James Taylor interview from All Out Cricket

Date: Tuesday 09 March 2010

Here is a recent article about Leicestershire batsman James Taylor, which appeared in All Out Cricket. Our thanks to the magazine for allowing us to publish it:

Young, smart and tiny, James ‘Titch’ Taylor was the star of the 2009 county season. But can Leicestershire’s brightest hope in a generation avoid the pitfalls of ‘second season syndrome’? Jo Harman finds out.

Few things in sport excite the senses like the emergence of a young star. They come out of nowhere, these singular talents, unburdened by fear and full of limitless futures. They’re rare breeds. But in the unusual brilliance of Leicestershire’s James Taylor, English cricket may have found another.

First, the facts. After a stunning first full season in county cricket, Taylor became the first teenager to top 1,000 runs in a Championship season for Leicestershire. When he made a double-century against Surrey, he became the youngest Leicestershire batsman to achieve the feat.

Taylor was duly crowned the PCA Young Player of the Year and the Cricket Writers’ Club Young Player of the Year. He was a shoo-in for the England Performance Programme’s (EPP) winter tour to South Africa, where he continued to impress, ferreting runs from the middle order in the sort of busy, organised manner that pragmatic coaches quietly identify as ‘future England batsman’ material.

Talking to AOC immediately after his time at Pretoria’s High Performance Centre, Taylor is in no doubt that the EPP has been a valuable stepping-stone in helping England’s next generation fulfil their international ambitions. “I’ve worked really hard this winter; tactically, technically and physically,” he says. “It’s a really good bunch of lads and we’re all feeding off each other, picking different things up and constantly testing ourselves. The future’s looking good for English cricket.”

Bright, engaging and unapologetically confident in his own ability, the pint-sized 20-year-old talks with the conviction of a county stalwart with several years of experience behind him. Perhaps this is not surprising given the weight of responsibility on his shoulders at Leicestershire.

‘Titch’ as he is known to his team-mates, was the bright spark in an otherwise miserable 2009 at Grace Road. His county took the Championship wooden spoon and finished just one place off bottom in the lower tier of the Pro40 competition.

Despite their struggles, and the inevitable overtures from other counties, Taylor recently signed a three-year contract extension to stay at Grace Road until the end of 2012. “I was never tempted to move on, because without Leicestershire I wouldn’t be in the position that I am. I’ve got the opportunity to bat long periods of time here, which can only be good for my development.”

It may prove easier for Taylor to make a splash as a big fish in a small pond rather than moving to a more high profile club, but he insists he has committed his future to a county ready to turn a corner under newly installed captain, Matthew Hoggard.

“Hoggard will be great to have in the dressing room with eight years of international experience behind him. We’ve got plenty of young bowlers who can hopefully tap into his knowledge and he’ll definitely benefit the side.

“We have some more experienced players like Hoggard, Will Jefferson, Andrew McDonald as our overseas player - and Brad Hodge for the Twenty20 Cup - mixed with a load of good young players. That youth and experience will gel well together. Who knows where that could take us in two years?”

Taylor still talks with obvious pride and excitement about the county he joined as an 11-year-old, and while he admits he may eventually need to step up to first division cricket to boost his international prospects he remains hopeful he can achieve his ambitions with his hometown club to whom he has always stayed loyal.

“While I was at Shrewsbury School I got selected for Worcestershire’s academy and played for them for a while because it was a lot more convenient. But when the Leicestershire youth coach contacted me and offered me a contract it was the obvious option to go back home and play for them. Worcester offered me a contract as well but I’m a Leicester lad, it’s my home and I thought it was a great opportunity. I’m now playing all the cricket I want and it’s great for me at the moment because I wouldn’t have scored the runs I have done without being at Leicestershire.”

As the bedrock of a struggling batting unit, Taylor has had to grow up quickly and he is clearly a self-assured young cricketer who relishes a challenge. “People always bang on about ‘second season syndrome’ but I’ve worked really hard so far this winter and talked to different people about my game and where my weaknesses are. I don’t think it’s going to be a hassle for me.

“My strengths as a batsman are adapting to any given situation, my positive mentality and batting for long periods of time. I love the added pressure of needing to help my side and score runs. I thrive on that pressure.” And his weaknesses? “Well, I’ll let the bowlers find that out.”

Standing at just 5’6’’, with scruffy-styled bleached blond hair and boyish looks, he could pass for a schoolboy, but Taylor insists his height is anything but a drawback. “I’ve grown up always being small and had people commenting on it but that’s driven me on and encouraged me to work even harder.

"Personally I think it’s a benefit for me. I have a low centre of gravity, I’m close to the pitch of the ball and it’s harder for bowlers because the margin for error is much smaller against a shorter guy like me. It’s going to be interesting, Will Jefferson and me batting together this year with him at 6’10’’ and me about 5’6’’!”

In the modern era of sports analysts, psychologists and coaching staffs so large they require their own dressing room, cricket can become an overcomplicated game. But Taylor, as befits his youth, has a refreshingly simplistic approach. “I just try and stick to the basics. As long as I’m hitting the ball straight and smashing it square, I’m happy. It’s a case of keeping it as simple as possible, in both the one-day and four-day format.”

He excelled in all forms of the game last season, and at this stage one-day cricket is his most likely route into England’s senior setup. But is a call-up for next winter’s Ashes really that implausible? “There would have been plenty of people who never thought I would be going on a Lions tour this winter, so who knows what the future holds?

“I’ll be working really hard throughout the season, so touch wood, if all goes well…” He checks himself. “But like I said, I’m just looking forward to the next game and trying to score as many runs as I can.” Another campaign like the last and he will be hard to ignore.

With thanks to Pongo Cricket (pongocricket.com) for their assistance in facilitating this interview.

For more from All Out Cricket, please visit www.alloutcricket.com