Geoffrey Boycott vs Alistair Cook

[Agricultural]

Who was the better test match batsman? Geoffrey Boycott or Alistair Cook

 

[Borges]

Boycott.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Cook because he seems a better bloke and isn't a selfish ****.

 

[trundler]

Cook didn't get dropped for being a selfish prick right after scoring his highest score. Also never had to be run out intentionally.

 

[harsh.ag]

Boycott

 

[Agricultural]

Cook didn't get dropped for being a selfish prick right after scoring his highest score. Also never had to be run out intentionally.

Cricket was different then. Cook cost Pietersen his career. Don't bring politics into it. This is about their batting.

 

[Slifer]

Boycott. And that's solely based on him doing pretty decently at the end of his career in 2 series vs the 4 horse men

 

[trundler]

Peak Boycott and Cook batting (read blocking) in tandem would be pretty awesome. Wouldn't wish that on any bowler

 

[Burner]

Peak Boycott and Cook batting (read blocking) in tandem would be pretty awesome. Wouldn't wish that on any bowler

Nor any spectator.

 

[Agricultural]

Peak Boycott and Cook batting (read blocking) in tandem would be pretty awesome. Wouldn't wish that on any bowler

Gavaskar and Boycott would be the best.

 

[trundler]

Well arguably Gavaskar and Hutton more so but yeah

 

[Howe_zat]

Cook cost Pietersen his career.

What a piece of bullshit this is.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/c...n-of-Kevin-Pietersen-ahead-of-India-tour.html

Cook was a driving force behind the “reconciliation” process which ended last week with Pietersen being added to the squad for the eight-week tour to India.

He disagreed with Andrew Strauss’s comments earlier this week that there remains a “tough” and “difficult” road ahead for England and Pietersen, but at the same time acknowledged the importance of cohesion and togetherness over the course of the next 18 months which includes this India tour and two Ashes series.

It is not a bad situation, as far as Cook is concerned, for Pietersen to be aware that it is the new captain who wanted to find common ground. Having fallen out so spectacularly with Strauss, Pietersen cannot afford a repeat with Cook. Such an outcome would spell the end.

Cook met Pietersen last week and senses this is a new start, even if the beginning will be delayed by a few days. Pietersen has been freed to play for his Indian Premier League franchise, the Delhi Daredevils, in the Twenty20 Champions League which ends on Sunday, the day England transfer from their training camp in Dubai to Mumbai.

“It has been a tough couple of months with Kevin but he is very contrite and desperate to be back playing and doing what he does best, score runs for England,” said Cook at Lord’s on Wednesday afternoon. “As a captain that is all I want. I want him to come back in the side and score match-winning runs like he has in the past.

Over time, Pietersen burned his bridges with everyone who had been on his side.

 

[fredfertang]

What a piece of bullshit this is.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/c...n-of-Kevin-Pietersen-ahead-of-India-tour.html



Over time, Pietersen burned his bridges with everyone who had been on his side.

Indeed - Pietersen cost Pietersen his career, and only the fag end of it anyway

 

[ankitj]

Boycott has for some reason and probably unfairly stuck in my head as a caricature batsman. Gooch comes to my mind before Boycott among fine English opening batsmen.

 

[Tom Flint]

Didn't boycott just refuse to play for 3 years because he didn't get the captaincy? Then another 2 years after the rebel tour. So missed out on 5 peak years where he probably would have got up to 13000 + ??

 

[fredfertang]

Didn't boycott just refuse to play for 3 years because he didn't get the captaincy? Then another 2 years after the rebel tour. So missed out on 5 peak years where he probably would have got up to 13000 + ??

Yes - the great shame about the first three years is we don't know how he'd have got on against Lillee and Thomson and the 1976 West Indians. He was 42 by the time he got the two year ban but his county form was such that there were still those who advocated his return when the ban ended - and Cook is 33 - he'll be a long time retired!

 

[Slifer]

Yes - the great shame about the first three years is we don't know how he'd have got on against Lillee and Thomson and the 1976 West Indians. He was 42 by the time he got the two year ban but his county form was such that there were still those who advocated his return when the ban ended - and Cook is 33 - he'll be a long time retired!

Still did well imo vs the wi home and away (in the early 80s) and this too vs the 4 horsemen

 

[fredfertang]

Indeed he did - I've never subscribed to the theory he was ducking the fast bowlers - as you say he stood up to the WIndies in 1980 and 81, and like everyone else in '74 he thought Lillee had been finished by injury and had never heard of Thommo

 

[wpdavid]

Indeed he did - I've never subscribed to the theory he was ducking the fast bowlers - as you say he stood up to the WIndies in 1980 and 81, and like everyone else in '74 he thought Lillee had been finished by injury and had never heard of Thommo

Dead right. His unavailability was initially due to not wanting to play under Denness. And I gather he thought that constantly being available for a declining Yorkshire team made it likelier that he'd remain captain of them. Perhaps other factors were at play when he refused to play under Greig too. Maybe a smidgen of self-doubt after 3 years away from test cricket, and he was approaching 40 even then.

Maybe the oddest thing was that he made himself available under Brearley's captaincy, who was palpably no more a test cricketer than Denness had been.

 

[Agricultural]

What a piece of bullshit this is.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/c...n-of-Kevin-Pietersen-ahead-of-India-tour.html



Over time, Pietersen burned his bridges with everyone who had been on his side.

You're entitled to your opinion. Cook wasn't prepared to break up the high school cliques in the side. He sided with the bully boys. Pietersen had (has) flaws like everyone else. That team was rotten to the core. Others did worse than Pietersen. He was scapegoated. Alec Stewart's opinion on Pietersen turned on it's head over time (From siding strongly against Pietersen to siding for him) which speaks volumes in my book. Stewart is a grounded character. Cook's a nice bloke. But he made a mistake on Pietersen. No one is perfect. The point of the thread wasn't to have a blazing row about Pietersen. Let's not go down that route. It was meant to be a light-hearted fun.