London: A day after former England captain Alec Stewart ridiculed the ICC’s ‘Greatest Test team of all time’, former opener and now noted commentator Geoffrey Boycott said the selection of the team is fundamentally flawed.
“ICC’s best-ever Test team is fundamentally flawed and pays scant regard to the great players of the past,” wrote the former England captain.
“The greatest team of all time? You must be joking. It is so biased it has no credibility. It takes no account of the history of the game and the great players of the past. It insults their records and achievements,” Boycott added.
Flaying the idea behind the selection, the veteran Test cricketer said the choice has no understanding or knowledge of players from past generations.
The former batsman alleged that the selection was biased with most of the votes coming from the subcontinent.
“It has no understanding or knowledge of players from past generations. I bet the vast majority of the votes cast on the International Cricket Council’s website were from fans on the subcontinent,” Boycott mentioned in his column for Daily Telegraph.
Five of the eleven players featuring in the select team are from India and Pakistan which includes the likes Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Kapil Dev and Wasim Akram. “Apart for Donald Bradman, whose record is twice as good as most batsmen in the history, the rest are all players the current generation have seen play live. Just because you are dead doesn’t mean your record should be forgotten,” Boycott said. Emphasising on the likes of West Indian great George Headly and Englishman Jack Hobbs apart from Malcom Marshall and Australian Dennis Lillee, the former cricketer said the final eleven highlights the ignorance of the voter.
“More than 250,000 fans took part to select 11 great players. “Tell me, who can leave Malcolm Marshall and Dennis Lillee out of their team?” the former captain questioned. (PTI)