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Geoffrey Boycott had his reservations against touring the sub-continent. He was always vocal about them and that led to him being labelled borderline racist, elitist and a person with a colonial mindset.

Given the controversial nature of the man, it wasn't the most difficult of things to believe the charges leveled against him.

And in all that, somewhere, his story told in his own voice gets lost. In his autobio, he wrote at length about his misgivings towards touring India.

He begins the chapter on India by saying India is not his favorite country. As repulsive it sounds, he backs it with his own reasons, the first of which is the tendency of the country to end careers.

He lists several names including those of Roy Kilner, Gavin Stevens, Gordon Rorke whose careers and sometimes lives ended due to diseases they contracted on tours to the country.

The hosting capacities of the smaller cities wasn't anything close to what they're now and Boycott throws some light on them from his time on the 1984 tour. In Nagpur, the place where the English team stayed had beds that were 5 foot 3 inches

and the only light was provided by a small bulb that didn't provide enough light to read or write. In Jammu, beds were damp.

The conditions had their affect on the other members of the squad as well and there was little hope for sympathy or good mood in the camp.

He writes, "It is difficult to define illness when nobody is well. I felt increasingly sick but that was accepted as normal."

Things took a worse turn in Calcutta which is a story in itself, but reading Boycott's account is somewhat fascinating. Sometimes, we buy into media's version of events solely because the man at the centre of it is a controversial figure. And in doing that, obfuscate the reality.