Former England legend Geoff Boycott has launched a scathing attack on ’Bazball’, England’s approach in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, saying if they are just here to entertain, they might as well be a professional circus.
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England have been admittedly trying to revolutionise Test cricket with their all-guns-blazing approach. Coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes have said multiple times on record that they are not driven by results, and they aim to play entertaining cricket that will attract the masses to the game.
They have won 11 of their last 14 Test matches with that approach, with their defeat loss against Australia at Edgbaston being just their third defeat under this regime.
The Ashes, however, is the pinnacle of English Test cricket. After a close defeat in the first Test match of the 2023 series, in Edgbaston, some of their decisions did not go down well with a part of the English cricket fraternity, Several former cricketers and pundits have felt that England have just been taking it too far.
On the Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club podcast, Boycott said that while he enjoyed the cricket on display in the first Ashes Test, England eventually lost sight of the main objective, which is to win, resulting in their defeat.
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“I enjoyed the cricket. It kept you on the edge of your seat. England were winning every session, but they didn’t win the match, and that should tell them something for the next Test.
“They lost sight of the fact that the object is to win, and then if you want to entertain, then yes, by all means. But why can’t you win and entertain? When you get ahead of yourself – and that’s what England did – they stopped thinking.”
Boycott added that the fans would prefer England to win, rather than lose while playing entertaining cricket: “If you’re going to just entertain, they might as well be a circus, that’s it. Go, be a professional circus around the world. If you ask people in England ‘do you want to win the Ashes, or do you want to entertain and lose?’, I know what the answer will be.”
England lost the first Ashes Test by two wickets with Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon sharing an unbeaten 54-run ninth-wicket partnership to take Australia home in a tense run-chase at Edgbaston.
Stokes has assured that England will continue with their aggressive approach and will keep coming hard at Australia despite the defeat in the first Test. The second match begins at Lord’s on June 28.
