Geoffrey Boycott made a huge statement as he criticized the England team for their underwhelming performance in recent days. His comments have come after England’s T20 World Cup 2024 title.
Geoffrey Boycott Critics on England’s Test Players
The England Men’s Cricket team has faced a challenging few months. Under the leadership of Jos Buttler, they struggled at the ODI World Cup in India as they completed in 7th position with only three wins out of nine matches.
During the Test series against India earlier this year, Ben Stokes-led England failed as they suffered a 4-1 series defeat despite adopting their aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach.
The T20 World Cup 2024 also proved disappointing for the side, as they suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of India in the semi-finals. On this occasion, former cricketer Geoffrey Boycott has sharply criticized the England team for their underwhelming performance.
The 83-year-old English batting great, saying ‘moderate to average’ as England Test players gained experience from their participation in the IPL despite their mediocre performances. He further aimed to examine England’s approach to Test cricket.
“All we have had over the last few months is the Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean, where England performed poorly, the Indian Premier League, which helped a few of our moderate to average Test players get rich,” said Boycott.
“Before that, a miserable 4-1 Test series loss in India where England started well, but in the end were hammered. In India last winter, ego, and hubris got the better of some of our players. They came out with comments about being entertainers and how it was important to score quickly and thrill the crowds. All that is laudable but they should never lose sight that there is a winner and a loser and losing isn’t much fun,” Boycott added about the series.
Boycott criticized Stokes and his team for continuously adapting an aggressive strategy that failed during the series against India. England faced severe criticism for neglecting match conditions which ultimately cost the series.
Boycott stated that if the players aren’t concerned with outcomes, they might as well “join the circus.”
“Test match cricket is not an exhibition. If our players start to think that results don’t matter then they might as well join a circus or go around the world like the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team doing tricks, laughing and joking, and not bothering who wins so long as everyone has fun time,” wrote Boycott.
England is currently playing in the first test against West Indies on home tour. England has the upper hand in the match after Gus Atkinson picked a seven-wicket haul in the first innings restricting the visitors to 121. Zak Crawley, Jamie Smith, Joe Root, Ollie Pope, and Harry Brook were the scorers for England in the first innings putting a total score of 371 runs in their first innings.
By the end of day 02, the West Indies have lost six wickets in their second innings scoring only 76 runs, and trails England by 171 runs at Lord’s.
