Dennis Lillee summarised: “Geoff fell in love with himself at an early age and remained faithful”
When Basil D’Oliveira confided to him that he had figured out how to read the mystery spinner Johnny Gleeson, Boycott replied. “I’ve known for a week, but don’t tell the others.”
In 1971, as captain, he declared the Yorkshire innings against the Northants at 266/2. "When I reached 121, I was averaging 100 for the season!" It was the last match of the season and he ended with 2503 runs at 100.12.
When Dennis Amiss scored a hundred against New Zealand after Boycott had been run out for one, he kept muttering “That bastard is scoring all my runs.” When Amiss rang him up a few weeks later, Boycott’s mother, who stayed with him till her death, answered, “Yes, I will get him. Who’s speaking?” When Amiss mentioned his name, Mrs. Boycott said, “He’s not in,” and hung up!
Against New Zealand again, during Boycott’s second Test as captain, vice captain Bob Willis sent Botham in to ‘run the bugger out’. That seemed the only way to accelerate the rate of scoring … and the instruction was carried out to perfection.
He finally overhauled Sobers’s record for the highest aggregate Test runs. Perhaps fittingly it happened during the colossally boring tour of India under Keith Fletcher in 1981-82.
According to captain Keith Fletcher, Boycott was uncooperative and did not seem interested in playing any further after the milestone.
During the Calcutta Test match, Boycott did not field because of a stomach bug, and it was later discovered that he had spent the afternoon playing golf at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club! “Well, the doctor ordered me to get some fresh air and that was the only place in Calcutta that offered me some.
The pungent self-righteous witticism that would get him hordes of fans in his commentating days did not quite charm his teammates. Boycott was told to pack his bags and leave mid-tour. He made a bee-line for South Africa as a massively billed, underperforming rebel cricketer and never played Test cricket again.
He was still making runs for Yorkshire well into the mid-1980s, but David Gower, the England captain, remarked that the team had to look towards the future. During the 1985 Ashes Test at Leeds, Tim Robinson struck a magnificent 175, cementing his place in the side as opener. This prompted Botham to sing, “Bye bye Boycott” from the English balcony.
In 1986, Yorkshire committee chairman Brian Close advocated Boycott’s removal from the county side. “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.”
8,114 runs in 108 Tests at 47.72 with 22 centuries. And the weirdest of inter-personal equations.
His commentary endears him to many, primarily due to flashes of impressive analysis interspersed with the absolute incorrigible faith in his own opinion, even when contradictory to the current day cricketers or co-commentators.
Being asked what he would have done if he had been the umpire, he once said. “Why, I’d have done anything, I’d have thought I was God for a day.” Pat came Harsha Bhogle’s rejoinder: “That’ll come as a surprise to our viewers. Most of them think you consider yourself God anyway.”
That sums him up.
As does something else.
In 1936, when Vijay Merchant was scoring tons of runs in England, CB Fry remarked “Let’s paint him white and take him to Australia.” Fry was Ranji’s greatest friend. Both Ranji and his nephew Duleep, as well as the Nawab of Pataudi, had played for England against Australia without any such whitening. Fry was just joking, in a manner that was considered good humour in those days, when ‘politically incorrect’ was still a phrase in its infancy, waiting for the sun to set over the Empire before gaining weight and importance.
The sun had set for several years when Boycott, in 1984, watched the West Indians belt the English bowlers all over the park and remarked, “I just feel like painting my face black and taking runs off that English attack.” No one really made a fuss about it. Political correctness was still in its formative years.
When Charlie Griffith was knighted in 2017, Boycott repeated himself suggesting he would be more likely to be given a knighthood if he “blacked up” and claimed that honours were given to West Indian cricketers “like confetti”.
By this time of course he was subjected to criticism.
But at the same time, in a curious way, in 2019 knighthood did come his way.
Geoff Boycott was born on 21 October 1940. Part of him never developed with the times. And as we can see, neither did part of the establishment.