- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
England’s enjoyment helps Vince settle in
- Updated: May 17, 2016
As James Vince hosted his first press conference as a Test player – he is, barring injury, certain to make his debut on Thursday – thoughts drifted back to the debut of the man he is replacing in the England side.
Like Vince, James Taylor made his Test debut at Headingley. And, like Vince, Taylor was a young man – he was just 22 at the time – who looked to have the talent and temperament to enjoy a long international career.
But there the similarities end. For while Vince has come into a relaxed, united dressing room that should provide him with every opportunity to succeed, Taylor stepped into an environment that was on the turn. While that batting order – containing, as it did, four men in the top seven of England’s most prolific Test century makers, one of England’s finest wicketkeeper-batsman and a player good enough to have been named the ICC’s world player of the year – was bursting with ability, the divisions within the squad can have done nothing to enhance a young player’s chances of success.
If that seems like an exaggeration, cast your mind back to August 2012 and Taylor’s first Test. England, tired, dispirited and divided, had just been thrashed by an innings at The Oval. . Having achieved the No. 1 Test ranking only 12 months’ earlier, they had failed to reset their focus upon reaching that target and allowed themselves to drift. Their complacency was punished with a whitewashing in the UAE and they were about to lose their No. 1 status to South Africa.
Going into that Headingley Test, Kevin Pietersen had become suspicious that some of his team-mates were involved in a parody Twitter account that sought to mock him. With his complaints to management rejected – he would say ignored; they would say investigated – his resentment simmered and eventually boiled over in a memorable press conference where he claimed “it isn’t easy being me” in the England dressing room.
Almost immediately, news emerged that Pietersen had not approved of Taylor’s selection and that he had exchanged Blackberry messages with members of the opposition that contained less than …
continue reading in source www.espncricinfo.com
