Tony Becca

You had sports and sports journalism in your blood from your formative years. Being born in one of Jamaica’s most historic parishes, St. Thomas, you attended Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Kingston, the school that has produced the most significant number of Jamaicans, to date, to play for the West Indies.

You played cricket, football. hockey and table tennis and with your pen, you reported on those sporting disciplines and others; but it is your writing about cricket and especially West Indies Cricket for which you became renowned.

1974 was the year you reported on your first cricket match in the Daily News newspaper. You demonstrated leadership and became the papers Sports Editor and a director on the paper’s board before moving to the Gleaner Newspaper as Senior Sports Editor. At the Gleaner you wrote, edited, taught, guided, nurtured other sports journalists.

You have received many honors for your exemplary work in our industry, including the national honour of Order of Distinction, Commander Class, in your homeland Jamaica in 1994, an award from the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda in 1994, others from the Caribbean Community, CARICOM 25th Anniversary Awards in 1998, the West Indies Cricket Board Award for contribution to West Indies Cricket; Caribbean Publishers’ and Broadcasters’ Association Sports Writer of the Year Awards; Press Association of Jamaica Sports Writer of the Year Awards; Carreras Sports Foundation Award for contribution to sports journalism; Awards from : Moosai’s Sports Club, Trinidad & Tobago; West Indian Cricket Club, Connecticut, U.S.A. and New Jersey Cricket Association, New Jersey, U.S.A.; the International Olympic Committee, IOC Volunteers’ Diploma presented through the Jamaica Cricket Association – 2002; and you were an associate member of the English Cricket Writers Club.

You have covered the West Indies cricket team during its glory run from 1980 to 1995 when they were unbeaten in Test matches. You were undoubtedly the dean of Jamaican sports journalists and covered sports for more than 40 years during which time you reported on and analyzed performances in over 150 test matches.

For the work you have done in delighting us through your words that have bounced off the pages and brought sports coverage to life for us who stand beyond the boundary, it is time that you Lascelles Anthony “Tony” Becca, enter and take your rightful place in the Caribbean Media Hall of Fame.