Tongues out for Taylor
Taylor is probably the only person alive over the age of 7 who can stick his tongue out and get away with it. That cheeky celebration started as a raspberry for the selectors, but his daughter Mackenzie always got a thrill out of it and so it stuck. It has become every bit as much of a trademark as his devastating cut shots. It is not a hundred until the tongue comes out.
Thunder down under
You don’t get a sense of just how hard Taylor can hit the ball off TV. Even live, there is still a comfortable cushion of distance. But if you ever stumble into the nets and get a closer look, it is just frightening. I watched him bat in the nets during an indoor training session at the Edgar Centre 14 years ago. The side net won’t save you if you creep too close, trust me. And the crack of the ball leaving the bat and echoing around the facility was, well, awesome. Like thunder.
The little things
You could argue forever about which was his greatest innings. The 290 in Perth. The epic one-legged 181 not out in Dunedin. The unbeaten 154 in Manchester. We could go on and on. But sometimes it has very little to do with cricket, why you warm to a particular player. Taylor never neglected the little things like calling you by your name or asking how you’d been. He has the personal touch and that shone through in his interviews. While we all went on and on about his achievements, he didn’t. He was always suitably modest and we love that in New Zealand. Nothing brash about Taylor. Just a good bloke. And you have to respect the way he maintained his dignity when he was replaced as captain by Brendon McCullum.
The big things
Like that cut shot. Oh, that cut shot. His drives weren’t bad either. Even his beloved slog sweep, which so often led to his downfall, will be sorely missed. Then there are those 18,000-plus international runs he scored. Won’t miss the running between wickets, though.
The journey
At the risk of getting all John Mitchell, those of us of a certain vintage will remember the audacious stroke-maker who emerged from domestic cricket with seemingly little chance of making it in test cricket. He was just a slogger — but a slogger who worked really hard on his game to turn himself into one of our best players. That’s a 16-year journey worth reading about. We look forward to the book.
