Geoff Boycott: Why I wish I'd gone to college (VIDEO)

While receiving an honorary doctorate in sports science from Leeds Metropolitan University, Boycott talked about the trials in his own life. Click the screen above to watch a video interview.

The Yorkshire-born sportsman said he would have liked a university career but was unable to do so because of financial restraints and also said recovering from cancer of the tongue had taught him to keep fighting.

He said: "There have been tough times but you have got to keep fighting, life will not always be plain sailing."

He said he had so far had a "pretty interesting life", and added: "The kids who got their diplomas today, they will have been working very hard for three years or more, and they are probably going to go into life looking for jobs thinking that they've done all the hard work, and everything will go plain sailing for them, and it can't - life's not like that.

"But you've got to give it a go. It's what you do about adversity that counts."

Boycott, who grew up in Fitzwilliam, near Pontefract, was a leading light in English cricket for a quarter of a century - making 48,000 runs and scoring 151 first class hundreds in his career with Yorkshire and England.

He said he was "thrilled to bits" about the degree and added: "I love cricket and it's an honour to be given this award for doing something that I love."

He told the graduates: "I hope you young people will enjoy your chosen profession as much as I've enjoyed cricket."

Boycott ended his playing career in 1986, being recognised by the Queen for his services to cricket with an OBE, and went on to be a commentator.

Last year he was inducted into the International Cricket Council's first Hall of Fame, receiving his cap at the Headingley test match in August.