Cracking Little Wind Up on Boycott from TMS...

Ok, I'll chip in with a few comments about Boycott as well. Like many others have already said you cannot fault his technique or his record, even if it wasn't great to watch at times. I only saw him play a couple of times. One that stands out was a flowing seventy odd scored at Headingley in a one day match. I was in that old seating area directly behind the wicket at what is now the end where the flashy new pavilion stands. It was a block of a dozen rows or so elevated as if you were sitting on the roof of something. Perfect view and it was a real pleasure to watch a master batsman at work. It confirms that he WAS capable of stroke playing/fast run scoring when he needed to. The rest of the time he was the anchor which teams these days have a lot of trouble in finding.

Another, more amusing, incident was in a Sunday match played at the Huddersfield cricket ground (not played there for a long time). On a windy day Geoffrey lost a contact lens and spent a considerable amount of time, in the company of umpire Dickie Bird, on his knees trying to find it. I can't remember if he was batting at the time, or turning over a few overs with his rarely seen bowling action.

 

Is this the same Tendulkar that hung on for a couple of years too long to get to 100 international 100s and so he could retire after his 200th test in a specially arranged test series with a weak Windies side at home so he could get some easy runs and have a fanfare send off? It was an embarrassment to the sport.

 

1979 sounds about right. I was stationed at Finningley then so would have easily got up to Headingley. He was certainly playing out of character

 

John Terry-esque!

 

I took this photo of Geoff in 1977 (I think) in the nets before a tour match Yorkshire against Australia at Scarborough. He was quite entertaining as I recall and surrounded by quite a crowd. The rest of the Yorkshire team practiced some distance away.... This was a team which included Lumb, Hampshire, Old, Sharpe and Cope to name but a few.

Whilst I agree that Boycott was a fantastic player, he did little to inspire any team spirit and made bad captaincy decisions based upon his own ambitions.

 

I was at Headingley that day too! God, it seems a lifetime ago.

 

Aye, it was awful. They must have give. the West Indies Cricket Board plenty of money to agree to it.

 

One other thing I can't forgive Geoff for is that despite being a local lad he chose to go and watch Leeds United instead of The Reds when he wasn't playing cricket.

Unforgivable.