James Taylor

Squad Number - 9

Player Sponsor - Squire Alarms

Born - Burrough on the Hill, Melton Mowbray, January 6, 1990

Joined - Leicestershire 2008

Role - Right-hand batsman, leg break bowler

Family - Father Steve was a National Hunt jockey

Teams Represented - Leicestershire, England under-19s

Honours - England under-19s

Highlight of Career - Making maiden first-class and List A centuries, making a double hundred for Leics, being capped.

Players Admired - -

Relaxations - -

To say that James Taylor had a great 2009 season will probably go down as understatement of the decade.

Taylor was outstanding throughout; achieving a number of milestones and winning lots of awards along the way.

A former England under 19 opener, Taylor started by winning the Wisden Schools cricketer of the year award for his excellence while at Shrewsbury School, and ended with a whole host of other achievements.

These included becoming the youngest Leicestershire batsman to make 1,000 Championship runs in a season, the youngest double-centurion in first-class cricket for Leicestershire, the youngest centurion for Leicestershire in List A cricket, and the fifth youngest player to score a double hundred in England.

He also became Leicestershire’s youngest capped player since George Dawkes in 1938 and picked up numerous trophies, such as the prestigious Cricket Writers’ Club Young player of the Year and the PCA Young player of the Year.

Taylor finished the season by scooping a host of the club’s awards, including the Cricketer of the Year, the Players’ Player, the Supporters’ Player, the Livingstone Award for batting and the John Josephs’ Trophy for best individual performance in the first XI. He also won the Roger Goadby fielding award for good measure.

It is an astonishing list, and is the accumulation of a lot of hard work to go with his talent. It is easy to forget Taylor did not immediately break into the Championship side, and found it difficult in the two first-class games he played against Loughborough UCCE and the West Indies.

However, there is nothing like seizing the opportunity. And after making a hundred in the second innings of his first Championship appearance of the season at Southgate, he simply did not look back.

Taylor joined Leicestershire at the end of 2007 after appearing for Worcestershire's academy and second XI. He was part of the England Under-19 World Cup squad in 2008 and topped the averages with an impressive 50, scoring 200 runs in 6 innings with two not outs.

A resolute character who does not like giving his wicket away, Taylor is an adaptable young batsman who can open or bat in the middle order. He is also innovative in the one-day game, and is not afraid to demonstrate his vast repertoire of strikes.

An old head on young shoulders, Taylor has matured extremely quickly and has already caught the eye of plenty of people. He spent a week training in India as part of the Rajasthan Royals talent identification programme and spent part of the winter in the England Performance Programme.

He was rewarded for all of his hard work during 2009 by being given a new three-year contract at the Club and by gaining an England Lions call-up for February 2010.

The year will hold plenty more hard work, but this lad has both the talent and temperament to deal with everything thrown at him.

Taylor's career record at Leics (at end of 2009 season):

JWA Taylor 2009 (75.85 kB)