Boycott will not be sacked over joke
Cricketing legend in trouble again after he tells audience he would have to ‘black up’ to become a Sir
SPORT: Geoffrey Boycott will keep his job as a commentator on the BBC’s Test Match Special, the corporation confirmed in the wake of a controversial joke the cricketing legend made at an event. He has since apologised.
GEOFFREY BOYCOTT picked up the phone at home in Boston Spa, resigned to the inevitable question. Was he in trouble?
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” he replied.
It was the interpretation put on something he said to VIPs at a £300-a-head hospitality event during last week’s test match against the West Indies at Edgbaston that had caught him out this time.
A knighthood? “I’d better black me face,” he had said, referring to the 11 West Indian cricketers with “Sir” before their names.
In contrast, the last English cricketer to be knighted for services to the sport had been Sir Alec Bedser, in 1996.
Boycott, who is known affectionately to many as Sir Geoffrey, had fielded the question during a Q&A session. An actual knighthood had been denied him twice, he lamented, though he has been made an OBE.
Reported by The Mirror, his remark caused predictable indignity. “We can do without dinosaurs like him spouting rubbish,” an unnamed source told the paper.
“I’m sorting it out,” the 76-yearold former Yorkshire captain told The Yorkshire Post.
Shortly afterwards, he tweeted: “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. I have loved West Indian cricket my whole life and have the utmost respect for its players.”
Twitter, often itself a cauldron of political correctness, appeared sympathetic.
“Anyone with a ounce of common sense understands,” wrote one user.
“Sadly, Geoffrey, Yorkshire straight talking does not fit in with today’s insane political correctness,” said another.
A third user told him: “The fact you feel the need to apologise shows how pathetic our society has become. God forbid anyone tries a joke these days.”
Boycott and controversy have always been close bedfellows. He was reported to have criticised the decision to award the entire England team MBEs after their first Ashes win since 1986.
“For 18 years, England haven’t won. Australia have been beating England every two years home or away,” he was quoted as saying. “Suddenly, when England win, all hell breaks loose. They all get gongs at the palace.”
Earlier this month, he celebrated the 40th anniversary of his “century of centuries” in front of his home crowd at Headingley.
He is due to appear today as a guest of Welcome To Yorkshire at York Racecourse’s Ebor Festival.
My answer was unacceptable. I meant no offence. Geoffrey Boycott on his comments at a hospitality event.
DAYS AFTER Geoffrey Boycott celebrated the 40th anniversary of his hundredth first class century with a charity fundraiser in aid of Yorkshire Air Ambulance, he is forced to apologise – and rightly so – for making perceived racist comments.
Though Mr Boycott’s forthrightness explains his popularity to many, he has to realise that such intemperate language – even off-the-cuff at an informal gathering during the first Test between England and the West Indies – is unacceptable in these enlightened times.
To insinuate that he has been overlooked for a knighthood because the honours system is, in his opinion, biased in favour of black players is not only insulting to those genuine greats, like Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards and Curtly Ambrose, who received such an accolade, but reveals a certain arrogance on the Yorkshireman’s part.
Not only has Mr Boycott foregone any lingering chance of a knighthood for his charitable endeavour, but it remains to be seen whether he will be welcome at Headingley for this week’s Test which was due to mark his greatest moment as a cricketer. If he now finds himself shunned by Yorkshire, and those media outlets that employ his services, he only has himself to blame for allowing such insensitive and idiotic language to besmirch his reputation in this way. After all, cricket will always be bigger than one player.