Cricket Legend Sir Geoffrey Boycott has paid tribute to Sir Michael Parkinson and praised the “best chat show host” who was the “soul of Yorkshire”
He told GB News: “I met him at Barnsley Cricket Club when I was 15 years of age and he was a pretty good player.
“Michael went onto better things, he went on to writing. His writing was stories about Yorkshire – about Barnsley Cricket Club, about Yorkshire Cricket Club, and about the people in the mining community.
“Most of the stories came from his father and Michael was clever enough to embellish them with great humour.
“He then went onto TV and he was the best chat show host because he listened to people. He not only asked questions but he listened to them and he actually liked them.
“In fact, he didn’t want them on his show unless he wanted to have them.”
“He never lost his Yorkshire roots. Michael was Yorkshire in every way and he was the soul of Yorkshire. He understood how we think, how we talk and that’s why he was able to write about Yorkshire people like me.”
Sir Geoffrey described his friend as “a good cricketer” and said “you could laugh with him.”
“I used to stay with him on the Saturday nights of a Lords test match, because in the early days, we had a rest day on Sunday.
“And I seemed to be the only northerner playing and so the lads in the team who lived in Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Sussex, all went home.
“I would be on my own, so he came to the cricket on a Saturday with Mary, then he would take me home for dinner.
“Sunday mornings, we’d go cricket coaching in the fields with his kids.
“He was just a lovely man. He loved cricket, he loved laughter – he would laugh about himself with the emu.
“He never lost his humour, his warmth, his Yorkshire in him that made him great.”
