Sir Geoffrey Boycott, who played with Parkinson at Barnsley Cricket Club in the 1950s, and who three times appeared on his famous chat show, cut a poignant figure in the pavilion at York as Yorkshire played Hampshire in the One-Day Cup.

“I knew it was coming because his son, Michael junior, rang me,” said Boycott. “I knew he was deteriorating, and it’s very sad news.”

Boycott, 82, first met Parkinson as a teenager.

Sir Michael Parkinson, right, at a lunch to celebrate the birthday of his good friend and Cricket Umpire Legend Dickie Bird at Headingley Stadium in April (Picture: Simon Hulme).

“I was 15 years old,” he recalled. “I was taken from Ackworth Cricket Club to Barnsley, where Dickie Bird was the star batsman, getting 50 every Saturday.

“Michael played in the first team. One year, they dropped me for him and he went and got a hundred against Harrogate. He was a good player.”

As their respective careers went in different directions, Parkinson, Boycott and Bird himself, all would become household names.

Parkinson did not play first-class cricket like Bird, later to become a legendary umpire, let alone rise to the heights achieved by Boycott, scorer of 48,426 first-class runs and 151 hundreds.

File photo dated 1974 of television interviewer Sir Michael Parkinson, at a Variety Club lunch at the Dorchester Hotel in London, as he has died at the age of 88. (Picture: PA/PA Wire)

But his broadcasting career was second to none - Parkinson was also a terrific writer - with everyone who was anyone appearing on his show.

“I think he was the best interviewer on television because he liked people,” said Boycott.

“He actually listened to what they said.

“When Michael asked a question, he actually listened to the person’s answer. He warmed to people, and they warmed to him.”

Yorkshire players line up for a minute's silence at York on August 17, 2023, to remember Sir Michael Parkinson who has died (Picture: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com)

As Boycott looked out on the cricket in front of him, as keenly as ever after all these years, he warmed to the topic.

Silence is golden, as the old saying goes, one rarely heeded by today's interviewers.

“Many of the modern-day interviewers, they interrupt,” said Boycott.

“They make themselves the star of the interview.

“Michael was different. He once said to me that the star of the Parkinson show was not him, but the person he was interviewing.

“He said that he wanted people to remember the interviewee, not the other way round.”

Boycott never lost his admiration for Parkinson the man.

“He never lost his Yorkshireness, his sense of humour, his sense of honesty,” he added.

“He grew up like all of us in a mining community and will be sorely missed.”

Prior to Thursday’s match at Clifton Park, there was a minute’ silence in memory of Parkinson, who died on Wednesday night, aged 88, after a short illness.

The players, coaches and match officials lined up in front of the pavilion to honour a man with lifelong connections to the sport and to Yorkshire cricket; Parkinson was previously president of Scarborough CC.

Darren Gough, the Yorkshire managing director of cricket, paid tribute on the club’s behalf.

“He was a Barnsley boy, like myself, and it was an absolute pleasure to know him and his family,” said Gough.

“We are all devastated here at Yorkshire, and the thoughts of everyone at the club are with Sir Michael’s family and friends at this sad time.”

Sir Michael Parkinson: Geoffrey Boycott and Yorkshire CCC pay glowing tribute to lifelong supporter