Geoff Boycott's Career End — 1982 Rebel Tour Ban

Boycott was 41, with 8,000+ Test runs and a record number of overs faced; he had been on the 1981-82 India tour.

He left the India tour citing illness and reappeared with the SAB rebel squad in Johannesburg.

Boycott was finishing England's 1981-82 tour of India when he flew home, citing illness, and reappeared days later in Johannesburg with the rebel squad. The TCCB, which had already privately criticised his behaviour on the India tour, imposed the standard three-year ban. By the time the ban expired in 1985, Boycott was 44, his form had declined and he was not selected. He retired from Test cricket without playing again. He finished with 8,114 Test runs at 47.72 — at the time among the top run-scorers in Test history — but the rebel tour took the late three years of what would otherwise have been a longer career. Boycott himself was unrepentant: 'A man has the right to earn a living', he said in 1982. He returned to Yorkshire and played first-class cricket until 1986, but the SAB ban is the effective end of his international career.

“A man has the right to earn a living.”

“I do not regret what I did. I regret what came after.”

Boycott moved into broadcasting and became one of the most recognisable cricket commentators in the world.