Boycott: Sorry for my ‘ black up to get knighthood’ quip
FORMER England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott apologised yesterday for claiming he would stand a better chance of being awarded a knighthood if he ‘blacked up’.
The Yorkshireman, renowned for his blunt speaking, sparked a racism row with the comment at a £300-a-head dinner.
He was branded a ‘dinosaur’ over the remark, made at a question and answer session in Birmingham during England’s match against the West Indies on Saturday. Boycott, whom many fans lightheartedly call ‘Sir Geoffrey’, was reported as saying that knighthoods were handed out like ‘confetti’ to West Indies cricketers.
The 76-year-old is said to have added: ‘Mine’s been turned down Controversy: Geoffrey Boycott twice. I’d better black me face.’ A source said the remark was met with silence by the host, Sky Sports presenter Gary Newbon.
Diners who had paid nearly £300 for the hospitality package included several black guests. The source told the Mirror: ‘It was a crass comment. It was intended to get a laugh but it went down like a lead balloon. Is Boycott suggesting these great West Indians got knighthoods merely because of the colour of their skin? We can do without dinosaurs like him spouting rubbish.’
Waheed Saleem, who was also in the audience, told BBC Sport: ‘I was completely disgusted. I don’t think anyone saw it as a light- hearted joke. I was absolutely gobsmacked.’
Local activist Desmond Jaddoo said Boycott’s comments were ‘like something from the Dark Ages’.
Yesterday, Boycott broke his silence on Twitter, accepting his comments during the event at the Edgbaston ground were wrong.
‘Speaking at an informal gathering I was asked a question and I realise my answer was unacceptable. I meant no offence but what I said was clearly wrong and I apologise unreservedly,’ he wrote.
‘I have loved West Indian cricket my whole life and have the utmost respect for its players.’
Eleven West Indian cricketers have been knighted for services to the game, including fast bowlers Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts, and batsman Richie Richardson, all in 2014. The last England star to be knighted was Boycott’s former teammate Ian Botham, for services to charity, in 2007. Only one Australian, Don Bradman, and one New Zealander, Richard Hadlee, have been knighted for services to cricket.
Boycott, who was capped 108 times for England between 1964 and 1982, is part of BBC Radio’s Test Match Special team and a commentator for Channel 5. The second Test between England and the West Indies begins at Headingley, Leeds, on Friday. A BBC spokesman said: ‘He has rightly apologised unreservedly for these clearly unacceptable comments. He will be part of the team for the West Indies Tests.’
Boycott, widely regarded as one of England’s greatest cricketers, was appointed an OBE in 1980. The batsman has repeatedly been overlooked for a knighthood.
His England career ended after he took part in a rebel tour to apartheid South Africa and afterwards he became a commentator. Boycott was found guilty in 1998 by a French court of hitting former girlfriend Margaret Moore and was given a suspended sentence and a fine.
After England’s easy win at Edgbaston, Boycott described the current West Indies side as ‘the worst Test match team I have seen in more than 50 years’.
‘It went down like a lead balloon’