Peter May vs Geoff Boycott

[sayon basak]

Who was the better English cricketer?

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Better English cricketer- May
Made English cricket better- May

 

[trundler]

Better English cricketer- May
Made English cricket better- May

This reads like a Dawood poem

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

This reads like a Dawood poem

Mayhap it is.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Boycott just..... Really close.

 

[Coronis]

May is definitely underrated. But then again so is Boycs.

Consistently quality every and against everyone, played for 18 years and had an amazing peak. (averaged 68.9 over 7 years in the 70’s)

 

[PlayerComparisons]

May is definitely underrated. But then again so is Boycs.

Consistently quality every and against everyone, played for 18 years and had an amazing peak. (averaged 68.9 over 7 years in the 70’s)

He missed a lot of games during those 18 years. It was effectively a 11 year career tbh.

 

[Coronis]

He missed a lot of games during those 18 years. It was effectively a 11 year career tbh.

So… still longer than May’s? Besides he literally played tests in 16 of those 18 years.

 

[trundler]

Two contradicting principles colliding here. Old timey HTBs like May are overrated but never vote for selfish match loser Boycott is a pretty good principle to abide by also. Tough.

 

[BazBall21]

Border's strike rate is 5 points higher than Boycott. That would probably be closer if they batted in the same position because you're going to face more tired deliveries when operating outside the top 3. Border didn't accelerate much with the tail too. Generally played the same way. Border faced stronger attacks across their careers though.

 

[Coronis]

Border's strike rate is 5 points higher than Boycott. That would probably be closer if they batted in the same position because you're going to face more tired deliveries when operating outside the top 3. Border didn't accelerate much with the tail too. Generally played the same way. Border faced stronger attacks across their careers though.

Why Border?

 

[BazBall21]

I think Border is a bit better, but that wasn't the point. He seems to get a free pass for being rigid whereas Boycott definitely doesn't.

 

[Coronis]

I think Border is a bit better, but that wasn't the point. He seems to get a free pass for being rigid whereas Boycott definitely doesn't.

Yeah I was just wondering why you brought this up in the Boycott vs May comparison

 

[BazBall21]

Yeah I was just wondering why you brought this up in the Boycott vs May comparison

It was just in response to Trundler's comment about Boycott

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Border is a bonafide ATG. Don’t think Boycott is quite at that level.

 

[sayon basak]

Border is a bonafide ATG. Don’t think Boycott is quite at that level.

Also gets extra points for being atg captain

 

[BazBall21]

Yeah Border is a bit better than Boycott. But I think if Boycott gets marked down for being rigid - it should probably be mentioned in Border's case too.

I'm personally not big on it, but can see arguments for and against.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Yeah I don’t personally have a problem with Boycotts strike rate since he batted up the order. I expect guys batting at 5 and 6 to be a bit quicker though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Two contradicting principles colliding here. Old timey HTBs like May are overrated but never vote for selfish match loser Boycott is a pretty good principle to abide by also. Tough.

May was probably a lot better than his raw numbers make him seem. Played in some of the most low scoring test matches on average for any great cricketer. The overall batting average for tests he played is only 26 which is ridiculously low :

Aggregate/overall records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com

stats.espncricinfo.com

IIRC, he usually gets a very sizeable adjustment to his average in most standardisation exercises I've seen. @Prince EWS to confirm.

 

[wpdavid]

So… still longer than May’s? Besides he literally played tests in 16 of those 18 years.

Quite so. There was a three year gap when he made himself unavailable from June 1974 to June 1977, but other than that Boycott didn't miss many tests. Any other significant gaps were probably when England didn't play an away series, or when we played ROW in the summer of 1970.