Birthday special: Brendan Taylor – One of Zimbabwe’s best who walked a wrong path

Brendan Taylor is arguably one of the best players to have represented Zimbabwe in international cricket. He has made stellar contributions in his illustrious career spanning nearly two decades. Taylor was often compared with his countryman as well as one of the legends of the game Andy Flower due to his style of play along with his ability to make a tremendous impact on the 22 yards.

Taylor had first burst onto the scene at the international level during a home bilateral series against Sri Lanka in April 2004. While it did take a couple of years for him to establish himself, he got a chance to don the wicketkeeper’s gloves when the then skipper Tatenda Taibu had taken a two-year break from international cricket in 2005. Taylor rose to stardom when Zimbabwe pulled off an upset win over the world-beaters Australia during a group match of the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup 2007 in South Africa.

The wicketkeeper batter has represented Zimbabwe across formats in 34 Tests, 202 ODIs and 45 T20Is having amassed 2,320, 6,628 and 934 runs respectively. Apart from a successful international career, Taylor has also made a tremendous impact all over the world i.e. while playing county as well as franchise cricket.

 He had represented Nottinghamshire for three seasons from 2015 to 2017 and while the middle-order batter could never get a chance to feature in the IPL, he did make an impact in franchise T20.

When it appeared that the veteran cricketer would be enjoying the second innings of his life, a shocking incident went on to turn his world upside down. On January 24, 2022, Taylor admitted that he was involved in spot-fixing though it was unintentional in nature and he was forced to carry out such act after being pressurized and threatened by an unnamed Indian businessman.

At the same time, Taylor also admitted that he had taken bribes from the businessman in order to ensure the safety of him and his family but more importantly, delayed reporting the same to the governing body of world cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC).

A few days later, Zimbabwe’s cricketing icon was banned from all forms of the game for three-and-half years after being found guilty of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code as well as the ICC Anti-Doping Code.