Zimbabwe captain exemplifies maturing of team

Zimbabwe captain exemplifies maturing of team

The last time Brendan Taylor took up a contract overseas, Zimbabwe Cricket threatened him with a lengthy ban from international duty.

Not that it would have mattered much, given their national team was in a hiatus anyway.

Four years on from running off to England, and the Lashings World XI, a bit's changed for both Taylor and Zimbabwe.

The country itself is relatively stable, while Taylor is firmly ensconced as captain of the Zimbabwe team.

So when Wellington came calling with a Twenty20 contract, the 25-year-old was comfortable that signing it wouldn't hamper his chances of leading his national team on their upcoming test and limited overs tour of New Zealand.

"Zimbabwe Cricket are more than happy to let any player be part of a competitive tournament like this one. It helps Zimbabwe Cricket and it gets us [players] out there, so they were more than happy to release me," Taylor said of his 10-match deal to play for the Firebirds.

"Four or five years ago there was an issue, but things have changed a lot in Zimbabwe Cricket and we all know where we stand and there's no dramas now."

No, few dramas at all. Just a team that actually looks quite competitive.

Zimbabwe beat New Zealand in one of the three one-day matches played over there in October and might have won the sole test had it not been for some last-session bowling heroics from Doug Bracewell.

Naturally enough, Taylor says his lot will fancy their chances come their one-off test against the Black Caps, starting on January 26, and the three one-day and two Twenty20 matches that follow.

"They're going to be tough to beat in their home conditions but, then again, we're not just looking to compete," said Taylor, who played the first of his 13 tests as an 18-year-old.

"That's what we used to do four, five years ago, just try and compete. Now we believe we're good enough to win.

"The team's improved massively. We all stuck together over a period of five, six years and it's nice to see we're making strides and that Zimbabwe Cricket have got the right people helping us and running the game smoothly.

"Even when times were tough we thought `if we can just keep things ticking along and keep doing the right things then everything will eventually sort itself out' and it's seems like that's the case at the moment.

"A lot of us were thrown in the deep end when the so-called `rebel players' decided to leave. We had to grow up pretty quickly and figure things out and, in hindsight, we came into the setup two, three years too early.

Ad Feedback

"But we've come a long way since then."

Taylor, especially. His performances in the recent home series against New Zealand were magnificent, scoring back-to-back hundreds in the one-day series and then a further century in the test match.

Aside from his obvious skill, Taylor's ability to hit the ball big was also hugely impressive, as new team-mate Jeetan Patel found out.

Taylor hit the offspinner for six sixes in the test at Bulawayo and clearly hasn't forgotten.

"Yeah, he's a good man, Jeets," a laughing Taylor said.

"But that's all water under the bridge and hopefully he's back in the Black Caps setup soon."