3 February 1999
Taylor steps down with trademark good timing
By Mark Nicholas
AMID a blaze of flashbulbs in Sydney's swanky Sheraton Park Hotel
yesterday morning Mark Taylor, the Australian cricket captain, announced
his retirement from the international game. This was not a surprise - it
had been predicted in the press for 10 days - and it is another
intelligent and well-timed move by one of cricket's most exceptional
people.
Still only 34, Taylor said that since the Adelaide Test he has lost the
edge to compete. "I didn't feel I would be able to give everything in
the West Indies as a batsman and I didn't want to be there as a captain
only," was his typically frank and self-effacing assessment of the part
he might play in Australia's next assignment, which begins later this
month. He added that he had a strong desire to spend more time with his
wife and family.
The Australian Cricket Board now have to make the tricky decision about
who should replace him - Steve and Mark Waugh and Shane Warne are the
candidates - and they are not relishing having to do so. It is no secret
that Denis Rogers, the board's chairman, was keen for Taylor to stay in
the job and in thanking him "for his immense contribution to Australian
cricket" he went on to say that "no one will really know what we owe
Mark until he has gone".
Less than two weeks ago Taylor was named "Australian of the Year".
Before Christmas he received the Sir Donald Bradman Medal of Honour for
his contribution to Australian sport and soon afterwards was featured in
an hour-long special of This Is Your Life. He has even been the subject
of a short piece in the New York Times.
All of this has come since the 334 not out he made in Pakistan last
October, the innings which equalled Sir Donald's highest Australian Test
score, which has bestowed film-star status upon him. As he put it
himself yesterday: "That knock took me to Shane Warne's levels of
publicity." He has sensibly and modestly chosen the perfect time to go,
while he is on top and still much loved.
The bare statistics of his remarkable career make for great reading.
Taylor played in 104 Tests, making 7,535 runs, with 19 hundreds and an
average of 43.5. The total is the second-highest number of runs made by
an Australian. He has held 157 catches, the most by any Test cricketer.
He captained his country in 50 matches and won 26 of them. Out of the 13
series in which he was in charge he won 11, failing only his first, in
Pakistan in 1994, and in India early last year, when Sachin Tendulkar
confounded all the Australian bowlers and their captain too.
The old school will tell you that Bradman's 1948 invincibles were the
greatest of all Australian teams. Ian Chappell may make a case for the
men of 1974-76. Taylor's teams have not been far behind.
Mark Taylor was raised playing cricket in the country at Wagga Wagga,
which is about six hours' drive to the west of Sydney. He is the seventh
country boy to be given Australia's most prestigious sporting position
since the Second World War: Bradman, Bill Brown, Lindsay Hassett, Arthur
Morris, Ian Craig and Brian Booth are the others. It is some list and
reflects the earthy, forthright and uncomplicated nature of Aussies from
the bush.
Taylor has not changed a jot from those days - "I guess I am the sort of
bloke who will have a beer with anybody who will buy me one" - remaining
a brick and an extremely good player. Australians have identified with
one of their own; a man who carries a pound or two in weight, forward
and aft, a gum chewer with a gait as unathletic as the guy next door. He
has not been bothered by image, rather he has been bothered with
substance. His job has been to bat well, catch well and run a good team
and because he has done all three he has all but got the keys to the
kingdom.
For a time through 1996 and halfway into 1997, Taylor could not make a
run. Australia called for his head but the selectors broke with
tradition and persevered with a captain who was not worth his place in
the team.
When he was caught at slip in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes tour he
figured it was all over - "my lowest point certainly, I was on the brink
of standing down." Never once, even when the depression was deepest, did
Taylor avert his gaze from the world or let his chin drop. Those around
him shuffled, staring uneasily at the floor or glancing over his
shoulder but he looked at them, straight in the eye.
When he emerged from his slump with the bravest imaginable hundred in
the second innings of that Edgbaston Test, the game rejoiced because it
knew, from Sydney via Sialkot to Southampton, that this was a good man,
a man who treated triumph and adversity in an equally level-headed and
honest way.
He will now take his honesty with him into the Channel 9 commentary box
and possibly to a role within the ACB as well. He says that he would
like to stay in and around the game and since there has been talk of
forming an international players' association to govern and guide
cricketers from within, he and his philosophies would appear to be ideal
to front it.
His ideas were led by the need for his teams to play to win, but just as
importantly to entertain. "When I took over as captain I said to the
guys that five days was a long time and that we should always play for a
result. I hope we have influenced other teams' thinking by doing this,
as I believe the players have a responsibility to the public and that
the future of the game is in the captains' hands."
The main strength of his own influence came, he thought, "from remaining
calm at all times and from communicating freely with the players." He
said that he had been lucky to take over a good team from Allan Border.
"There was some reasonable tackle in the shed," he said with a smile
before adding more seriously: "A good captain can make a bad side into
an average side and a good side into a better one, he can't do much
more."
Perhaps his most important contribution has been to demonstrate that
sportsmanship and good manners can sit alongside success. He has shown
dignity, however intense the competition, and applied straightforward
common sense to the ego-based, money-driven world of modern sport. None
of this means he has been a soft touch, it simply means that he
understood he was playing a game, nothing more.
In his valedictory speech yesterday he thanked everyone in sight:
family, friends, team-mates and supporters. He said how lucky he had
been to represent and captain his country, and especially lucky to start
and finish his Test career on his home ground in Sydney. Then he said:
"Cricket has given me more than I've given it," which is not absolutely
right, they are about even.
A few years ago his young son was asked by a new friend what his dad did
for a living. "Not much," he replied, "just plays cricket." I'll bet Dad
approves of that.
Mark Anthony Taylor's Record
TEST MATCH BATTING RECORD
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
v England (H) 15 30 1 917 113 31.62 1 8 24
(A) 18 31 1 1588 219 52.93 5 7 22
--------------------------------------------
33 61 2 2505 219 42.45 6 15 46
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
v India (H) 5 10 1 422 100 46.88 1 3 7
(A) 4 8 1 253 102* 36.14 1 0 3
-------------------------------------------
9 18 2 675 102* 42.18 2 3 10
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
v New Zealnd (H)7 10 2 509 142* 63.62 2 3 16
(A) 4 6 0 157 82 26.16 0 2 9
---------------------------------------------
11 16 2 666 142* 47.57 2 5 25
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
v Pakistan (H) 6 10 1 728 123 80.88 3 5 13
(A) 6 10 2 620 334* 77.50 1 3 7
---------------------------------------------
12 20 3 1348 334* 79.29 4 8 20
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
v S Africa (H) 6 10 1 569 170 63.22 2 2 12
(A) 5 9 0 177 70 19.66 0 1 5
--------------------------------------------
11 19 1 746 170 41.44 2 3 17
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
v Sri Lanka (H) 5 9 1 463 164 57.87 2 1 10
(A) 3 6 0 148 43 24.66 0 0 1
--------------------------------------------
8 15 1 611 164 43.64 2 1 11
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
v W Indies (H) 11 21 1 390 46 19.50 0 0 15
(A) 9 16 1 594 144 39.60 1 5 13
---------------------------------------------
20 37 2 984 144 28.11 1 5 28
M I NO RUNS HS AVGE 100 50 ct
TOTAL (H) 55 100 8 3998 170 43.45 11 22 97
(A) 49 86 5 3537 334* 43.66 8 18 60
---------------------------------------------
104 186 13 7535 334* 43.55 19 40 157
As Player 54 97 6 4284 219 47.07 12 24 73
As Captain 50 89 7 3251 334* 39.64 7 16 84
Born: 27-10-64 at Leeton, New South Wales.
Debut: NSW, 1985.
Test Debut: 26-01-89 v West Indies (Sydney).
Made a century in his first Test against England, at Headingley. Scored
839 runs for series average of 83.90.
Scored centuries in his first Test matches v Sri Lanka, South Africa and
Pakistan. Hit 94 v India.
Carried bat in the first innings of third Test against South Africa at
Adelaide in 1998, scoring 169* of Australia's 350.
Scored 334* against Pakistan in Peshwar in Oct 1998, equalling Don
Bradman's Australia Test record for highest individual innings.
Took over the captaincy of Australia from Allan Border in 1994. Record:
26 wins, 11 draws, 13 defeats. Led Australia in 13 series, losing only
three.
Holds various partnership records: first wicket against England, New
Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, third against South Africa and fourth
against Sri Lanka.
He is the second highest run scorer for Australia behind Border (11,174)
and has taken more catches than any other Australian.
He has played in 113 one-day internationals, scoring 3,514 runs (average
32.24).
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)