Lives in Cricket No 52 - Schooled in Cricket (2nd edition)

194 1984] a personal friend, coach and private tutor. I went to him for advice and guidance long after I began playing for Yorkshire and England. He knows my game inside out and would quickly spot any creeping errors, which I probably could not pinpoint myself. Our coaching sessions together always had a purpose. There was never the air of a knockabout or half an hour to kill. Before I went on tour overseas, for instance, we would roll up the matting, polish the floorboards and practise on that. Naturally the ball did not turn much but it did bounce more and hurry through – the sort of conditions I was likely to encounter abroad. It was no coincidence that I often made big scores in the early tour matches: I was as well prepared as I could be. “I usually tried to stay in the net for about forty-five minutes, half an hour longer than most batsmen would stick at the county nets. There was a reason for this beyond some so-called gluttony for practice: it was a conscious effort to make myself concentrate for long periods of time in circumstances as close to the real thing as I could make them. Concentration does begin to wander in the nets after 15 minutes or so – batsmen get sloppy and begin to play shots that would be fatal in the middle. I wanted to push my mental capacity that bit further and concentrate as hard on the last delivery of a practice session as I did on the first. For the same reason I insisted on three or four bowlers at the most, instead of a string who would come at you in rotation and give you no time to settle and think properly. I would not be rushed. Every ball had to be treated with respect and seriousness or the whole exercise was pointless. Batting that much longer also gets the hands used to gripping the bat for long periods. Big scores are not made in five minutes. “The legend has grown that I am some sort of masochist, a workaholic who selfishly hogged the nets and drove saner people to distraction with my neurotic desire for practice. I love playing cricket and I make no apology for that. I enjoy practice and think that any professional worth a light should take it seriously. Larking about in the nets is dangerous, a waste of time and an insult to the people who Johnny’s most famous protege – Geoffrey Boycott Speaks