Happy 40th anniversary, Mr Boycott

By Scott Heinrich

For Geoffrey Boycott, life has begun all over again - 40 years after he made his Test debut.

A SINGULAR INDIVIDUAL Tests: 108 Runs: 8,114 at 47.73 100s: 22; 50s: 42 Boycott's career in pictures

Friday marked the anniversary of Boycott's first appearance for England, the opening Test of the 1964 Ashes series against Australia.

Boycott has fought it all since his retirement from cricket 18 years ago - peer and media criticism, a bitter court battle with an ex-girlfriend, and throat cancer.

The man renowned for his stubborness has ground the life-threatening disease into remission and revived his career as a forthright commentator.

But back at Trent Bridge on a murky morning all those years ago, the opening batsman was applying his straight bat to a different kind of challenge.

"It was an uncovered pitch and there was a bit in it for the seam bowlers," Boycott, who was 23 at the time, told BBC Sport.

"I'm not saying you should put people in, but it was a sporting pitch and a good morning to bowl."

In batting first, England captain Ted Dexter unleashed on the Aussie attack - and the watching world - a player that would go on to be an English great.

He scored the first 48 of 8,114 career runs in the first innings of that drawn Test, fracturing a finger in the process - "they had a strapping, Aussie Rules-playing six-footer open the bowling" - and not batting in the second dig.

Boycott went to the extent that he would give you the idea he was playing for himself and not the team Grahame Corling

"We only got an hour's play before the rain came and when we came back the pitch was a handful, very difficult," the Yorkshireman adds.

"The next day the ball kept on stopping and doing things, and I was out edging Grahame Corling to Bobby Simpson, who took a brilliant catch in second slip."

Boycott may be headstrong, but he had the flexibility to change his technique after Simpson and Corling combined to remove him again in his next two knocks.

"I had to. I mean, here was a guy who had bowled to me three times and got me out three times," Boycott recalls.

"I didn't need it spelling out to me that if I didn't put a stop to this I would have a very short Test career."

And what exactly did he put a stop to? "That's a trade secret," Boycott replies.

Corling, who also debuted at Trent Bridge and unwittingly did a lot to shape Boycott's career, is more forthcoming.

"Geoff was always looking to play over the top of the ball and work it through slips," Corling says.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer Boycott's autobiography intro

"I got him on our debut and then twice at Headingley, and he noticeably changed the way he batted. Thereafter I didn't get him at all.

"Before the series I didn't know much about Geoff. He soon struck me as a player who wanted to get a score, even to the extent that he would give you the idea he was playing for himself.

"But he went on to have a fantastic career. I would loved to have had half of it."

Boycott's calculated tinkering reaped rewards, with his first Test century coming in the fifth Test at The Oval, ironically Corling's last. Boycott was on his way.

"I didn't have an idea then how my career would turn out but I solved the puzzle because I had to," Boycott says.

"There are a lot of facets who make up somebody, but I was someone who was dedicated and single-minded about things.

"My strongest asset was mental strength in adversity, and I think that's what helped me a lot with my cancer."

At the crease, Boycott milked everything for what it was worth: his own ability and the weaknesses of his rivals. A lot has happened to him since 4 June, 1964, but some things never change.

"I get on with my life as best I can. When you've been through something like cancer, you want to get the most out of every new day."