Sport Geoffrey Boycott knighted

Pete Burrett said:
Strictly on a 'services to cricket' basis, fair enough, although his attitude in the past to female contributors on Test Match Special were often of the 'I'll have two sugars in my tea luv' variety.

Personally, I can't stand listening to his 'I'm from Yorkshire, I say what I like and like what I bloody well say' style of humourless, dull commentary and punditry.
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Prime example of his application to plain yorkshire speaking was a bbc radio 4 interview earlier today- Boycott did a typical Boycott 'plain speaking' (!) Response to the female interviewer. Which shocked the pc brigade!

Cant find the link to share
 
Sarge said:
Prime example of his application to plain yorkshire speaking was a bbc radio 4 interview earlier today- Boycott did a typical Boycott 'plain speaking' (!) Response to the female interviewer. Which shocked the pc brigade!

Cant find the link to share
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Still cant find the actual interview link, but heres a link to a bbc report that touches on said interview in the overall piece .....
www.bbc.co.uk

Geoffrey Boycott 'doesn't give a toss' about knighthood criticism - BBC News

Theresa May's decision to knight the former cricketer is condemned by domestic abuse charities.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
I heard the interview when it was broadcast. It was a bit odd, initially a bit of something and nothing about him getting a knighthood then the presenter started on this 20 year old conviction (not allegation) for domestic abuse in a French court. Which he then denied doing, went on about blackmail and a million pounds and Brexit which he supports because you've guilty unless proven innocent in French courts - I think, it all got a bit confused/confusing - before then saying he didn't want to talk about anything other than the knighthood (having just done so!). I think the latter part was because someone had said with his conviction he shouldn't be knighted.
I haven't got much time for him really, and wouldn't miss the repetitive miserable old b****r if he didn't do TMS any more.
 
It was a conviction, not allegation. Although he has a point when he says it’s hard to defend yourself in a foreign court when you don’t understand the language.

I always liked his commentary - grew up listening to him. Also enjoy Agnew. Hate some of the new ones like Vaughn. Whereas my gran hated Boycott. Everyone’s got a preference I suppose
 
The Boycott appearances on TMS for this next Test are going to be cringe-making...lots of crap about "should we stand up when you enter the commentary box, SIR Geoffery..." etc etc ad nauseam.
I find the bit about not understanding French (when he was convicted of holding his female partner down and hitting her 20 times) unbelievably thin. On such a serious charge I'm sure he had a French solicitor.
Boycott's record as a batsman speaks for itself, but when he pontificates about facing fast bowling it's often forgotten that he exiled himself from Test cricket from 1974-77 when Lillee, Thomson, Roberts and Holding were at their peak.
 
Shropshire U said:
Boycott's record as a batsman speaks for itself, but when he pontificates about facing fast bowling it's often forgotten that he exiled himself from Test cricket from 1974-77 when Lillee, Thomson, Roberts and Holding were at their peak.
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I am not sure that anybody can be particularly critical of Boycott playing?
He played against plenty of serious fast bowlers in an era of no helmets.
 
So it all seems a bit odd to me - even ignoring the fact that Boycott is a convicted domestic abuser.

Boycott and Strauss are, respectively, 6th and 11th on England's list of all-time run scorers.

Cook is #1, obviously, by a mile and got knighted last year.
But none of the others in the top 10 have Ks (Colin Cowdrey has a CBE; Athers, Gooch, Gower & Stewart have OBEs; KP and Bell have MBEs; and poor old Wally Hammond doesn't appear to have received anything).

Strauss obviously has had a number of successful leadership and administrative roles, plus he's done some stirling charity work in the last couple of years with the Ruth Strauss Foundation, but it still seems a bit random to honour him ahead of all the others on that list.

Boycott was of course famously completely self-centered, never held a position of authority in the England cricket team, made himself unavailable to play for England for four years in the middle of his prime, and then ended his career by helping to organize a rebel tour of apartheid-era South Africa.
Strikes me he's just been rewarded for keeping himself in the public eye for the last forty years......

All very arbitrary.
 
tonyw said:
So it all seems a bit odd to me - even ignoring the fact that Boycott is a convicted domestic abuser.

Boycott and Strauss are, respectively, 6th and 11th on England's list of all-time run scorers.

Cook is #1, obviously, by a mile and got knighted last year.
But none of the others in the top 10 have Ks (Colin Cowdrey has a CBE; Athers, Gooch, Gower & Stewart have OBEs; KP and Bell have MBEs; and poor old Wally Hammond doesn't appear to have received anything).

Strauss obviously has had a number of successful leadership and administrative roles, plus he's done some stirling charity work in the last couple of years with the Ruth Strauss Foundation, but it still seems a bit random to honour him ahead of all the others on that list.

Boycott was of course famously completely self-centered, never held a position of authority in the England cricket team, made himself unavailable to play for England for four years in the middle of his prime, and then ended his career by helping to organize a rebel tour of apartheid-era South Africa.
Strikes me he's just been rewarded for keeping himself in the public eye for the last forty years......

All very arbitrary.
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Theresa May selected both cricketers as she is a cricket fan.

Boycott's knighthood is, I believe, for services to Cricket (and broadcasting)

Strauss being knighted for services to cricket

re all time England (or MCC) run scorers ... is that list purely for test cricket? .... or does it include shortened forms of cricket as in T20 & 50 over ODIs? the latter being included would Idve thought slant things heavily towards those cricketers who have played all forms not 'just' test cricket?
 
Sarge said:
re all time England (or MCC) run scorers ... is that list purely for test cricket? .... or does it include shortened forms of cricket as in T20 & 50 over ODIs? the latter being included would Idve thought slant things heavily towards those cricketers who have played all forms not 'just' test cricket?
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Just Test cricket. The only one that really matters!
stats.espncricinfo.com

England Test matches batting most runs career | ESPNcricinfo

Find England cricket Test matches batting most runs career at ESPNcricinfo. Records and stats of England Test matches batting most runs career.
stats.espncricinfo.com stats.espncricinfo.com

Surprising as it seems, Kevin Pietersen did actually score more Test runs, in fewer matches, than Geoff Boycott.
 
tonyw said:
Just Test cricket. The only one that really matters!
stats.espncricinfo.com

England Test matches batting most runs career | ESPNcricinfo

Find England cricket Test matches batting most runs career at ESPNcricinfo. Records and stats of England Test matches batting most runs career.
stats.espncricinfo.com stats.espncricinfo.com

Surprising as it seems, Kevin Pietersen did actually score more Test runs, in fewer matches, than Geoff Boycott.
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Cheers for info & link @tonyw

argree, test cricket the only form that really matters

latest re Boycott

Labour apparently demanding the knighthood (for Boycott) is withdrawn

Boycott - on the news- vehemently claiming his innocence ( re his French conviction), as he always has done
 
Hasn’t he just got it because Theresa May likes him - isn’t that how a lot of these things work? It’s whether the person or people choosing like you, rather than on pure merit.

Boycott was a good batsmen and could stay in, but I don’t think there’s an argument that KP was a better/more skilled player is there?!

And Cook is England’s best ever for me.
 
Foley said:
I am not sure that anybody can be particularly critical of Boycott playing?
He played against plenty of serious fast bowlers in an era of no helmets.
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Yes, he played against the top fast bowlers, but that self-imposed exile for 3 consecutive years rankled a lot at the time. His qualities would have been useful against those guys, who really were in their prime.
The other main charge against him as a batsman was selfishness (getting colleagues run out by standing his ground and playing so slowly that he put pressure on others to achieve run targets).
The reason for his self-imposed exile seems to have been disputes and unpopularity with fellow professionals.
 
tonyw said:
Just Test cricket. The only one that really matters!
stats.espncricinfo.com

England Test matches batting most runs career | ESPNcricinfo

Find England cricket Test matches batting most runs career at ESPNcricinfo. Records and stats of England Test matches batting most runs career.
stats.espncricinfo.com stats.espncricinfo.com

Surprising as it seems, Kevin Pietersen did actually score more Test runs, in fewer matches, than Geoff Boycott.
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Yeah, but Boycott occupied the crease for much longer...
 
Long overdue. Boycott is not just a cricketing icon but a great broadcaster too. Speaks his mind and that is something that is disappearing from society in an increasingly PC world.

I don’t get the furore either over his supposed domestic violence case. He’s always denied it and although it can’t be proved, you suspect someone as straight and searingly honest as he appears would be incapable of lying for 25 years.

If there’s a clamour to rescind his knighthood then perhaps we ought to do the same with Sir Mick Jagger, convicted of drug offences 50 odd years ago.

No one would ever get a knighthood, there skeletons in everyone’s cupboard.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
No one would ever get a knighthood, there skeletons in everyone’s cupboard.
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Some might say that might not be a bad thing...

The whole 'honours' thing has been so devalued. For every long-serving lollipop lady who gets an MBE (or whatever) there are innumerable political cronies, party donors and mates of mates getting knighthoods, OBEs, peerages etc that I doubt anyone much takes it at all seriously any longer!
 
dickwalton1964 said:
I don’t get the furore either over his supposed domestic violence case. He’s always denied it and although it can’t be proved, you suspect someone as straight and searingly honest as he appears would be incapable of lying for 25 years.

If there’s a clamour to rescind his knighthood then perhaps we ought to do the same with Sir Mick Jagger, convicted of drug offences 50 odd years ago.
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Well that's the thing, here, isn't it. It's not that he was accused of domestic abuse; he was convicted by a French court; a conviction that then held up on appeal. An independent doctor testified that the injuries his former partner suffered couldn't have happened the way Boycott described.
In the eyes of French law - which has some differences but is comparable with our own - it was proven that he was an abuser.

Can courts get it wrong? Of course.
But also just because some random bloke says he's innocent every day for 25 years, doesn't mean that's true either. Lance Armstrong said he was innocent every day for a decade - turned out he was a lying sociopath. Boycott could be as well - and personally I think that's more likely than an independent court sifting through all the evidence, finding it sufficient to prove him guilty, and being wrong. Not 100% certain - but more likely.

Also I personally think that pinning a woman down and punching her in the face is significantly worse than taking some psychedelic drugs.....but maybe that's just me.
 
I just find it odd that he's the epitome of what it means to be a proud Yorkshireman, yet who does he support? Manchester United.

Even if you ignore the domestic abuse conviction, just reading through his wiki page makes it quite obvious he's an unpleasant person, he falls out with pretty much everyone he comes into contact with.
 
tonyw said:
Well that's the thing, here, isn't it. It's not that he was accused of domestic abuse; he was convicted by a French court; a conviction that then held up on appeal. An independent doctor testified that the injuries his former partner suffered couldn't have happened the way Boycott described.
In the eyes of French law - which has some differences but is comparable with our own - it was proven that he was an abuser.

Can courts get it wrong? Of course.
But also just because some random bloke says he's innocent every day for 25 years, doesn't mean that's true either. Lance Armstrong said he was innocent every day for a decade - turned out he was a lying sociopath. Boycott could be as well - and personally I think that's more likely than an independent court sifting through all the evidence, finding it sufficient to prove him guilty, and being wrong. Not 100% certain - but more likely.

Also I personally think that pinning a woman down and punching her in the face is significantly worse than taking some psychedelic drugs.....but maybe that's just me.
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Maybe you're right that punching a woman is worse than a drug offence but does that make the drug conviction acceptable ? It's an offence and a conviction, simple as that. Knighthoods shouldn't be based on a sliding scale of criminality, if a conviction is seen as good for one then it's good for all. If it's a message that the do gooders want to send out about domestic violence then the drug busters should be all over Jagger and others wanting a rescinding of their knighthoods.
 
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