74: Geoffrey Boycott

108 matches. 8114 runs @ 47.72. 22 hundreds. Highest score: 246*

17 years. 5x good. 1x excellent. 1x outstanding. 2x Bradman.

The discussion

In every story, there’s an angle. In the great stories, that angle is filled with entertainment.

There’s no great entertainment in this story.

I shall give you Geoff Boycott’s career in the same way he gave us his career. Straight up, with no fuss or extravagance.

Here's how I think Boycott would describe his own profile:

• From Yorkshire

• 8000+ runs

• Put a high value on my wicket – I didn’t want to get out

• Averaged 47 opening the batting

• Won Test matches for England

• 22 hundreds

• Top score of 246 not out

• From Yorkshire.

And in terms of technique, there is Geoffrey Boycott, and then there is everyone else. Well, at least in terms his defence. Boycott’s defensive shot was nigh-on impregnable, and his determination not to give his wicket away led to a reputation as a dour cricketer. I won’t repeat any of the unkind analogies, however in an analysis of the 222 cricketers who have scored 2000+ Test runs at an average over 35, Boycott’s strike rate of 35.48 ranks 211th.[1] In any calendar year, Boycott’s strike rate never exceeded 46. Not that he’d care.

Did we mention he was from Yorkshire?

When we think back to the era that Boycott played (1964–82) it was a period dominated by some great fast bowlers. Australia had Lillee and Thomson, Pakistan had Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz, India had Kapil Dev, New Zealand had Sir Richard Hadlee, South Africa had Peter Pollock, and the West Indies, well, they had Roberts, Garner, Holding, Croft, Marshall, Sylvester Clarke, Wayne Daniel, Charlie Griffith and Wes Hall. Phew. Think I got most of them in there. As an opening batter in this era, every single Test was a battle against at least one, if not two, sometimes four, premier fast bowlers. The first fourteen years of that career, there were no helmets. I am reasonably sure that this was the strongest era of fast bowling in international cricket. In the middle of that era, opening the batting was a frightening proposition. You had to have a steely resolve to face the music, and score runs against it. Boycott averaged more than 45 against Australia and the West Indies, 57 against India, and over 80 against Pakistan. Boycott not only survived — he thrived.

It’s as easy as this:

Despite my earlier comment, there actually is an interesting story from Boycott’s career, and it involves, funnily enough, a boycott of sorts. For 30-odd Tests from 1974 to 1977, during the prime run-making years of his career, Boycott made himself unavailable for his country. Several reasons are given, but the most widely accepted view is that Boycott thought himself a better candidate as captain than Mike Denness, and then Tony Greig.

One other potential reason for his exile was given by Boycott himself in an article in The Telegraph in November 2006, after Marcus Trescothick’s withdrawal from Test cricket. Titled ‘Trescothick first victim of this greedy game’, Boycott’s article describes how he himself felt under stress, torn between county and country: ‘I was being split between Yorkshire and England and, in the end, it all got too much for me’.[1] Almost 15 years after the article was written and almost 45 years since Boycott himself almost walked away for good, this is another timely reminder of the sense of loneliness that some people feel as a professional cricketer. Whether it’s stress and doubts over your own performance, other players (even your batting partner) vying for your position, or nowadays the loneliness and physical separation of hotels and quarantine, cricket at the highest level can exact a tremendous toll on the psyche.

Fortunately for Geoff Boycott, he returned to Test cricket. Sadly though, he never managed to find harmony in the dressing room. There were further run-ins over the captaincy, and with the emergence of Graham Gooch in the early 1980s, England, now led by David Gower, looked to youth. In a final insult, one England player sang ‘bye-bye Boycott’ from the dressing room balcony at Leeds.

Despite all this, it’s clear that Boycott had a large influence on winning during his career. In 20 matches lost, his average was 28.10. In the 35 wins he was involved in for England, he averaged 54.62. Across 53 draws, that average was 52.83. Fellow stat heads like me will enjoy the direct correlation between Boycott’s performance and the fortunes of England between 1964 and 1982.

Not apropos of Test cricket, Boycott also enjoyed a stellar first-class career, twice averaging 100 in a season.[2] His 48,426 first-class runs at an average of over 56 is a truly amazing record — only seven players have scored more first-class runs, and very, very few players have averaged over 55 in first-class cricket. In bowler-friendly conditions, Boycott dominated the county scene for almost three decades, and left the game with an astonishing 151 first-class centuries to his name, which ranks him fifth all-time.

Following his career, Boycott courted controversy for his forthright opinions and strong criticism of batters, particularly their technique and defensive abilities.[4] Sometimes, not even fellow commentators were safe, even if they were fellow England players:

I think if anyone has a right to be critical of other cricketer’s technique and decision-making, it is a player with one of the tightest techniques in the game, a player who put as high a price on his wicket as anyone, and whose mental strength allowed him to concentrate for long periods and bat within the limits of his own game. Still, according to many other cricket writers, it didn’t win many friends nor influence people. Strangely, Boycott seems to show incredible empathy for players’ mental health, but seemingly not much empathy for the micro-lapses in judgement and mental application that result in a batter being dismissed.

The verdict

When I think of the word stalwart, I instantly think of Geoff Boycott. It might not be the perfect word to describe him — there are other phrases that come to mind that are more common in cricketing parlance — but the word feels right to me. Read it for yourself and see how it feels: Geoffrey Boycott was a stalwart for his county and his country as a batter, and then as a figure of the game.

I don’t think that Boycott will ever feature highly in a list of players that people would choose to travel back in time to watch. But that shouldn’t undermine the tremendous service he gave to his team during his playing career. He was as valuable on the field as he was forthright with his views off it following his retirement.

Geoffrey Boycott. A stalwart of cricket, from all angles.

In one word

Stalwart

Notes

[1] Source: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=batting_strike_rate;page=2;qualmin1=2000;qualmin2=35;qualval1=runs;qualval2=batting_average;size=200;template=results;type=batting

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20090421083744/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/columnists/geoffreyboycott/2350363/Trescothick-first-victim-of-this-greedy-game.html

[3] Mark Ramprakash is the only other player to average 100 in multiple county seasons, per Wikipedia. That kind of pub trivia knowledge will come in handy one day. Remember that little stat well.

[4] There was another legal incident too, I won’t delve into that here. Suffice to say that from my point of view, domestic violence in any form is abhorrent.

Bio

Record

Source: ESPN CricInfo

career peak

Sources: ESPN CricInfo