Controversial England batting legend Geoff Boycott made a grovelling apology on Tuesday for remarking he needed to "black up his face" to get a knighthood at an event last week. The 76-year-old astonished his audience with his comment during a question and answer session in one of the intervals at last week's first Test with the West Indies.

Boycott, who played a pivotal role in organising the 1982 England rebel tour of South Africa when sporting links had been cut with the rest of the world because of the apartheid regime, said knighthoods had been bestowed on West Indian cricketers like "confetti". "Mine's been turned down twice. I'd better black me face," Boycott is reported to have said according to a guest at the event cited by The Daily Mirror.

The guest at the event - which cost £300 ($385, 327 euros) to attend - said the remark though intended as a joke was "crass" and went down like a "lead balloon". However, Boycott - who has overcome throat cancer in 2002 to become a popular and outspoken pundit on BBC Radio's globally renowned Test Match Special - took to Twitter on Tuesday to unreservedly apologise.

"Speaking at an informal gathering I was asked a question and I realise my answer was unacceptable," he tweeted. "I meant no offence but what I said was clearly wrong and I apologise unreservedly.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017