Open or Closed?
- awalker187
- Nov 7
- 7 min read
Geoffrey Boycott was a cricketer who played 108 test matches (the five day game) for England from 1962 to 1986.
By the end of his England career he’d amassed a record number of runs for an England player.
He was England's opening batsmen - possibly the hardest role in cricket.
His job was to be the anchor of the team, making sure that the team got a good start by facing fresh bowlers and the new ball, with the aim of staying at bat for as long as possible.
Boycott had staying power.
Of the top 50 batsmen who have faced the most balls in test match cricket history he ranks second in the number of balls faced per innings.
That sort of staying power was driven by playing extraordinarily defensively.
Within that same group of record breaking batsmen he had the 3rd slowest strike rate, only scoring a run once every two and a half balls.
England have always been one of the top teams in cricket, and as a dominant team they couldn’t approach all matches in a purely defensive way, sometimes they had to make a switch to attack.
But Boycott had no other way of batting.
He was completely belligerent about playing his way and his way only.
And because of his complete self-focus he was frequently the common denominator in some of cricket’s most toxic teams.
Don Wilson, a long-time team-mate, said: "The trouble was that if he hadn't scored a hundred, he really couldn't give a damn. There were times when we were like a yacht without a rudder because he was thinking about his own game. There was a terrible atmosphere in the dressing-room."
He was totally focused on his own sustained defensive batting and staying in at all costs, even when it was the totally wrong thing to do.
Another England player, Ian Botham, described him as being, “totally, almost insanely, selfish”.
The Run Out
In 1978 England were playing New Zealand and Boycott was making one of his three appearances as the temporary England captain.
He’s just come back to the team after a three-year self-imposed exile when he was not given the captaincy,
The first match of the three game series had been a disaster.
In that game Boycott batted for a seemingly endless seven hours and twenty two minutes to make 77.
John Woodcock wrote in the Times, "The effect this has is to depress the other batsmen infinitely more than the opposing bowlers. Boycott is an institution rather than an inspiration."
His glacial-paced batting killed the momentum and led to England’s first defeat by New Zealand in 46 years.
By the time the team reached the second test, "the players were making no secret of their dislike of him," wrote Don Mosey, in his book Boycott.
But in this game England were back in charge, with a good lead by the fourth day.
To have a chance of winning the game without time running out England had to make some quick runs and leave enough time to have a chance at bowling out the New Zealand team.
But Boycott wasn't going to adjust his playing style for any reason.
According to Leo McKinstry’s book, A Cricketing Hero, the other opening batsman that day asked him, "I suppose we're going to go out and slog it?", and Boycott replied: "You play it your way, I'll play it mine."
So time crawled painfully by.
The vice captain Bob Willis knew something had to change.
If Boycott wouldn’t change his style, then the best option was to force him out of the game.
So he switched the batting order, sending in Ian Botham as the fourth batter.
Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham was the very opposite type of player to Boycott.
He was a flamboyant young striker of the ball and completely attack minded.
And as he sent Botham out Willis gave him the order to to "go and run the bugger out".
Just a few minutes later Botham hit a poor shot and ran down the pitch forcing Boycott into an unwinnable race to the other end to save his innings.
"He never stood a chance," admitted Botham.
"What have you done, what have you done," Boycott muttered as it dawned on him he was out “you’ve ruined my average.”.
Botham's response was "I've run you out, you c**t"
With Boycott out of the game, England switched to the attack and won the game.
Open & Closed Mindsets
There are two mindsets that determine how receptive you are to alternative views and external information.
People with an Open Mindset seek new ideas, adapt to different perspectives and accept change.
These people are always curious, ask for feedback and soak up new insights without bias.
“Keep your mind open to change all the time. Welcome it. Court it. It is only by examining and reexamining your opinions and ideas that you can progress.” - Dale Carnegie
People with a Closed Mindset resist new ideas and change.
These people are primarily concerned about being right and being seen as being right, they dismiss feedback that counters their existing views, and they become defensive when challenged.
"Boycott was certainly aware of his image as a leading Test cricketer, and could be absurdly jealous of any slight on his reputation as a batsman. Rodney Cass [another professional cricketer] was coaching school while Boycott was coaching at a neighbouring college. 'We had a match between our schools and at the end of the game, all these kids were gathered around Geoff, wanting autographs. He was signing away and talking and I said to him: 'What do you think of my No. 3, not a bad little player, is he?' And with 200 kids listening, he replied, 'Ay, he's a good player him, all right.' I said, 'I think he plays the on-drive as well as anybody I've ever seen.' And Geoff exploded: 'He doesn't play it as good as me.' And he meant it."
“Over time, the person who approaches life with an openness to being wrong and a willingness to learn outperforms the person who doesn’t.” - Shane Parish
Open Mindset | Closed Mindset |
Seek the truth | Seek to be right |
Hunger for other perspectives | Defend against other’s perspectives |
Know they can learn more | Presume they know enough |
Objective about themselves | Emotionally attached to their knowledge |
Humility | Validation of ego |
Changing Minds
Open and Closed Mindsets can be measured.
In 2016 the psychology professor Jonas Kaplan and his team at the University of Southern California used a functional MRI scanner to measure brain activity and see how people reacted to challenges to their existing views.
First they tested people at their most open minded, by asking questions about things they had no strong views on.
They would make an initial statement like, “Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb,” and measured if the participants agreed.
Then they’d present evidence that countered that claim such as, “Edison might have patented the lightbulb, but there were earlier examples of others who had created forms of lighting via electricity long before Edison made the incandescent”.
When presented with this information the participants were open to reassessing their view on the opening statement when they were measured again.
This worked even when the statement, like in this case, was actually untrue and purposely misleading.
“We found that [the participants] almost always saw the other side as a revelation, and not an insult to their intelligence,” said Kaplan.
Then, in the same format, the researchers asked a series of questions about political views and that’s where people started acting closed-minded.
Now people were unwilling to consider counter points.
“With the political portion of the study, we saw lots of activity in the amygdala and insular cortex. These are the parts of the brain heavily associated with emotion, feelings, and ego,” Kaplan says. “Identity is inherently political, so when people feel like their identity is being attacked or challenged, they seize up.”
And their views barely changed.
Having an Open Mindset is essential, as the study argued in the introduction:
“Few things are as fundamental to human progress as our ability to arrive at a shared understanding of the world. The advancement of science depends on this, as does the accumulation of cultural knowledge in general. Every collaboration, whether in the solitude of a marriage or in a formal alliance between nations, requires that the beliefs of those involved remain open to mutual influence through conversation. Data on any topic—from climate science to epidemiology—must first be successfully communicated and believed before it can inform personal behavior or public policy. Viewed in this light, the inability to change another person’s mind through evidence and argument, or to have one’s own mind changed in turn, stands out as a problem of great societal importance. Both human knowledge and human cooperation depend upon such feats of cognitive and emotional flexibility.”
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” - George Bernard Shaw
The Close
Geoffrey Boycott had a Closed Mindset.
He did not listen to new ideas and he hated being challenged.
There are three primary goals that drive people: improvement, performing at a high level and avoiding poor performance.
The latter two goals are performance goals, they are measured by how the person performs compared to other people or a benchmark.
Closed minded people are usually driven by a performance goal.
Boycott thought like this,.
He was obsessed by his individual scoring records, not on the success of the team or his own mastery of the sport.
And although he had all the talent and drive in the world, his mindset ultimately limited his impact on the game and the success of the teams he played for.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.” - Frank Zappa
The Open/Closed Mindset is linked to, but different from the Fixed/Growth Mindset which is the belief in your capacity to develop your fundamental abilities.
Jake Kivanç, “How Hard Is It to Change a Mind?”, Vice (2017)
Steven Lynch, “The paradox of Sir Geoffrey”, ESPN Cricinfo (2008)
Martin Williamson, “'I've run you out, you ****'” ESPN Cricinfo (2013)
“Geoffrey Boycott run out (Ian Botham) 26 New Zealand v England Christchurch February 28 1978”, YouTube (2022)
