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Geoff Boycott: A Cricketing Hero. Leo McKinstry
Читать онлайн.Название Geoff Boycott: A Cricketing Hero
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780007375448
Автор произведения Leo McKinstry
Жанр Биографии и Мемуары
Издательство HarperCollins
Boycott’s decision to keep on playing should not be seen as callous. Throughout his life, he was at his most comfortable and secure when he was on the cricket field. In his moment of loss, this man of strong emotions found solace at the crease.
The feeling in Yorkshire that Boycott was a victim of the metro-politan, public-school cricket establishment’s prejudice was dramatically reinforced at the end of the summer by the sacking of Brian Close as England captain over allegations – strongly disputed – of unsporting behaviour in a match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Amongst those voting in the MCC committee was the skeletal figure of former Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home who, as Lord Dunglass in the 1930s, had been a passionate supporter of the appeasement of Adolf Hitler. That puts Close’s misdemeanours into perspective. At least Close had the consolation of helping Yorkshire to win the championship yet again, with some help from Boycott who, despite his England troubles, headed the Yorkshire averages (1260 runs at 48.46). Wisden wrote of his performance, in words that might sum up his whole batting career: ‘Only Boycott showed consistent authority throughout the programme. Without his special characteristics of ruthless resolve and concentration, batting consistency would have been hard to achieve.’
That spirit of resolve was to be in even greater evidence in the winter, as Boycott toured the West Indies for the first time and emerged triumphant against Hall, Sobers, Griffith and Gibbs. All his problems of the last two years were put behind him. For perhaps the first time in his career, he looked a genuinely world-class batsman, showing the full range of his strokes and seeking to dominate the bowling. His brilliant form brought him 1154 runs in just 11 first-class games, while in the Tests he scored 463, an average of 66.14. Colin Cowdrey, his captain on that trip – appointed in place of Close – says of Boycott’s progress: ‘By the time of that trip, he had made himself into a very good cricketer. He was much tighter, much less loose than the batsmen of today, and he was brilliant at working out what shots to eliminate in any given circumstance. I also admired his courage against the pace attack. Though he could sometimes go a bit haywire, I actually found him a pretty good judge of a run. I had absolutely no problems captaining him. He might have been reserved, but I found him very astute and shrewd with his advice. He was just a damn good player, great to have in the side.’
Boycott signalled his intentions for the series by hitting four boundaries in Wes Hall’s first two overs in the opening Test match at Port of Spain. He went on to score 68, one of the building blocks of a massive total of 568, which should have seen England to victory. At tea on the last afternoon, the West Indies, having followed on, were staring at defeat on 180 for 8. Then immediately after the interval Wes Hall, at number 10, gave a chance to Boycott at short leg. Unaccustomed to fielding in close, he put it down and Hall, partnered by Gary Sobers, saw the West Indies through to safety.
The second and third Tests both ended in draws as well. Then, in the fourth Test, Boycott played one of the most significant innings of his career. On the final day, the match was petering out to a draw when suddenly Gary Sobers made probably the strangest declaration in the history of Test cricket, setting England 215 runs to win in 165 minutes, a seriously achievable target. Apart from sheer frustration at yet another non-result, Sobers’ extraordinary action may have been prompted by the belief that England were vulnerable to spin. In the first innings their tail had collapsed to Basil Butcher, an occasional leg-break bowler, in a spell of 5 for 34; indeed, Butcher was so occasional that these were to be the only five wickets he took in a 44-match Test career. But, in England’s favour, the pitch was still good and Charlie Griffith was injured.
Boycott and Edrich made a solid start, putting on 55 in 19 overs. At tea, with only 140 needed in 90 minutes and nine wickets still standing, it seemed obvious to almost everyone in the England camp that Sobers had badly miscalculated, everyone that is, except the skipper Colin Cowdrey, who was inclined to caution. Tom Graveney explains: ‘In the dressing room, Colin wasn’t sure if we should keep going for the runs. Just before tea, Willie Rodriguez had bowled two or three really good overs at Kipper and he hadn’t got the runs he thought he should have.’ A heated discussion followed. Cowdrey was still not positive but it was the two arch-blockers, Boycott and Barrington, who were amongst the most vociferous in support of a continuing run-chase, Boycott arguing, ‘Sobers has given us a real chance. Now let’s go and have a bloody crack at it.’
Abandoning his reluctance, Cowdrey played brilliantly, taking the score from 73 to 173 in just 18 overs before he was out. Then Boycott took charge, judging the scoring rate precisely against the clock and hitting off the necessary runs with three minutes – the equivalent of eight balls – to spare. Yet, like his Gillette innings, there was a downside to this triumph, for once again critics were asking why he did not play in this aggressive style more often. Warwickshire fast bowler David Brown says: ‘That afternoon we saw a glimpse of what he could do. He played brilliantly and I thought, If you played like that all the time you’d be an absolute revelation.’ England just clung on for a draw in the final Test, with Boycott scoring his maiden century against the West Indies in England’s first innings, so Cowdrey’s team returned home victors by 1-0.
Boycott was now indisputably England’s first-choice opener. Despite this success, his awkwardness in company remained a source of exasperation to some of his colleagues. On one occasion he provoked an embarrassing row during a dinner organized in a private room at Trinidad’s Hilton Hotel by Vic Lewis, the former band leader, businessman and agent. There were about fourteen people present, including several of the leading England and West Indian players along with their wives and girlfriends. Vic Lewis as the host was at one end and Jill his wife was at the other. Half-way through the meal, there was a loud crash and a commotion. Jill suddenly stood up: ‘Vic, I have had to put up with some pretty nasty and preposterous people during your career in showbusiness. But I have never met a ruder person than this man here,’ she said, pointing to Boycott. She then stormed off and sat down at the other end of the table.
‘Well, she shouldn’t be bloody going on about creekit in such a stupid way,’ Boycott explained defensively.
One member of that MCC side, Basil D’Oliveira, whose gregariousness – the hangover appeared to be part of his tour baggage – could hardly have been more different from Boycott’s asceticism, later gave this analysis of Boycott the tourist, again highlighting his absolute devotion to cricket: ‘He is so wrapped up in his cricket and sometimes this can be misconstrued. You have to know his ways and you find these out over a long period. He never seems to relax. If he does relax, he’s sleeping. Cricket is his life and I don’t think he has any other interests to help him unwind.’
As a room-mate of Boycott’s on that tour, Pat Pocock gained a sharp insight into Boycott’s all-consuming passion for his game. Of that experience, he wrote in his wonderful autobiography Percy: The Perspicacious Memoirs of a Cricketing Man: ‘Rooming with Boycott is a very serious event in a cricketer’s life. You are quickly made to realize that you have come to this distant country on business. The thought of enjoyment should not enter your head, since it never entered his. He spoke only of cricket and Yorkshire, since the two things in his mind were synonymous. He spoke, and you listened as that quiet, flat-vowelled voice droned on into the night. It was the voice of a middle-aged man in his mid-twenties, the voice of a man who had never been young.’ Yet Pocock saw another, more generous side to Boycott’s character, as he explained to me: ‘In Barbados, where it was bloody hot, he would bat in the nets for more than fifty minutes. He would go on and on, often against the local bowlers. When he had finished, he came out, took his pads off and then individually thanked each bowler in turn, no matter where they were on the ground. He was brilliant at that. I remember one guy had gone right over to the other side of the field and Boycott followed him just to thank him. He was able to do that because it related to his batting.’
After his Caribbean triumph, there were high expectations of Boycott for the 1968 season. But Boycott’s summer turned into a damp squib. Plagued by a serious back injury, which caused him to miss half the season, Boycott performed disappointingly on his three Test appearances against Australia, averaging only 32 and failing to pass 50 in any innings in yet