Arunabha Sengupta looks at some infamous feuds from the history of cricket. In this episode he revisits the conflict between two Yorkshiremen - Geoff Boycott and Brian Close
The 1960s ended with one of the most stirring controversies of cricket – leading to the boycott of South Africa from international cricket.
Geoff Boycott
That is the story of political drama with disgraceful racial overtones and will not be covered in this series. However, half a decade before the apartheid centred turmoil, there had already emerged another dubious Boycott.
Geoff Boycott made his tentative steps into first county cricket and then Tests as a bespectacled, reticent and severely self-absorbed young batsman in the early 60s. In a career spanning almost two and a half decades, he was destined to become one of the greatest batsmen of the world and one of the most controversial cricketers ever to walk in flannels. His immense popularity in India as a scathing commentator, where even young kids try to copy his accent, may make it difficult to believe, but he was the most unpopular cricketer of his times, and will grace these pages more than once. As David Gower put it, “He had the ability to be extremely charming, and an equal ability to be a complete sod.”
Brian Close
The initial days of his career were spent under the watchful eyes of Yorkshire and England captain Brian Close. Although team mates often complained that he was excessively selfish, often intolerably rude, and sometimes involved in run outs, Close lent the young man excellent support during his early days.
Boycott’s incredibly slow batting often became a pain for his team. However, during the 1965 Gillette Cup final, egged on by Close who had promoted himself to No 3, he hit 146 sparkling runs against Surrey, with 15 fours and three sixes, with flamboyance and attractive stroke-play that no one ever saw him demonstrate before or since.
In his autobiography, I Don’t Bruise Easily, Close mentioned that as a captain he had spent hours talking to Boycott and analysing him. He also remarked to Leo McKinstry, Boycott’s biographer, that the change in attitude during that particular innings was due to what he had said on arriving at the wicket. “I told him to get a move on or I threatened to wrap my bat round his bloody neck.”
However, in his Autobiography, Boycott denied any such interaction. “The myth about my attitude and motivation supports the image of a bold, decisive captain … but not once did he threaten or cajole me into playing the strokes I played.”
It was natural to have two versions, considering the long feud that the two got into from the latter half of the 1960s.
In 1967, Boycott was dropped from the English team for scoring 246 in 573 minutes against India. The devastated batsman was of the opinion that captain Close had not really batted for him against the selectors.
Close ran into problems with the administrators due to what many consider to be the last remnants of the old world distinction between Gentlemen and Players. He was removed as the captain of England in 1967 and then stripped of Yorkshire captaincy in 1970.
The veteran professional, who had earlier backed Boycott to take over the county captaincy after him, now felt that the introverted loner was not ready for the job. From then on, the two entered a phase of constant confrontation.
Along with ex-Yorkshire pro Fred Trueman, Close continued to be scathing in his criticism of Boycott as a captain and player for Yorkshire, sometimes having reservations about his batting for England as well.
In 1971, when Boycott score many, many runs, and yet Yorkshire could win only a few bonus points (awarded for every 25 runs over a total of 150 in the first 85 overs), Trueman remarked, “It will never cease to amaze me that a man can average 100 and we still end near the bottom in the batting points … disgusting.”
It did not help that Yorkshire did not win any major championship during Boycott’s leadership. Close, who had by now become the chairman of the cricket sub-committee, made no effort to conceal his hostility.
When Boycott’s relationship with the Yorkshire committee reached a crisis in 1984, Close told him somewhat uncharitably, “You ought to be the most popular man in cricket, but you can’t name me two blokes in the game who have a good word to say for you.”
In 1986, Close advocated Boycott’s removal from the county side. The contract with the opening batsman was not renewed for the following season, effectively ending the great batsman’s first- class career. Close announced afterwards, “I would have loved Geoffrey to have gone on breaking records, but in reality I had to say that his retention would not have helped us. We just couldn’t carry on with a cult figure grinding out his personal glory while the rest of the players simply made up the numbers.”
The animosity between the two perhaps reached comical levels when, in 1996, Ian Botham and Allan Lamb unsuccessfully sued Imran Khan over remarks he had made about their alleged racism. During the trial, when Close was asked whether Boycott was an honest man, he refused to comment. Boycott then exclaimed, “Can I say one thing, it will take three minutes,” and in spite of the demurring of the judge launched into a detailed listing of his grievances against Close.