It’s time to walk for CA’s Taylor

WHEN he was captain of Australia, Mark Taylor’s timing was always impeccable.

His decision to declare after equalling Don Bradman’s highest test score of 334 remains one of the most selfless acts any Australian skipper has made in the heat of battle.

Taylor also got it spot on when he retired less than three months later, going out on his own terms after returning to form to end a lean run that had sparked calls for him to be sacked. As a director and the public face of Cricket Australia, no one was calling for his head to roll this time, but Taylor again knew his time was up.

He wanted to quit last year but decided to stay on because he was so frustrated at how the player pay dispute evolved that he wanted to help repair the fractured relationship between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association.

Then the ball- tampering scandal erupted and bitter squabbling within the game intensified. Fed up with all the infighting and the fallout from sandpapergate, Taylor realised it was time to walk away after 13 years as a CA director.

“I knew a couple of weeks ago it was time for me to move on and I just had to get my timing right, that’s probably one of the hardest things in this position,” he said.

One thing Taylor does know is that Cricket Australia needs new leaders with new ideas more than ever. Board members don’t choose their successors but Taylor said he hoped his replacement would be a former player.

“I think there’s a number of people out there who could do it,” he said. “You often see them pop up in newspaper articles and when people are making comments, it tells me they’re interested and they’ve got an input that they could make into Australian cricket and now is the time to make it.”

Taylor identified three former players he thought would do a great job on the board, but said there were many others who could contribute.

“I think there’s a good opportunity for a women’s cricketer and I know there’s some like Alex Blackwell, who’s on the board of Cricket NSW, and Belinda Clarke, who’s worked at Cricket Australia and she’s doing a very fine job.

“I see guys like Simon Katich talked about a lot, but I’m probably leaving out about half a dozen others, so I think there’s opportunities for a lot of people to add their thoughts to cricket in the country.”

Taylor wouldn’t be drawn on who he wants to replace David Peever as chairman but said a priority for the next leader would be to repair the relationship with the players and their union, as debate rages over whether to end bans on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.

“I wasn’t frustrated that the ACA decided to put a submission in to review the sanctions. That’s their prerogative and they spoke to me about that a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “I just thought the timing was, once again, it can be seen as divisive and they’re the sort of things that we’ve got to be mindful of going forward, from both sides.”