Geoff Boycott on 73rd birthday today-very good or great batsman?

[Harsh Thakor]

Today on October 21st Geoff Boycott turns 73.Few cricketers have been as controversial. No batsman of modern times has posessed such an impregnable defence as Geoff Boycott who literally resembled a boulder when batting.Technically he was on par with Sunil Gavaskar and Hanif Mohammad.No batsman was harder to dislodge than Boycott.His batting was a perfect lesson for a schoolboy or a coaching manual.When seeing him bat one almost felt he was giving a lesson to pupils. Many experts were critical of Boycott's selfish batting but former England skipper Mike Brearley stated Often Boycott top scored in low scoring games eg scoring 100 out of 220 an giving the bowlers a chance to win a match.Few batsmen tackled ferocious pace with such tenacity. In first class Cricket Boycott was a giant averaging 56,94,scoring 149 hundreds and over 50,000 runs.He was the 3rd fastest batsmen to score 100 centuries ,behind only Bradman and Compton ,taking 619 innings.In First class cricket he outclassed other garest like Barry and Viv Richards Boycott is the only batsman to average over 100 in 2 first class seasons in England.In test cricket Boycott scored 8,114 runs and averaged 47.72 with 22 hundreds.He averaged above 45 in and against both West Indies and Australia.I can never forget his knock of 80 n.o with England winning the test when Sobers declared at Trinidad in 1967-68.Geoff' s batting was instrumental in England's Ashes triumphs in Australia in 1969-70 and at home in 1977.His 197 not out at Leeds against Australia in 1977 is inforgettable when he scored his 100th century.I can also never forget Boycott's unbeaten 99 at Perth in 1979-80,his unbeaten 128 in the 1980 centenary test at Lords and his century against the 4 pronged Calypso bowling attack at Antigua in 1981 .Few batsmen withstood the likes of Dennis Lillee,Joel Garner or Michael Holding like Boycott.He tackled them with the grit of the bravest of military commanders. At times he was very selfish like when scoring 246 not out at Leeds in 1976 and costing his team a win with slow batting.However remember Boycott overall averaged 54.5 win games won and 52 in games drawn.Around 60% of his total runs were scored in drawn games.Boycott also averaged above 45 against 2 of the most lethal bowling attacks of his time.Where Boycott failed is that he could hardly entertain a crowd like Sunil Gavaskar could in the later part of his career or keep the scoreboard ticking like Javed Miandad.The only exception was in the one day International triangular series in 1979-80 in Australia where he scored a feat of runs. Could Geoff Boycott be rated as an all-time great batsman?This is a debatable point but in my view Boycott would just make it in that category because of his phenomenal consistency.True his batting lacked artistry and innovation but neverthless he almost always delivered the goods when England needed them.Even Gary Sobers or Michael Holding prized Boycott's wicket.In the technical sense Richard Hadlee put Boycott at the top.I would class Boycott with Herbert Sutcliffe.Boycott was mentally one of the strongest batsmen ever with the concentration of a Buddhist monk.Overall amongst English batsmen only Hobbs,Hammond,Hutton,Compton,Barrington and Gooch rate ahead of Boycott.Amongst all-time great openers only Hobbs,Gavaskar,Hutton,Barry Richards arguably rate ahead of Boycott. I have great respect for his views on the game and it's history.He chooses Jack Hobbs and Sachin Tendulkar as the most complete batsman after Bradman.I rever his rating of Hobbs as the bset batsman on all types of surfaces and Tendulkar as the equivalent of Hobb sin the modern age.In his all-time xi he chooses Viv Richards,George Headley,Dennis Lillee and Malcolm Marshall .I also appreciated Boycott's defence of Wasim Akram and Waqar younus when they were accused of ball tampering in 1992.Sadly he still rates himself ahead of Sunil Gavaskar,which is unfair in my opinion. Let us bow down to this legend whatever his flaws and wish him a great 73rd birthday.

[Harsh Thakor]

How great was Geoff Boycott? Today on October 21st Geoff Boycott turns 73.Few cricketers have been as controversial. No batsman of modern times has posessed such an impregnable defence as Geoff Boycott who literally resembled a boulder when batting.Technically he was on par with Sunil Gavaskar and Hanif Mohammad.No batsman was harder to dislodge than Boycott.His batting was a perfect lesson for a schoolboy or a coaching manual.When seeing him bat one almost felt he was giving a lesson to pupils. Many experts were critical of Boycott's selfish batting but former England skipper Mike Brearley stated Often Boycott top scored in low scoring games eg scoring 100 out of 220 an giving the bowlers a chance to win a match.Few batsmen tackled ferocious pace with such tenacity. In first class Cricket Boycott was a giant averaging 56,94,scoring 149 hundreds and over 50,000 runs.He was the 3rd fastest batsmen to score 100 centuries ,behind only Bradman and Compton ,taking 619 innings.In First class cricket he outclassed other garest like Barry and Viv Richards Boycott is the only batsman to average over 100 in 2 first class seasons in England.In test cricket Boycott scored 8,114 runs and averaged 47.72 with 22 hundreds.He averaged above 45 in and against both West Indies and Australia.I can never forget his knock of 80 n.o with England winning the test when Sobers declared at Trinidad in 1967-68.Geoff' s batting was instrumental in England's Ashes triumphs in Australia in 1969-70 and at home in 1977.His 197 not out at Leeds against Australia in 1977 is inforgettable when he scored his 100th century.I can also never forget Boycott's unbeaten 99 at Perth in 1979-80,his unbeaten 128 in the 1980 centenary test at Lords and his century against the 4 pronged Calypso bowling attack at Antigua in 1981 .Few batsmen withstood the likes of Dennis Lillee,Joel Garner or Michael Holding like Boycott.He tackled them with the grit of the bravest of military commanders. At times he was very selfish like when scoring 246 not out at Leeds in 1976 and costing his team a win with slow batting.However remember Boycott overall averaged 54.5 win games won and 52 in games drawn.Around 60% of his total runs were scored in drawn games.Boycott also averaged above 45 against 2 of the most lethal bowling attacks of his time.Where Boycott failed is that he could hardly entertain a crowd like Sunil Gavaskar could in the later part of his career or keep the scoreboard ticking like Javed Miandad.The only exception was in the one day International triangular series in 1979-80 in Australia where he scored a feat of runs. Could Geoff Boycott be rated as an all-time great batsman?This is a debatable point but in my view Boycott would just make it in that category because of his phenomenal consistency.True his batting lacked artistry and innovation but neverthless he almost always delivered the goods when England needed them.Even Gary Sobers or Michael Holding prized Boycott's wicket.In the technical sense Richard Hadlee put Boycott at the top.I would class Boycott with Herbert Sutcliffe.Boycott was mentally one of the strongest batsmen ever with the concentration of a Buddhist monk.Overall amongst English batsmen only Hobbs,Hammond,Hutton,Compton,Barrington and Gooch rate ahead of Boycott.Amongst all-time great openers only Hobbs,Gavaskar,Hutton,Barry Richards arguably rate ahead of Boycott. Let us bow down to this legend whatever his flaws and wish him a great 73rd birthday.

[Number]

Hi Harsha, How do you rate Ishant Sharma ?

[Trichromatic]

He was a selfish player

[Scarves]

Selfish **** but good batsman.

[King Tendulkar]

ATG

[Chalks]

Formidable (if obstinate, or obdurate) batsman, marvellous commentator.