Читать книгу Botham’s Century: My 100 great cricketing characters - Ian Botham, Ian Botham - Страница 17

Boycs has never made any bones about it, so I won’t. Just about the most self-absorbed cricketer I have ever met. First, the undeniably good things about Geoffrey. Self-motivated and hard-working, you have to respect and admire the man for what he did. He was not a natural cricketer, but he made himself into a very good one. As an opening batsman for England, his record speaks for itself. He was, as he would have said, a ‘soooper’ player and his cricketing brain was always switched on. The problem was that as colleagues we all felt there were times when he was far more concerned with the needs of the one than the needs of the many.

My first experience of playing alongside Boycs for England contained an incident that told me much of what I needed to know. It happened on my Test debut in the third match of the 1977 Ashes series at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, the home ground of local hero Derek Randall. According to Wisden: ‘Randall began in great style but he was run out when Boycott went for an impossible single after stroking the ball down the pitch where Randall was backing up. In the end, Randall sacrificed his wicket to save Boycott.’ Listeners to Test Match Special heard John Arlott comment: ‘How tragic, how tragic, how tragic.’ The words used in the dressing room were somewhat more pointed.

To his credit, Boycs made a magnificent hundred and, fittingly, Randall made the winning runs. But the words ‘run out’ and ‘Boycott’ were destined to play a significant part in my future career. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back on events in the second Test against New Zealand on the following winter tour, there is no doubt in my mind that carrying out the orders of vice-captain Bob Willis to run out skipper Boycott did more for my standing within the England camp than any runs or wickets I was in the process of compiling.

Boycs will tell you until you are tired of hearing that his attitude to batting was that it is a selfish business. He sincerely believed that he was the best batsman in the side and therefore, if anyone had to sacrifice their wicket in a run out, for the benefit of the side it should be the bloke at the other end. There is some logic in that, but not enough for me to ever be fully persuaded that when he stood his ground he was doing so for the good of the team.

The thing that really hardend my thoughts on Boycs took place years after we had both retired from the game, during the court case brought by myself and Allan Lamb against Imran Khan for libel over his accusations that our motive for alerting the world to ball-tampering by the Pakistan bowlers was racism.

Boycs was called to give evidence in what we considered to be a serious matter and he turned the proceedings into a Geoff Boycott Benefit event. He apologized to the court for the fact that he had not had time to change, and so arrived wearing a shirt sporting a logo for Wills, the tobacco company. I’m sure it was an accident, but some observers were convinced otherwise. They pointed out the case was attracting huge publicity in India and Pakistan where Wills have massive interests. Surely that couldn’t have had anything to do with his choice of attire.

Then, in the eyes of some, he tried to railroad the case from the witness box by launching an attack on Brian Close, his former Yorkshire and England team-mate. True, Close had cast aspersions on Boycott’s character the day before, but his testimony was hardly startling stuff and was probably very much in keeping with the views of the majority of those who had come across Boycs during his career. And anyway Boycott had been summoned to talk about the case at hand, not himself. On second thoughts, some chance. The judge was so incensed by Geoff’s performance that he told him to belt up and was very close to charging him with contempt of court.

The way Boycs trampled all over the case made me distinctly queasy and I have to say our relationship suffered as a consequence. Indeed, until he has the guts to apologise to myself and my family, the most he will get from me is bare civility. Great player, strange bloke.