ENGLAND great Geoffrey Boycott has slammed recalled Test spinner Adil Rashid, labelling him a “spoilt brat” whose performances won’t be remembered in 10 years.

Despite declaring himself unavailable for red-ball county cricket at the start of year, Rashid has been picked in England’s Test squad for the series against India off the back of some impressive white ball form.

Unsurprisingly the call-up sparked criticism, with Michael Vaughan leading the chorus on Twitter and in his column for the UK Telegraph.
The former England captain’s comments drew the ire of Rashid, who told the BBC Vaughan’s “opinions do not matter to anybody,” and labelled said opinions “stupid.”

Once upon a time Rashid played under Vaughan at Yorkshire. His critique of the former England right-hander has angered fellow Yorkshireman Boycott, who has penned a column for the UK Telegraph titled “Adil Rashid is a spoilt brat - he should never had been handed a Test recall”.

“Michael Vaughan criticised him, so he hit out like a spoilt child saying Michael is stupid and nobody listens to him,” Boycott wrote. “Let me tell Adil that Vaughan will be remembered as one of the greatest England captains and an elegant, superb batsman. In 10 years nobody will remember Adil’s Test-match performances

“If he trashes me, like he trashed Vaughan, so be it but our cricketing public know which guys have played well for England and so far Rashid isn’t one of them.”

Boycott also took exception to Rashid’s treatment of Yorkshire. Having negotiated a white-ball only contract for the season, the spinner is now unavailable for the county’s Twenty20 side because of Test duty.

“It’s a crazy situation that we are employing him to play white-ball cricket and he can’t play that for us in important [T20 games] games because he is now playing red-ball cricket, which he has not wanted to play,” Yorshkire’s director of coaching Martyn Moxon said, while the club’s chief executive Mark Arthur issued a strong statement.

“We’re very surprised that England have called Adil up after not playing red-ball cricket this season,” Arthur said. “Neither has he expressed a desire to do so. I hope that England know what they’re doing to Adil and the county game.”

The 30-year-old described labelled Arthur’s comments as “disrespectful” and said he was reconsidering his future with Yorkshire.

“They might be disappointed for various reasons, but it would have been nice if the chief executive or head coach could have said, ‘Well done, congratulations on being selected, good on you’, as opposed to being angry and upset for not playing red-ball cricket for them, even though I told them I would not be doing so,” he said.

“If they treat me like they have done, don’t see any value in me and are disrespectful to me, I have to think about the future in terms of which county I play for.”

Boycott is not having a bar of it.

“It makes him look like a spoilt brat,” he wrote. “Not only has he put two fingers up to Yorkshire by not playing four-day cricket, Adil is now not available for Yorkshire’s Twenty20 matches. He still doesn’t get it that he won’t play for Yorkshire but will play for England and thinks Yorkshire should be thrilled for him.”

England begins its five Test series against India at Headingly on Wednesday.