Boycott's 246 — and a Test Off, June 1967

Boycott had made his Test debut in 1964 and was already England's incumbent opener. The 1967 home summer began with a three-Test series against India, a side considered the weakest in world cricket at the time.

England had won the toss and batted on a flat Headingley pitch. India's captain, Pataudi, set defensive fields from the start, encouraging the slow scoring that followed.

Boycott had walked out at his home ground with England 0 for 0. He was 25 years old, three years into his Test career, and had a reputation for caution that the Yorkshire crowd had begun to find tiresome. India, beaten 2-0 in the previous winter's series at home, were not a strong attack — Bishan Bedi was 21 and untested, Rusi Surti was the new ball partner of an off-cutter named Subrata Guha.

Boycott reached lunch on 25 from 88 balls. He went 45 minutes without scoring. He scored eight runs in the hour before tea. He reached 100 in six hours. The Headingley crowd — small to start, and shrinking — booed him to his hundred. Several Yorkshire members walked out demanding refunds. By stumps he was 106 not out, England 245 for 4.

Day two was different. Boycott batted with freedom for the first time, scoring 140 more runs in three and a half hours, including a six over long-on that drew the only sustained applause of his innings. He finished on 246 not out from 555 balls in 573 minutes — England's highest individual score against India at home. England declared on 550 for 4. India were bowled out twice for a six-wicket defeat.

The selectors met that evening. Boycott's first-day strike rate, the boos, and the public letters of complaint to The Times had all been read with concern. Doug Insole, the chairman of selectors, summoned Boycott to a meeting at Lord's and informed him he was being dropped for the second Test as 'a public reminder that we expect Test batsmen to play with intent'. The Yorkshire press was apoplectic. Boycott himself accepted the punishment publicly with unusual grace and returned to Yorkshire to score a Championship hundred against Northamptonshire the following Saturday.

“It was a grim-looking innings and I didn't need anybody to tell me that. But I had shown the character to stick with it.”

Boycott was recalled for the third Test at Edgbaston and made 25 and 46. He was never again dropped for slow scoring. The selectors' decision was widely criticised inside Yorkshire and became a long-running grievance in Boycott's own narrative of his career.