‘I gave him my number and never heard a word’: Boycott reveals Brook snubbed offer to help
London, Aug 29 (IANS) Former England captain Sir Geoffrey Boycott has revealed that star right-handed batter Harry Brook failed to get in touch with him after he offered to help him refine his concentration in Test match cricket, despite possessing the potential to rival legendary batters like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara.
“His uncle came to me last year and he said, ‘Would you have a word with him?’ Well, he asked me what I thought of him. I told him exactly this. He said, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ I said that much ability is rare, special.
“He said, ‘Would you have a word with him?’ I said, ‘It’s not for me to go to him. He might tell me to, you know, off,’ I said. But if he asked me, of course I’d help. Why would I not? I gave him my number and never heard a word,” Boycott said in a recent episode of ‘Geoffrey Boycott: An Extraordinary Innings’ podcast.
Brook is ranked the world’s number one Test batter, but has not managed a century in the format for over a year. “He’s not getting the best out of his talent. I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I’ve seen a lot of players.
“I haven’t seen anybody with the talent he’s got for a long time. Enormous talent. The timing, the shot playing, he’s tall, big reach, but his thinking is just unbelievable,” added Boycott, who played 108 Tests and 36 ODIs for England.
In the first Test against Pakistan at Headingley, Brook made 91, before making 15 in the ongoing game at Lord’s. “If he wants to carry on playing that way, he’ll have a decent career, but he has the ability, if he could think better, to be in the realms of Lara and Tendulkar. And, whoa, that’s a bit special. To be up in that stratosphere is huge.
“There ain’t many above them, except Bradman, and that’s special. But he plays one-day cricket to every ball. He doesn’t have a look at the ball, he has to bash the first ball. He’ll just keep getting caught at mid-off and mid-on and daft places,” added Boycott.
–IANS
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