Geoffrey Boycott

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Geoffrey Boycott England (Eng)
Batting style	Right-handed batsman (RHB)
Bowling type	Right arm medium
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	108	36
Runs scored	8114	1082
Batting average	47.72	36.06
100s/50s	22/42	1/9
Top score	246*	105
Overs bowled	157.2	28
Wickets	7	5
Bowling average	54.57	21.00
5 wickets in innings	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	N/A
Best bowling	3/47	2/14
Catches/stumpings	33/0	5/0
As of 6 January 1982 Source: Cricinfo.com

Geoffrey Boycott (born October 21, 1940) is a former Yorkshire and England cricketer. In an illustrious, but sometimes controversial career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's finest opening batsmen. He followed up his playing career by becoming an often outspoken cricket commentator on both radio and television.

Contents 1 As player 2 As commentator 3 See also 4 External links 5 Notes

[edit] As player

Boycott was born in Fitzwilliam in Yorkshire and began playing for his home county in 1962. He began his Test career only two years later, in the first Test of the summer against Australia. Over the next 18 years he scored 8,114 runs in 108 Test matches for England. He was the first England cricketer to pass 8,000 Test runs and is still fourth on England's all-time run scoring list (behind Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart and David Gower). His average of 47.73 runs over 193 innings is better than any other England player since 1970. His Test career included 22 centuries (an England record that he holds jointly with Wally Hammond and Colin Cowdrey). On 11/12 August 1977 he scored 191 against Australia in the fourth Test at Leeds, becoming the first cricketer to score his one hundredth first class century in a Test match. Boycott reached the milestone with a characteristic drive off Greg Chappell through mid-on for four.

Boycott was always a controversial figure. His highest Test score was 246 not out in June 1967, but he was dropped for the next match for slow scoring (even though England won comfortably by six wickets). He spent three years from 1974-77 in self-imposed exile from the England team. He claimed he had simply lost his appetite for Test cricket, but the move may also have been linked to the appointments of Mike Denness and then Tony Greig as England Captain in preference to himself. Critics claimed the period of exile enabled him to avoid fast-bowlers Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Andy Roberts, and Michael Holding at their peaks, but he came back to face the West Indies pace battery at its most fearsome in the late 70s and early 80s.

His batting style gained a reputation for being dour and dogged, and for thus reflecting his personality. He became renowned for his ability to occupy the crease for hours, boring spectators and opponents with his defensive style of play. He was capable of attacking play, scoring a match-winning 146 for Yorkshire in the 1965 Gillette Cup final.

In Barbados in January 1974, playing for the touring England XI, he scored a career-best 261 not out against a West Indies Board President's XI including Andy Roberts and a young Michael Holding.

In his "comeback" Test against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1977 he famously ran out Derek Randall in front of his home crowd before going to make a century. In this match, in which Ian Botham made his England debut, he confirmed his ability to occupy the crease by batting on each of the five days of the match: his first innings 107 started at the end of the first day, he batted throughout the second day and was dismissed on the third day; he started his second innings at the end of day four and batted throughout England's successful run chase scoring 80 not out. Among England bastmen, only Allan Lamb and Andrew Flintoff have emulated this feat of batting on all five days. Boycott scored his hundredth first class hundred at Leeds later in that series.

Appointed vice-captain for the ensuing tour of Pakistan and New Zealand that winter, Boycott took over as captain in 1978 for two Tests when Mike Brearley was injured. In one match, the rest of the team in the pavilion decided that Boycott was scoring so slowly that he was in danger of costing England the match; Botham ran him out, later claiming in his biography that he had done it deliberately. Indeed, some have suggested that this was a team order.

Against Australia at Perth in 1979-80, he became the first man to be marooned on 99 not out in a Test when he ran out of partners.

In 1982 at Edgbaston he provided the rare spectacle of an established batsman being junior partner to a tail ender, when he and Graham Stevenson added 149 for Yorkshire's tenth wicket against Warwickshire; Stevenson scored 115 of them.

As well as a batsman, Boycott was also a medium-pace bowler, often bowling while wearing his cap turned back-to-front, but was never a genuine all-rounder. He took seven wickets at Test level at an average of 54.57.

The "controversial" tag for Boycott comes from many incidents spread over his playing career, but two in particular stand out. During an England tour of India he claimed that he was too ill to field in a Test Match, but it was later discovered that he was playing golf while his teammates were still out on the field; this lead to being dropped from the side. In 1982 he was instrumental in organizing, in defiance of a United Nations and TCCB ban, a so-called "rebel" tour of apartheid South Africa by 13 current and former England test cricketers who were almost all nearing the end of their careers. All the players were banned from international cricket for three years as a result.

Career record	First-class	List A
Matches	609	313
Runs scored	48,426	10,095
Batting average	56.83	39.12
100s/50s	151/238	8/74
Top score	261*	146
Balls bowled	3,685	1,975
Wickets	45	30
Bowling average	32.42	40.26
5 wickets in innings	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	N/A
Best Bowling	4-14	3-15
Catches/Stumpings	264/0	99/0
As of 5 June 2006 Source: [1] Edit this template

[edit] As commentator

As a commentator Boycott has renewed his renown, with his 'pull-no-punches' style in contrast to the 'let's-try-not-to-offend' style of most of his fellow commentators. In particular he is known for criticizing players. Once, after witnessing a dropped catch, he said "I reckon my mum could have caught that in her pinny", and in 2005 he mocked the Australian captain Ricky Ponting for electing to bowl first on a flat track, saying he was a "nice man" for being so generous to the England team. He is also characterised by his pre-match pitch reports, where he would stick a key into the wicket and assess its qualities (moisture and hardness). However due to a change in the cricket laws, this is no longer permitted.

In 1996, Boycott was accused by Margaret Moore, a former lover, of assault. Boycott denied the charges, claiming she had fallen over and hit herself. He pointed to the fact that Moore was in financial difficulties and said that he would never hit a woman. However, in January 1998, Boycott was convicted before a French Magistrates court. According to Boycott, Moore had grown angry when he refused to marry her, stating that 'he was not the marrying kind'.

The conviction gravely jeopardized Boycott's commentating career. At the time of the conviction he was working for BSkyB and BBC Radio, commentating on England's tour of the West Indies. He was sacked from both roles. He was also sacked from his columnists job in The Sun. A BBC television spokesman said "Geoffrey Boycott is not under contract with the BBC [television] and there are no plans to use him in the future."

Boycott was offered a role by talkSPORT, who chose to back him in spite of his conviction (subsequently upheld on appeal). He continued to commentate for the station, along with various satellite and Asian channels, until 2003, when his career was further threatened by throat cancer. Having successfully undergone chemotherapy, Boycott's career enjoyed a renaissance as he returned to high-profile commentating with Channel 4, which had meanwhile taken over from the BBC in televising England's home Test games. As of November 2005, Boycott has rejoined the BBC's Test Match Special to provide commentary for England's 2005 tour of Pakistan. In January 2006, Boycott joined Asian channel Ten Sports. His opinions, as ever, are strong and sometimes controversial. He delivered the Colin Cowdrey Lecture in 2005, speaking about the need for cricket to adapt to changing circumstances and embrace innovations like Twenty20.

He joined Mark Nicholas and Simon Hughes (from the Channel 4 cricket team) to commentate on highlights of England's home games from 2006-2010 on Five (TV), live coverage having been taken on exclusively by Sky Sports from 2006.

He supported the United Kingdom Independence Party in the European Parliament election, 2004^[1]. Despite his strong Yorkshire background, Boycott is surprisingly a big fan of Manchester United ^[2].

Boycott has been credited as having a high level of influence in the game, with Yorkshire CCC Chief Executive Stewart Regan crediting Boycott over the completion of a deal for Younis Khan to play county cricket for Yorkshire in the 2007 Season. "Without Geoffrey's invaluable assistance we would not have been able to make the deal, It was through his contacts I was able to get in touch with Younis. Geoffrey provided us with a list of players - and the top batsman on the list was Younis Khan. A lot of people will be unaware of the contribution which Geoffrey has made towards securing Younis' services - the other members of the board and myself are extremely grateful to him." ^[3]

Preceded by: Mike Brearley

English national cricket captain 1977/8

Succeeded by: Mike Brearley

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

• CricInfo Player Profile : Geoffrey Boycott
• Profile of Geoffrey Boycott and the Five Cricket Team

[edit] Notes