ON THIS DAY
Follow UsWith the entertainment quotient in cricket at an all-time high, the cricket boards holding immense power and most of the players bound by the contract to the T, a player like Geoffrey Boycott is unlikely to emerge anymore.
Fortunately, Geoffrey played in an era where he could afford to be a player first and then an entertainer. It did come at a cost, though. Despite retiring with 8114 runs and 22 centuries in Tests, his career is defined by that one knock against India.
He could boast about being the only player in cricket history who was selected in the playing eleven despite tallying just 124 runs in nine innings and dropped from the side after an unbeaten knock of 246 runs.
India’s tour to England in 1967 had started on a bizarre note. The visitors had lost their premier bowlers Rusi Surti and Bishan Bedi early in the Test match in Leeds, leaving their bowling ammunition dry enough for a star-studded English batting line-up to take advantage of. But Boycott had other plans.
The 5000-capacity small crowd was bored to death by the star batsman as he would take a whopping 573 minutes and 555 balls to tally 246 runs. Day 1 was the most excruciating as Geoffrey would reach lunch on 25 runs before going runless for the next 54 minutes. He would add another eight runs in the next hour, thus adding just 50 runs between lunch and tea. Boycott was unbeaten on 106 after playing the entire day.
The massive flak from the media at the end of the day had finally changed his stance as he added 40 runs in the next four hours. Though England would go on to win that match by six wickets, Boycott was dropped from the squad for the next Test owing to “selfish” batting. The player had hardly any regrets, though.
“I didn't expect praise for my first-day performance. It was a grim-looking inning, and I didn't need anybody to tell me that. But I had shown that I had the character to stick with it. The alternative was to give me (my) wicket away and return to the anonymity of the dressing room,” Boycott had later stated.
Interestingly, Boycott never changed his stance on batting and, therefore, could make little friends throughout his career. However, it didn’t stop him from becoming one of the best batsmen of that ear. Despite his conservative approach, England hardly won a Test when he didn’t perform and vice versa. His team lost only 20 of the 108 Tests that Boycott had played in, which shows the significance of him on the side.
Boycott knew his worth in gold as well and was self-centered to a large extent. So much so that he would decide to make himself unavailable for 30 Tests after Mike Denness had succeeded Ray Illingworth as captain and not him. Had that not been the case, Boycott would surely have been England’s first batsman to tally 10,000 runs.
Geoffrey, however, played cricket the only way he thought it should be played. A classic Test batsman who averaged 47.72 across 108 Tests, Boycott’s backfoot drives through the covers and the on-drive were a viewer’s delight. Not getting much love from the home crowd, Boycott had to dig up his runs on both home and away with similar grit.
In the difficult away conditions, he has 1396 runs in Australia and 1179 in the West Indies, thus proving his mettle. The Yorkshire lad would play just eight matches in the subcontinent, tallying an impressive 706 in them.
Some memorable knocks of Boycott would include a 191 against Australia in Leeds, standing up against Jeff Thomson and Len Pascoe in difficult conditions, a 105 in Delhi, an unbeaten 100 against Pakistan in Sindh, and a gritty 116 against Gary Sobers’ West Indies in Georgetown.
Boycott remained as opinionated a commentator as he was a cricketer, disliked by many. However, he had turned heads in shock when he was knighted in 2019 at Prime Minister Theresa May's resignation honours.
