Geoffrey Boycott: England bat like chumps

Geoffrey Boycott

Geoffrey Boycott has come down heavily on England batsmen after their inept batting performance for the second time in a row, calling them as “chumps” in his latest column for the Telegraph.

“It is quite clear why England are struggling in one-day cricket at the moment: they cannot play the turning ball. We are playing the world champions, India, and we bat like chumps.

“At Trent Bridge on Saturday, India had four spinners who bowled 30 overs and took six for 112 between them. It was not a raging turner, it just turned a little bit, and it was not the first time this had happened to England,” the 73-year-old wrote after India’s 6-wicket win at Trent Bridge in the 3rd ODI of the bilateral series against India.

Pitches in county cricket not conducive to spin

Comparing this generation of batsmen with his, Boycott said that batsmen those days had a good measure of playing spin bowling, as they grew up playing on uncovered pitches

Boycott said: “England play slow bowling well on flat pitches when it does not spin. It is a different ball game when the ball turns. Then they are creasebound and terrified to use their feet against the spinners.

“Over the last 20 years county pitches have been covered and they either help the seamers a little bit or they are just flat for batting with no encouragement for a spinner.”

Boycott, who has 8114 Test runs to his name, said that the modern pitches are not conducive to spin as compared to how decks in England were a couple of decades back.

“I grew up in an era where in every county the soil was different. We also had uncovered pitches so we learnt to play on a variety of surfaces. Many of the pitches turned in club cricket, they turned in second-team cricket and they often turned in county cricket so you were ready to experience spin at Test level.

“Nowadays the kids do not know what to do when it spins,” said the man with 108 Test caps for his country.

Flawed selection

Boycott sees England’s ploy to go in with three same type of medium pacers in Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes as a old fashioned approach and will be detrimental in the 2015 World Cup Down Under.

“How could England select Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes together? They are all exactly the same: they bowl at a similar pace and have no variations.

“We are still thinking in the old fashioned way from when I played, pack your batting and bowl fast medium line and length. That only works on seaming swinging pitches but the next World Cup is in Australia and New Zealand and will not have those types of pitches,” he said.

England need to accept constructive criticism

Echoing former players Graeme Swann and Michael Vaughan’s views on the need for attacking players, Boycott, who is known to be outspoken, felt that these are “constructive” criticisms.

“England need a fresh approach but they also need to be able to accept constructive criticism from ex-players like myself. They are guilty of selecting the ODI team on Test performances and central contracts, this is wrong thinking,” he pointed out.

He also advised Alastair Cook to take the criticism in the right way. Cook had responded to Graeme Swann’s remarks saying that he didn’t expect a so-called friend to call for his head in ODIs.

“What he should realise is Graeme is now paid to give his opinions in the media. He and other former players like myself are not there to fawn over England or be cheerleaders for the captain and his players. We all want England to play well and win but if we think they have not got it right are we supposed to say nothing?

Well that is not going to happen. People like Graeme Swann and Michael Vaughan can see the format of the team could be bettered and so can I. Take your heads from out of the sand and into the modern era of one day cricket or else there will be more bad days ahead,” Boycott signed off.