Zimbabwean Brendan Taylor joined Notts on a three-year contract with an impressive international record and the experience of cricket around the world, particularly in limited-overs matches. On 13 March 2015, he signed as a Kolpak player for Nottinghamshire, announcing his retirement from international cricket at the same time.
Taylor, then 29-years old, had captained his country in ODIs from 2011, when he took over as skipper after the World Cup, until 2015 when he stood down after leading Zimbabwe in that year’s World Cup tournament. He became the first Zimbabwean batsman to hit back-to-back One-Day International centuries (128 not out and 107 not out), against New Zealand in October 2011, and repeated the feat at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Financial insecurity within Zimbabwe cricket led him, with several countrymen, to stand down from the international game to pursue more lucrative careers in English cricket.
Harare-born Taylor became the first batsman in the Club's history to register centuries in each of his first two matches, against Loughborough University and Middlesex. His arrival at Notts brought to the club an experienced middle order batsman, an occasional off-break bowler, and a more than useful wicketkeeper. He played 35 First-Class games for Nottinghamshire, with a top score of 152 and six centuries in all; in List-A cricket he was equally valuable, contributing 661 runs in 23 innings with a top score of 154.
That came in 2017, when Taylor played a key role in the Outlaws’ NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup white ball trophy double – including an innings that secured victory over Somerset in the quarter-final of the 50-over competition. Taylor was part of squad that captured both limited-overs trophies that season, scoring 351 runs in the T20 format, including a vital 65 against Birmingham Bears in a record Finals Day partnership of 132 along with Samit Patel.
At the end of the 2017 season, Nottinghamshire agreed to release Brendan Taylor from his contract for personal reasons and he was able to return to Zimbabwe and pick up his international career. In November 2018, Taylor became the first batsman for Zimbabwe to score a century in each innings in a Test on two separate occasions.
May 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 632