Where Virender Sehwag was an unfettered spirit whose attitude reflected in his batting, Geoffrey Boycott was the polar opposite, a grafter and grinder who relied on wearing attacks down rather than imposing himself. Of brilliant technique and both aware and proud of that fact, Boycott once survived the most torrid Michael Holding over for five deliveries before being dismissed off the sixth in a Test match. When his teammates ribbed him later at his technique being found out, he said (and for the sake of propriety, we are paraphrasing), “Just as well that I was batting, otherwise we would have been 0 for 6!”
As a batsman who could concentrate for long hours, Boycott had few equals, but he didn’t exactly endear himself to his teammates with his singular focus on not being dismissed, even if it meant the runs came a crawl. He was famously dropped for the next Test after slow-marching to 246 at his Headingley hometown in 1967 against India, one of many blots in a career that ought to have been celebrated, but which was always riddled with controversy.
It was fitting that it was in Leeds that he brought up his 100th first-class hundred, and that too in an Ashes Test against old foe Australia. And while he was often pilloried for his go-slow tactics, it is hardly coincidental that England lost only 20 of the 108 Tests Boycott played between 1964 and 1982.
Fussy and picky, Boycott only came on the tour of India in 1982 because he wanted to break Gary Sobers’ record of 8,032 runs, then the highest tally by a batsman in Test cricket. Having gone past that milestone in the third Test in Delhi with a century, he played one further match in Kolkata before pulling out of the tour for personal reasons. Indians weren’t amused then, but over time, Boycott and India have forged a special relationship, and his is one of the most sought-after and entertaining broadcast voices.
Knighted by the Queen in September 2019, Sir Geoffrey is 80 today. Well played, sir!
