Four months after being left out of Test Match Special as a commentator, Geoffrey Boycott has criticised BBC for choosing ‘equality over quality’ and focusing only on ‘political correctness, gender and race’.

In June, Boycott was left out of Test Match Special after 14 years, with the decision attributed to concerns around the health of the 80-year-old, who has had quadruple heart bypass, at a time of pandemic.

“I would have loved to continue but I need to be realistic,” Boycott had said, thanking BBC TMS and BBC Sport “for a wonderful 14 years”.

Now, in an interview with Daily Telegraph published to mark his birthday on 21 October, Boycott said the BBC ‘is not run particularly well’.

“They have sacrificed quality for equality. It is now all about political correctness, about gender and race. When you work for them you are wary and frightened of saying anything.

“It is a minefield out there and that is sad.”

Boycott also accused BBC Radio 4 of ‘setting him up’ in interview with the station in September 2019, which he feels turned from talking about his knighthood to the controversial incident of 1998, where he was accused of landing 20 punches on his then-girlfriend Margaret Moore.

In June, Boycott was heavily criticised by Lisa Sthalekar for his remark that “former men’s international cricketers should be the only ‘expert commentators'”.

“He is actually dissing the industry he has been a part of for a long period of time,” Sthalekar had said. “It’s time for him to leave the game and let’s remember him as a great cricketer of a certain generation. Talk about power – I didn’t see much power that he displayed.”