No Indians in Geoffrey Boycott's Dream XI
Ex-England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott named his Dream XI cricket team which did not feature any of the Indian greats. Boycott said he did not pick Gavaskar in the side as batsmen from yesteryears like WG Grace and Jack Hobbs played under higher degree of challenges. "The Dream XI selected by the ICC's online readers insults...achievements of the greats," added Boycott.
Believe it or not. No Indians, not even the legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev or Sachin Tendulkar featured in England great Geoffrey Boycott's all-time best World XI.Speaking at a private function in Mumbai, when asked to pick his all-time best World XI, no Indian made the grade in Boycott's assessment."I can't pick Indians just to please you," Boycott told the audience. "I can't get in the team myself. Gavaskar was a wonderful player and friend. Can I pick him ahead of Grace and Hobbs? Grace's numbers would look rubbish with 30 something. But you can't compare with today where wickets are wonderfully prepared. Back then, pitches were full of stones. They would have to wait till 2 pm to make the pitch dry. Today they would get mad if they are given wet wickets," he explained. Having chosen legends WG Grace and Sir Jack Hobbs as his openers, Boycott went on to pick Sir Donald Bradman and West Indian George Headley. Many of Boycott's choices were those of yesteryears as the greater degree of challenges they faced than the batsmen of today. "George Headley may have played only 20 something games but they called him 'the black Bradman'. He played at a time when West Indies were not doing well," he said."You have to look at the relativity of the players of that era. Look at Bradman he was twice as good as me," he opined. Boycott brought two more West Indians Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Garfield Sobers in the mix. Both of these choices would probably tally with most of the experts."People pick players of today. We can't help ourselves with what we see. It's very easy to say long live the King, the King is dead. The kids growing up today may not have seen Tendulkar play. They may think was he really better than Kohli?," he said.