72 Facts About Brendan Taylor

1.

Brendan Ross Murray Taylor was born on 6 February 1986 and is a Zimbabwean former international cricketer and a former Zimbabwean captain, who played all formats of the game.

2.

Brendan Taylor is known for his unorthodox shots especially his ability to play upper cuts over the third man and ramp shots with elegance and are often considered as his trademark signature shots.

3.

Brendan Taylor represented Zimbabwe in four ICC T20 World Cup tournaments in 2007,2010,2012 and 2014.

4.

Brendan Taylor captained Zimbabwe in ODIs until 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, having taken over the reins from Elton Chigumbura after the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

5.

Brendan Taylor became the first Zimbabwean batsman to hit back-to-back One-Day International centuries, achieved against New Zealand in October 2011.

6.

Brendan Taylor repeated the feat again at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.

7.

Brendan Taylor was selected to play Twenty20 cricket for the Wellington cricket team as an overseas player in New Zealand's HRV Twenty20 Cup in December 2011.

8.

Brendan Taylor's 11 centuries in ODIs is a Zimbabwe record surpassing Alistair Campbell's 7.

9.

Brendan Taylor quit his national side soon after the 2015 World Cup but on 14 September 2017, he terminated his contract with Nottinghamshire to return home to Zimbabwe.

10.

In November 2018, Brendan Taylor became the first batsman for Zimbabwe to score a century in each innings in a Test on two occasions.

11.

In October 2020, in the first ODI against Pakistan, Brendan Taylor scored his 17th century in international cricket to become the batsman with the most centuries for Zimbabwe across all three formats.

12.

In July 2021, during Zimbabwe's home series against Bangladesh, Brendan Taylor played in his 200th ODI match.

13.

In September 2021, ahead of Zimbabwe's third ODI match against Ireland, Brendan Taylor announced that he would retire from international cricket following the match.

14.

Later the same month, Brendan Taylor was banned from all cricket for three-and-a-half years by the International Cricket Council.

15.

Brendan Taylor was nurtured by Iain Campbell, the father of Zimbabwean Test cricketer Alistair Campbell, at Lilfordia School near Harare.

16.

Brendan Taylor made his first-class debut for Mashonaland A at the age of 15.

17.

Brendan Taylor made his ODI and international debut against Sri Lanka on 20 April 2004 at Bulawayo ad opened the batting alongside Vusi Sibanda but had a tough start to his international career after being clean bowled by Chaminda Vaas for duck on his debut.

18.

Brendan Taylor made his test debut a month later on 6 May 2021 against Sri Lanka in a losing cause.

19.

Brendan Taylor made his debut for Zimbabwe at a time when many of the country's leading players rebelled against Zimbabwe Cricket and made themselves unavailable to represent the side.

20.

Brendan Taylor was one of the youngest and most promising in this lot.

21.

Brendan Taylor shot to international prominence after his 60 not out helped Zimbabwe achieve a five-wicket upset over Australia in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.

22.

Brendan Taylor too had a good series, ending as the 5th highest run-scorer, with 105 runs at 35.00.

23.

Brendan Taylor successfully hit a six off the bowling of Mashrafe Mortaza on the last ball, giving Zimbabwe the victory, and contributing to their series win.

24.

Brendan Taylor remained undefeated on 79 off just 72 balls and awarded the man of the match for his match winning efforts with the bat.

25.

Into the action early, Brendan Taylor caught Matthew Hayden off then bowling of Chigumbura.

26.

Brendan Taylor was involved in a first class stumping, which saw Andrew Symonds depart.

27.

Brendan Taylor made a crucial run out, with only one stump to aim at, to dismiss Mitchell Johnson.

28.

In June 2008, Brendan Taylor joined the Lashings World XI based in England.

29.

Brendan Taylor scored 145 not out against the South African cricket team he carried his bat throughout the ODI innings and became only the ninth person to do so.

30.

Brendan Taylor was part of the squad for the 2011 Cricket World Cup where he ended up being the third highest runscorer for Zimbabwe with 170 runs in six matches.

31.

Brendan Taylor was known for his counter-attacking knock opening the batting in a match against hosts Sri Lanka during the World Cup where he top scored for Zimbabwe with 80 off just 72 balls and added a crucial 116 run partnership for the opening wicket alongside Regis Chakabva.

32.

Brendan Taylor captained the side on their return to Test cricket, against Bangladesh, at the Harare Sports Club on 4 August 2011.

33.

Brendan Taylor scored 50 and 117 in the one-off test match.

34.

Brendan Taylor was nominated as one of the nominees for ICC ODI Player of the Year 2012 mainly for his significant performances against New Zealand in 2011.

35.

Brendan Taylor only managed to muster a total of 33 runs in the two Tests against the West Indies, at an average of 18, in a Test series where Zimbabwe were comprehensively beaten by the home side, he performed poorly in the ODI series, scoring 47 runs, averaging 15.66 with a high score of 39.

36.

Brendan Taylor played in the T20 series, only scoring 4 runs in 2 matches.

37.

Brendan Taylor performed much better under home conditions against the touring Bangladesh in April 2013.

38.

Brendan Taylor was congratulated by both his team and the opposition team India after he got out.

39.

Veteran Indian commentator Sunil Gavaskar referring to Brendan Taylor's knock of 138 against India, claimed it as one of the best ODI innings that he had ever seen.

40.

Brendan Taylor was included as a bench player in Cricbuzz's "ICC World Cup 2015 team of the tournament".

41.

Brendan Taylor was adjudged as the leading runscorer for Zimbabwe throughout the 2015 World Cup tournament with an aggregate of 433 runs in six matches at an average of 72.16 and was the fourth overall run-getter during the course of the tournament behind Martin Guptill, Kumar Sangakkara, Shikhar Dhawan and AB de Villiers.

42.

Brendan Taylor became the first Zimbabwean to score 400 or more runs in a single edition of the World Cup.

43.

Brendan Taylor signed for Nottinghamshire for the 2015 English cricket season.

44.

However, since Zimbabwe's return to the Test circuit, Brendan Taylor has shown remarkable maturity, both as the side's leading batsman and captain.

45.

Brendan Taylor has announced that his team will continue to play aggressive, attacking test cricket which drew widespread praise from all quarters.

46.

Brendan Taylor scored two half-centuries, 71 against Bangladesh and 50 against New Zealand.

47.

Brendan Taylor was Zimbabwe's first choice wicketkeeper, but gave up the wicketkeeping gloves after the return of Taibu behind the stumps.

48.

On 14 September 2017, Brendan Taylor was released from his county deal with Nottinghamshire due to family reasons, thus eligible to play for Zimbabwe again.

49.

Brendan Taylor became the first batsman for Zimbabwe to score a century in each innings in a Test on two separate occasions.

50.

Brendan Taylor was named in Zimbabwean squad for the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier and was the leading runscorer during the competition with 457 runs.

51.

Brendan Taylor has been playing in Zimbabwe's domestic first-class competition, the Logan Cup, since 2002.

52.

Brendan Taylor missed out on that elusive Twenty20 century by 15 runs when he scored 85 not out against Southerns in the second match of the tournament.

53.

Brendan Taylor scored a second half century, 63 not out, against Centrals, a match Northerns won by 9 wickets with 6 balls to spare.

54.

Brendan Taylor was the second highest run scorer of the tournament, smashing 168 runs at an average of 84.00.

55.

Brendan Taylor's team won the match by a massive innings and 290 runs.

56.

The 171-run massive chase turned out to be a seven-wicket win with three balls to spare, mostly due to Brendan Taylor's match-winning knock of 75 in which he shared stands of 56 with the New Zealander Lou Vincent, and then a match-changing 105 for the third wicket with Gary Ballance, who made a quickfire 67 off 34 balls, including four sixes.

57.

Brendan Taylor was given a contract to represent Wellington as an overseas player in New Zealand's HRV Twenty20 Cup in December 2011.

58.

Wellington went on to finish bottom of the ladder, with just two wins from 10 games, but Brendan Taylor was the side's highest scorer with 207 runs, and the eleventh best overall.

59.

In 2013, Brendan Taylor was signed by the Chittagong Kings for $30,000.

60.

The King's got off to a poor start, however Brendan Taylor was one of the highest scorers in the league during this stretch.

61.

Kings ended up reaching the BPL Final, but due to illness Brendan Taylor had to return home.

62.

On 13 March 2015, Brendan Taylor signed as a Kolpak player for Nottinghamshire, on a three-year contract.

63.

On 24 January 2022, Brendan Taylor posted on tweet saying he had been approached to spot-fix by a group of Indian businessmen in October 2019, and he initially could not refuse the offer.

64.

Brendan Taylor was invited by an unnamed Indian businessman to discuss in detail about sponsorships and the potential launch of a domestic T20 competition in Zimbabwe.

65.

Brendan Taylor revealed that he was blackmailed and cornered by the businessmen in order to make him forcefully engage in spot-fixing after they threatened him that they would leak photographs of him taking cocaine.

66.

Brendan Taylor agreed to do it by accepting US$15000 as bribes in order to ensure the safety of him and his family, and admitted that he had taken drugs, but insisted he became a victim of substance abuse.

67.

Brendan Taylor admitted that he foolishly took the bait after taking cocaine when he was drunk.

68.

Brendan Taylor admitted that he did not report the incident to the International Cricket Council for about four months, and said that he would check into a rehabilitation centre for substance abuse.

69.

Brendan Taylor insisted further that he will be sanctioned with a multi-year ban due to his delay in reporting of the spot fixing plot.

70.

Brendan Taylor admitted that he had failed a drug test following his final international match, when Zimbabwe toured Ireland in September 2021.

71.

Brendan Taylor stated that he had "beaten a few" other drug tests in the two to three years prior to his final match.

72.

On 28 January 2022, Brendan Taylor was banned from all forms of cricket for three-and-half years, after he was found to have breached the ICC Anti-Corruption Code and the ICC Anti-Doping Code.