Page 3 Profile: Geoffrey Boycott, broadcaster and former cricketer

Geoffrey Boycott, broadcaster and former cricketer (Rex Features)

Who?

It’s an accolade Boycott has certainly earned: the outspoken cricketer captained both the Yorkshire and national teams before his retirement in 1986, and he scored a (then) record 22 Test centuries.

But for the past seven years, Boycott and his wife, Rachel, haven’t lived in his home county, instead dividing their time between Jersey and South Africa, and using a flat in Leeds on their occasional visits to the UK.

Jersey, you say...

“After my cancer of the tongue in 2002, once [it was] in remission we went to live in Jersey for my health, not tax reasons,” he told the Yorkshire Post, denying that he had done a Gérard Depardieu. But now Boycott is moving back to Yorkshire. The 72-year-old former batsman has bought Boston Hall, a £1.75m Georgian mansion in the picturesque village of Boston Spa. When he moves back to England in the summer, he will look to sell the Jersey property.

“While we love everything about the island, the scenery, the people and the way of life, the extra flying back and forth has been tiring and time consuming,” he said. “We want to be nearer to our daughter, Emma, who has just qualified as a lawyer, other family members, our friends and Yorkshire cricket.”

So he’s still involved in local cricket?

He was elected president of the county club last year, and his wife is said to be involved in its forthcoming 150th anniversary celebrations.

And now he has the perfect place to relax from his presidential duties?

He’s unlikely to be working too hard. He once put the phone down during a radio interview because he wanted to catch his favourite show, CSI.

His new home has six bedrooms, five receptions and a large terrace. It’s a world apart from the house where he grew up in Fitzwilliam, situated just a half hour’s drive away. A recent newspaper article claimed the millionaire’s old stomping ground had become a “haven for drug addicts, vandals and thieves”.