“Someone would have had a word with young Tamim Iqbal a couple of decades ago. ‘You can’t play like that in Test cricket, lad’” – Vic Marks on Bangladesh’s brilliant opening batsman. Is it just us, or is he channelling Boycott there?
“Not one ball. I don’t watch Twenty20. It is dumbing-down cricket. They should find another name for it” – West Indian great Michael Holding has not drunk the World Cup Kool-Aid any more than Geoff Boycott has.
The Indian Ambassador is expected to be summoned to the Foreign Office amid a growing row over Phil “The Cat” Tufnell’s shock exclusion from the Indian Premier League.
“Luckily, Geoff doesn’t select our team” – South Africa coach Mickey Arthur after the frank opinion of one G Boycott on Kent all-rounder Ryan McLaren was accidentally broadcast on the radio. Arthur is bringing in no less than four uncapped players to cover Jacques Kallis’ injury.
“An off-air comment made by Geoffrey Boycott in a live broadcast was heard by some listeners which we apologised for as soon as we realised it had been audible” – the BBC has to say sorry after Sir Geoffrey is heard to shout “Fucking tosser!” in the background of TMS after England took a sixth South African wicket. The first draft of history does not record who he meant.
“We were brought up watching opening batsmen score nine before lunch. If Geoffrey Boycott flashed at a ball outside off stump in the first over of a Test match, questions were asked in Parliament. If he flashed at two, the ravens abandoned the Tower of London” – Brian Viner on Geoffrey Boycott, who celebrates his 69th birthday today.
“Of course, none of this nonsense would have ever reared its head if England hadn’t got themselves in a hole through wasteful, unfocused cricket” – Boycott reviews Collingwood’s recent travails.