James Taylor to retire from cricket

Desperate misfortune for the man who never gave up

The enforced retirement at the age of just 26 of England and Nottinghamshire batsman James Taylor is a sobering tragedy, made all the more difficult by its awful timing.

For arguably at no other point in his painfully short but sparkling career has Taylor been in a better place. After years of being, to some extent unfairly, overlooked by England’s selectors, he was now not just a crucial component of the most exciting England team in a decade, but an indispensable part of that team’s potentially glorious future.

It is the cruellest twist of fate that this young man, so hard-working and driven, has been forced to walk away from the game he loved at just the time when things were starting to go his way.

Of course, the only important thing at present is Taylor’s health, and one wishes him nothing but the best for the operation he will undergo in the coming days for his rare heart condition, and for the long recovery that will follow. Let us hope that this challenge will be made just that tiny bit easier by the support he will unconditionally receive from the cricketing community in this country and beyond.

Though his career has been brought to a wretchedly premature conclusion, his story is one that should inspire others, and hope for his future can be taken from the fact that few have displayed the degree of fortitude, resolve and perseverance that Taylor has.

Having made his debut for Leicestershire aged just 18 in 2008, Taylor enjoyed four fruitful seasons at Grace Road before following the well-worn path to Trent Bridge and Nottinghamshire.

There, he only embellished his growing reputation and earned a call-up to the England Test side, making two appearances against South Africa in August 2012.

He made just 48 runs in three innings, however, and was dropped, with Kevin Pietersen telling England head coach Andy Flower that Taylor was not good enough to play Test cricket.

In response, Taylor did what he always did: knuckled down and endeavoured to work harder. He amassed 1,917 runs in the County Championship over the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and helped Nottinghamshire to win the Yorkshire Bank 40 in 2013 with 585 runs at an average of 73.

This success, combined with 444 runs in just seven innings in the Royal London One-Day Cup the following year, earned him a recall to the England one-day side, and he proved his worth with two half-centuries in Sri Lanka in December 2014.

He would go on to make 56 not out and 82 against India the following month, and a thoroughly impressive unbeaten 98 against Australia in the World Cup in February. The elusive maiden hundred finally arrived at Manchester in September 2015, and he finished his ODI career with an impressive average of 42.23.

His first innings back in Test cricket after over three years away is perhaps the one that best indicated what might have been for a batsman who was always easy on the eye. Against Pakistan in Sharjah in November last year he made a classy 76, confirming that his reputation for being a terrific player of spin was not misplaced.

That ability would have made him central to any hopes England have of winning in India and Bangladesh next winter, and thus a crucial component of their overall drive to re-establish themselves as the best team in the world. His 70 and 42 against South Africa at Durban over Christmas only served to show he can prosper on quicker surfaces as well.

His value for England was even further underlined by his magnificent work at short-leg; his catches off the full-face of Hashim Amla and Dane Vilas’ bats helped turn Stuart Broad’s spell in Johannesburg into a match-winning one. It is likely that the 5’6’’ man known as ‘Titch’ would have spent many successful years unnerving batsmen from under the lid.

It was not, though, to be for James Taylor. In the cruellest of fashions the game he so thrived at has been ripped from him, and England has been deprived of one of its most popular and talented rising stars.

He could have become a central pillar of England’s middle-order over the next decade, and may well have proved a more than able deputy for Joe Root when Alastair Cook eventually hangs up his boots.

Instead, his story will always be one of heartbreak and appalling misfortune, but it must not be forgotten that, more than anyone else in recent years, James Taylor proved what could be accomplished through hard work, determination and perseverance.

He had nothing handed to him on a plate; indeed, at times it seemed as though England’s selectors were deliberately pulling the plate from under his nose. But he never gave up, and for that he should be celebrated and remembered, as much as for his unquestionable natural talent and his friendly persona.

He now faces the greatest battle of his life, and in this challenge the entire cricketing community wishes him all the very best.

Words by Matthew Lavender