Early life
Boycott was born in the mining village of Fitzwilliam, nearCounty career
Boycott began playing for his home county in 1962 after topping the averages for Leeds, Yorkshire Colts and Yorkshire Second XI.Arlott, p. 125. In 414 matches for Yorkshire he scored 32,570 runs at an average of 57.85, with a highest score of 260First years
Before he played in first-class cricket, Boycott played for the successfulCaptaincy
Boycott captained Yorkshire for eight seasons from 1971 to 1978, having been appointed following the sacking of Brian Close in 1970. Despite well publicised conflict between the two players, Boycott recorded in 1987 that he regretted Close's removal from the club, and wrote him a letter in admiration for his contributions to Yorkshire. To captain Yorkshire had been one of Boycott's aims since he started county cricket in 1962.McKinstry, p. 121. Yorkshire's scorerLater years
Boycott, after much thought, continued as a player at Yorkshire, scoring 1,941 runs at 61.70 in 1979, hitting six hundreds to passTest match career
Over Boycott's 18-year career he scored 8,114 runs in 108 Test matches for England. He was the first England cricketer to pass 8,000 Test runs and, as of 2015, is seventh on England's all-time run scoring list (behindDebut year
Boycott began his Test career on 4 June 1964, only two years after his first-class debut, in the first Test againstEarly career
England hosted New Zealand and South Africa in 1965. Against New Zealand, Boycott scored 23 and 44 not out in the first Test at Edgbaston and 76 in the second at Lord's, but missed the third Test owing to injury. He returned against South Africa at Lord's, but after scores of 31 and a slow 28 in 105 minutes, the press began to speculate that he may lose his place in the team. In the second Test, Boycott made aExile
Between 1974 and 1977, Boycott elected to make himself unavailable for England. He said in 2006 that he had simply lost his appetite for Test cricket and the stress became too much for him. Boycott's biographer, McKinstry, speculates that the self-imposed exile may also have been linked to the appointments ofComeback Tests
Ashes series, West Indies and India
During the 1978–79 Ashes series, Boycott unusually went in as a Number 11 in the second innings of a match against state side South Australia (not due to injury). At Perth on 15 December, he scored 77 runs without hitting a boundary – the highest total of this nature – though it did include an all-run four. England went on to win the six-Test series 5–1, with Boycott struggling overall through three of the Tests with 263 runs at 21.91. Boycott then played in the 1979 Cricket World Cup held in England, taking two wickets in the opening match against Australia, which England won. The hosts then went on to win their next two games and topped their table for the opening round. Reaching the final after a close victory against New Zealand in which Boycott scored only two, he hit 57 from 105 balls as England chased Viv Richards 138 not out-inspired 286 to win, falling 92 runs short at 194 all out. Boycott ended the competition with the sixth highest strike rate of 42.99 and an average of 23.00. Following the World Cup, against Australia during a Test match at Perth in 1979–80, Boycott became the first man to be marooned on 99 not out in a Test when he ran out of partners. England then toured the West Indies. Here, Boycott again faced the West Indies' feared pace attack, but succeeded in scoring centuries off the likes of Holding, Roberts,'Bye-bye Boycott'
Boycott was again refused the captaincy for the next Test series againstCommentator, controversy and personal life
Commentating
Cricket commentator and statisticianDomestic violence and conviction
Boycott lived for forty years with Anne Wyatt. In 1996, Boycott was accused of assault by Margaret Moore, a former lover. Boycott denied the charges, claiming she had fallen over and injured herself. He pointed to the fact that Moore was in financial difficulties and said that he would never hit a woman. Moore was declared bankrupt shortly after making the allegations. Boycott was absent for the first trial in January at which he was convicted, after his lawyers had been wrongly informed that it was merely a preliminary hearing. In the second trial, beginning on 20 October 1998, Boycott appeared before a French magistrates' court and was given a three-month suspended sentence, and his £5,300 fine was confirmed. He was criticised by the magistrate for the way he conducted his case and for "rudely interrupting" Mrs Moore's barrister. In September 2019, the magistrate who convicted Boycott recalled that "he was arrogant and he had a deplorable attitude throughout the trial". According to Boycott, Moore had grown angry when he refused to marry her, stating that "he was not the marrying kind" and had fallen when throwing his clothing from the window, hitting her head on the carpet. When he again appealed against his conviction, Moore's version of events that Boycott had attacked her by punching her in the face, causing bruising, was upheld, in the light of photographs of her injuries shown to the court and the testimony of a doctor that the injuries could not have been caused in the way described by Boycott. In 2015, an investigation by the ''Throat cancer
Talksport, as well as both Indian and South African television programmes, continued to use Boycott as a commentator in 2002, during which he suffered a continual sore throat. Finding a lump while shaving, Boycott returned to England, and on 20 August 2002 was examined atReturn to commentary
Following this public support, Boycott resumed writing for ''Presidency of Yorkshire, ''Corridor of Certainty''
Playing style
Boycott's playing style revolved around intense concentration, solid defence and attention to detail, while avoiding heavy hitting or slogging. He was described in ''The Complete Encyclopaedia of Cricket'' as "one of the greatest opening batsmen that the game has known. He dedicated his life to the art of batting, practising assiduously and eschewing any shot that might even hint at threatening the loss of his wicket." Through his Test career, he scored 15.4% of England's runs, and England won 32.41% of the Tests in which Boycott played. This compares with England's 34.76% victory rate over all Test cricket history. Richard Hutton, Yorkshire and England batsman and son of Len Hutton, described Boycott as a "one-pace player", suggesting that he was unable to alter his playing pace as the match circumstances dictated. Nevertheless, Boycott maintained an "impeccable" defensive technique, and possessed a temperament ideally suited for five-day Test matches. Arlott wrote that "his technique is based on a defence organised as near flawlessness as may be."Arlott, p. 127. Boycott himself remarked, in 1981, that: "Given the choice betweenWritten works
Boycott has written a number of works on cricket, including his own autobiography and a joint project on the biography of umpireRecords
* ''Test matches
Boycott's abilities in the Test match theatre during his career of 17 years and 216 days have left him with a number of Test cricket records. He is the seventh most capped player for England in Tests, and has the sixth highest career runs total in Tests for an England player, 8114. He was the fourteenth quickest player to reach 8,000 runs, taking 190 innings. He topped the national averages for six seasons, the highest of any post-World War II player, and is tied for third in the list of centuries for England behind only Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen.McKinstry, p. 341. England were unbeaten in all 22 test matches in which he scored a century (won 10, drawn 12). Boycott was also the first player to score 99 not out, and the first to score 99 and then a century in a Test match. The forty-eight century partnerships he was involved was a record for any England player, but has again been surpassed by Alastair Cook. In 1977 against Australia, Boycott became the first England player to bat on all five days of a Test match on his return to international cricket at Trent Bridge. He spent the 629 minutes at the crease for 191 runs in 1977.Opening partners
Such was Boycott's longevity in the game that he had 16 opening partners for England. The reason why these figures cover only 191 of Boycott's 193 Test innings is because he batted at No.4 in both innings of the third Test against West Indies at Bridgetown in March 1974 (after Denness, Amiss and Jameson). He opened the batting in the other four Tests in that series.Career performance
One-Day Internationals
Boycott's ODI career was noticeably less productive than his Test. He did, however, face the first One-Day International ball ever bowled, and was the first batsman to be dismissed in what was the first ever ODI game. The match, considered a one-off at the time due to ODI cricket being in its infancy, was hastily arranged to cover a washed out 1970-71 Ashes Test. Career performance:International centuries
Test centuries
One Day International centuries
In popular culture
Boycott is mentioned in a verse of the Roy Harper song "Honours
Footnotes
Notes
References
Printed sources
* Arlott, J. ''John Arlott's Book of Cricketers. 25 Favourites – Past and Present'',Online articles
* * * * * *External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boycott, Geoffrey 1940 births Living people England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers England Test cricket captains English cricketers English cricketers of 1946 to 1968 English cricketers of 1969 to 2000 Yorkshire cricketers Yorkshire cricket captains Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Northerns cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year English cricket commentators People from Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire Presidents of Yorkshire County Cricket Club Officers of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Cricket players and officials awarded knighthoods UK Independence Party people Sportspeople from Yorkshire D. B. Close's XI cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club President's XI cricketers