrong. Tony corrected me, and in his own way, taught me some of the laws of cricket that I never knew. With his passing, an Italian proverb comes to mind. “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box”. Tony Becca was a journalistic king. He will be missed.

West Indies and Jamaica’s cricket are not doing well. There is no consistency. Some days, the Jamaicans play good cricket, and on another occasion/match, it is difficult to believe that it is the same players who played the previous match. The exact sentiments can be used to describe West Indies cricket. Both sides have recognised that there is a problem. Both sides have changed players, coaches, yet the end result is the same: abject failure and embarrassment. The only constant in the consistent failures of both the Jamaican cricket team and the West Indies cricket team is that there has been no attempt to identify and change the only constant in the two team: the administrators.

The Jamaicans had an opportunity. There was an election recently. As a wise West Indian said, only this week, “I nor the people of the region have a vote”.

The selection of those who administer cricket in Jamaica and, indeed, the West Indies is

“an indirect election of a kind that ought to change”. Here in Jamaica, those who have the necessary votes to decide who administers the game seem to be very comfortable with the direction of the present Jamaican cricket team. They have voted to keep the hierarchy that has placed us (Jamaica) in the unenviable position of defeat after defeat in the regional competition. In a few weeks’ time, the territories that make up Cricket West Indies have an opportunity to decide if the present direction of West Indies cricket is satisfactory or if they think a change at the top would make a difference in how the team performs when the going gets really tough. The incumbent leader of

Cricket West Indies,

Dave Cameron, is being challenged by

Ricky Skerritt, a former Cabinet minister of St Kitts.