An interview with Chris Taylor part four

How did your business come about?

I started Pro Coach with Andrew Gale and it has grown really well. It is now fifty per cent owned by Yorkshire CCC but we currently have 55 coaches working for us throughout the county and are working with around five thousand youngsters. Simon Guy, who has recently joined Derbyshire, of course, was doing some work with me and there's quite a few guys with first-class experience.

Then in 2010 I was asked if I knew anyone who had a use for a massive two thousand square foot building outside Headingley cricket ground. I had the idea of starting a cricket equipment business and made a Dragon's Den style pitch to the father of one of my friends, who invested in start up companies, to go into partnership with me.

At the end of it, he said yes, and we moved in and gutted the place. All Rounder Cricket Ltd opened on March 11, 2011 and we recently learned that we are now the fifth or sixth biggest cricket equipment supplier in the UK. That's something I am very proud of and we have around 270 clubs signed up around the country as clothing and equipment suppliers.

The business now has ten full-time employees, while there's a further five at Pro-Coach. As Managing Director of both, the hours are long but it is very worthwhile. My brother is physio at Sheffield Wednesday and more recently I have gone into partnership with him and we have eight physiotherapy clinics around Yorkshire under the banner of Sano Physiotherapy.

There's not enough hours in the day...

But you still manage to find time for cricket?

I do. My wife and I moved to Lightcliffe, where my father-in-law had played for the village team. In 2010 the club finished near the bottom of the second division of the Bradford League.

I attended my first committee meeting in the wooden shack on the boundary edge. When I said that I saw the club in the medium to long term competing in the top half of the first division I think some thought I was crazy.

Last season I skippered the side as we won the Priestley Cup and came near the top in the league. I am proud with how we have turned the club around. I have a house on the boundary edge and it is a lovely club, but the secret now is making sure that I keep the right work/sport/home balance, as we all work to live, not live to work.

I am grateful for what cricket has given me and I enjoy being able to give back. I learned from being coached and helped by Geoff Boycott, Mike Atherton and Michael Vaughan and if I can do something similar with youngsters and get them started in the game, I feel I am doing my bit.

Do you have any remaining sporting ambitions?

I do. You know, even after what happened at the end of my time there, I remain a Derbyshire fan and I look for their scores before Yorkshire's. I'd have loved to skipper that side, but one day I would love an opportunity to be involved in some other way, perhaps on the board, if I was ever asked to be involved.

I'd like to think that my business experience might be of use at some point, and Kevin Dean, a good friend of mine, is already there.

Who knows?

I can't finish the interview without asking you about the men who will be taking Derbyshire forward in the coming years on the coaching side.

Pop is brilliant! He's a top bloke who helped me at Derbyshire and I know how highly he is regarded as a coach. I have no doubt that he will do an outstanding job, because people work for him and understand what he wants to do. He was a one hundred per cent player and you will get exactly that from him as Director of Cricket.

He's recruited really well though. Steve Stubbings is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and I think he will take to his role really well – having done very well with the second team last summer, of course. I know John Sadler very well and he really knows his cricket. He is an excellent coach and understands batting, with the ability to explain to people what they should be doing differently when things are going wrong. Ant Botha has done well too, while Simon Guy is a fantastic coach who will really get people working at their game.

Put it this way, if I was playing under those guys, I would excel, because as well as being very good coaches, they are excellent man managers.

The club has a very bright future and they are now going about it in exactly the right manner. In my spell at the club, apart from me there was really only Wayne White, Jake Needham and a very young Paul Borrington who were relatively young and in the first-team picture.

It's all changed now and very good to see.

I wish them every success in the coming season and those ahead.

An Interview with Chris Taylor part 3

Yet you started well at Chelmsford, with 55 and 96 in two innings, a match where we racked up big runs, then recorded a duck at Taunton, after which we scored a club record 801-8. That must have been a frustrating few days. Were there any comments flying around?

Yes, I felt in really good touch at Chelmsford. I got fifty in the first innings, then made 96 in the second when it was turning square for Danish Kaneria. I thought it set me up for a good season ... how wrong I was.

At Taunton, we slipped to 0-2 in the first over and I went and changed into my fielding whites, convinced we'd be in the field before tea. Then we batted for nearly two days and the game became one where everyone else racked up runs and boosted their averages.

You disappeared from the team at that point, which seemed strange after a pretty solid start and your previous campaign...

I had a back injury. Throughout my career I had issues with my back and hamstrings, as I had one leg that was longer than the other, which affected my hip rotation. A Nottingham specialist ruled me unfit for three weeks and then it all went sour from there

Then there were stories that you had a stand up row with Simon Katich?

I'm really pleased to have an opportunity to give my side of this one, as I'm aware of things that have done the rounds in the intervening period.

As I mentioned earlier, Katich came over as overseas in 2007. Clearly, he wanted to score the runs to force his way back into the Australian side. He was fairly introverted and hardly ever spoke in the middle. That was so different to Michael Di Venuto, who talked you through bad patches and encouraged you all the time when you were batting. That wasn't Katich's way at all.

When Michael Dighton came in, my place appeared to have gone. After we played Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, I was approached in the dressing room and asked to support a motion of no confidence in Houghton. I refused to do so, as I had a lot of time for him. I don't think that did me any favours, if I'm honest. That game was the last I played for Derbyshire's first team.

Around two weeks later, with the atmosphere increasingly poisonous, Houghton was relieved of his duties. Simon Katich took over and was effectively captain and coach.

He then proceeded to name a team for the game against Middlesex with only one Englishman in the top seven. I was told that I'd to go into the second team, captain them against Yorkshire at Derby and get some runs

That was a notorious game?

You could say that. I won the toss as skipper and, with a very young side at my disposal, opted to bowl first.

It wasn't an easy wicket to bat on and we were so short of bowlers that I had to bowl a spell. I ended up taking five wickets, the only time in any form of cricket I have done so. Now, keep in mind that I hadn't played in several weeks and was rusty when it was our turn to bat.

I struggled to time the ball and kept finding the fielders, but I ended up making an unbeaten 88 from 142 balls, as we lost by thirteen runs. With the team we had, we'd done well to get so close and I had, after all, been told to go and get some form and runs. Are results that important in second eleven? A lot of teams use the game for trials and yes, while I had perhaps put my personal performance ahead of the team, I thought that getting my form back might be the best thing for Derbyshire in the long term.

When I got back to the pavilion, Karl Krikken was furious. He asked me what I'd been playing at and I explained. He said I'd been selfish and had put myself before the team and we ended up having to agree to disagree.

So what happened next?

We were playing Leicestershire in the next match the following day and I went back into the pavilion after we'd warmed up, to get my cap and a coin to toss. As I was coming back out, I saw Simon Katich and wondered what he was doing there.

He simply said 'we need to talk' and sat me down, asking me to explain what had happened against Yorkshire.

I explained everything and at the end of it he simply looked at me and said 'that's not good enough'. He said that he wasn't going to have people playing for themselves and that he wasn't accepting my excuse. Then he told me he was suspending me from all cricket for a week and that he would ring me at the end of that week.

You must have been upset?

I was distraught. I went back in to get my clothes, didn't bother to change and went back to my car with my cricket bag. Apparently I walked straight past Wayne White but don't recall that. Wayne and Richard Hodgkinson, a trialist, simply couldn’t believe what was happening to me.

I sat in my car, stunned and heartbroken. I wondered if I should go back in to the dressing room and play anyway, but eventually drove out of the car park and went home. I was in a daze and have no real recollection of that journey. I phoned my Dad and he told me to get in touch with the Professional Cricketers Association.

I spoke to Jason Ratcliffe at the PCA and he initially thought it was a wind-up. He said to wait for the official documentation on the suspension. I never got any - the club committee seemed unaware that it had happened. The PCA lawyers gave me advice, but it all died down, though it killed my career at Derbyshire.

I was really, desperately hurt by the whole thing. Cricket was my life and my livelihood and it looked like an incident that was badly misinterpreted and handled was going to take it away.

At what point did you decide to leave?

Yorkshire seemed to be interested in my going back. I was still in contract with Derbyshire, but the writing was on the wall. After I returned to the club following the suspension, I played two or three second team games but it just didn't feel the same. While I still wanted to play for Derbyshire, there seemed little point when the club appeared to have become an autocracy.

I felt that I had to leave to get away from Simon Katich, not Derbyshire. I asked the club for my release, which was granted, and I signed a pre-contract deal with Yorkshire.

Of course, what happened next was that Katich announced he was not coming back and was going to play for Australia again!

John Morris took over the reins as coach and told me that he saw me as a potential future captain or vice-captain. Glamorgan, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire were also interested in my services, but it really came down to my staying at Derbyshire or going back home to Yorkshire. The crucial factor was signing that pre-contract deal and I opted to go back home.

Yet it was a really sad day when we locked the door of our house at Kirk Langley, where we had been very happy, for the last time. It all went wrong at Derbyshire, but I am still proud of what I achieved. I know in my heart that I am 99.9% innocent and did little wrong. I played a one-off poor innings in mitigating circumstances, which was at odds with what I had done throughout 2006. But at the end of it all, I was the only Derbyshire player to score a century on both his first-class and one-day debut, which I am very proud of and is something to look back on in years to come.

Yet the move back home didn't work out for you. At what point did you start thinking of a career outside the game?

It went downhill pretty much from the start. My hamstrings proved a problem again and I tore both of them in turn. One saw me out for six weeks, the other for four and I had to prove myself all over again in the seconds.

I wasn't helped by Michael Vaughan retiring from England duties and returning to the county game. There was an established and good top three of Lyth, Vaughan and McGrath and I couldn't get in to the side. I made three centuries for the second eleven, but the man management at the club continued to be poor and if you weren't in the side you were pretty much an afterthought.

In July 2009, John Morris asked if I was interested in going back to Derbyshire – initially on loan for the remainder of that season, then for the 2010 summer. The idea held some appeal, but I was loathe to move my family again and our baby daughter, Isobel, was born in September of 2009. My wife was by that time working at Leeds United and enjoying it, so uprooting again made no sense.

At the end of that summer, I told Yorkshire that I wanted to retire and go into business, so they paid up my contract and I was finished as a first-class cricketer.

To be continued

An Interview with Chris Taylor - Part Two

You started the summer of 2006 brilliantly, with a fine century against Glamorgan at Cardiff. What are your memories of that innings?

The main one was a completely misinterpreted reaction to being dismissed!

Steve Stubbings and I batted really well and we reached 247-1 before Stubbo went for 97. Then Travis Birt went first ball and there was a mini-slide - we were suddenly five down for 251. That brought in Hasan Adnan. The two of us were really good mates, often eating out together with our respective partners.

I was on 120 and seeing it like a football. I played Robert Croft (I think) down to long on for an easy single and just strolled through. The thing was, Hasan had switched off – or hadn't switched on – and I got down the non-striker's end to find him still standing there.

We kind of circled each other as we decided who was going to go, which made it hard for the umpires to work out if we'd crossed. They eventually said that one of us had to, and Hasan said it wasn't going to be him, as he was playing for a contract. So I had to go and as I walked off, lifted my bat playfully as if to hit him. There was nothing in it at all, although I was disappointed to get out when I was so well set.

Dave Houghton was furious, especially when Hasan was out soon afterwards and it was pretty uncomfortable in the dressing room.

Next day, going to the ground on the team bus, I turned to the sports pages of the newspaper and there was a big headline 'Taylor looks to strike partner'. Neither of us could believe so much had been made of it, but when we got to the ground, the umpires said that they had no intention of reporting us. They were close enough to realise that there was nothing in it whatsoever.

The highlight must have been an early century against Yorkshire at Headingley in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, a game we won by 21 runs?

That was the innings that gave me the most satisfaction in my career. We got there on the day and all the sights, sounds and smells were exactly as I remembered them – just how I'd pictured it would be.

Yorkshire were a good team and Michael Di Venuto went early, but I felt right from the time I got to the middle. Stubbo and myself had another big stand and whatever shot I played seemed to come off. I still have a copy of the Radio Leeds commentary and can just about recite their coverage of reaching my ton by heart.

I remember turning to the Western Terrace, where my family were sitting, and waving across to them, then I kissed the Derbyshire badge on my shirt, which seemed a natural thing to do. It was the most wonderful, overwhelming feeling and I felt amazing. The Yorkshire lads were generous in their comments and applause and it was the best day of my career.

I suppose I'd made a point...

Perhaps an even better innings was the century against Durham at Derby, when we chased down a target of 275 in 50 overs and won with eight balls to spare?

Yes, that's right. While the Yorkshire innings was the one that gave me the most satisfaction, I don't think I ever played so well as against Durham.

Ottis Gibson was their overseas and they had a good attack. Their batting was impressive too and they posted a great score in fifty overs. We did OK, but when I walked out to bat at 92-3 I was conscious of people moaning and grumbling on the pavilion balcony. They'd pretty much written the game off.

I decided just to play my shots and go for it and everything hit the middle. I had great support from Ant Botha and Graeme Welch and we won with eight balls to spare.

In the dressing room afterwards, I sat there thinking I could play for England if I batted like that on a regular basis. Dave Houghton came over and told me it was one of the best one-day knocks he'd ever seen, then Martyn Moxon, the Durham coach, did the same.

It was a terrific feeling.

There were another two centuries that summer and you missed a thousand runs by just under a hundred. How did you feel at the end of it? Pleased you had established yourself, or disappointed at missing the landmark?

It has always been the benchmark against which a batsman is judged and I missed it by less than a hundred runs. I'd probably have got there, but I missed three matches with a broken finger, when someone accidentally slammed a car boot shut on my hand at a wedding!

I remember at the end of season dinner in the Lund Pavilion, going out on to the balcony with Dave Houghton and chatting about the season. My Dad was there too and it was a great night. Dave told me that if I carried on in that vein I could play for England. There were stories that Geoff Miller was keeping an eye on my progress and a Lions tour could be in the offing if I kept the impetus going.

It gave me an incentive for the second season, when I was on an improved contract after the success of that first summer. My goal for that second season was to push myself into the England reckoning and become a candidate for the Derbyshire captaincy, which had quickly become a major ambition for me.

Yet there were even better scores in the one-day game, where you batted quite beautifully, with 564 runs at 63 in just thirteen innings, second in the national one-day averages.

Yes, that shocked a few people in Yorkshire! I felt in good nick all summer and I was very pleased by the end of it. I'd cleared 1500 runs in all cricket and I had to be pleased with that, in what was effectively my first full season in the first-class game.

Things changed that winter though. Michael Di Venuto left but was replaced by Simon Katich and Ian Harvey. On paper, that didn't look to weaken the side?

No, but the atmosphere changed. There were two factions, effectively the Aussies and the rest and in my opinion there were too many overseas players. Besides Harvey and Katich, Michael Dighton came in on a UK passport and was told he was going to be batting at three, which had been my spot. There were a few occasions where the top six were all born overseas – there was also Greg Smith, Ant Botha and Steve Stubbings. It left the English lads feeling a little left out. Wayne White and I were often out in the cold.

Phil Weston was another who struggled in the environment. He'd been a prolific batsman for most of his career at Worcestershire and could barely buy a run at Derbyshire. It wasn't for the lack of talent or trying, it simply wasn't the most productive of atmospheres.

It quickly became clear that certain factions wanted Dave Houghton out and there was support for that from some of the committee at that time. It made it a very difficult season from a number of angles.

An interview with Chris Taylor part one

You made a breakthrough at Yorkshire in 2001, having played in the Academy and Second XI for several seasons. That must have been a big moment for you and your family?

It was, Steve. I had come through the ranks at Yorkshire and done well in the seconds. I had six or seven centuries to my name for them and two days before the game against reigning champions Surrey at The Oval, I had a call from Arnie Sidebottom, to say that I was playing.

I was 19/20 and didn't sleep between times, thinking about the big moment that I had dreamed of for so long. They had a very good all-round side and facing Martin Bicknell and Ed Giddins was a tough baptism for me. After that, I had another few games that summer, got a few starts but didn't go on to a score to make a point.

Then your first first-class half century came the following season – another big moment?

I spent the pre-season working really hard, with the ambition of getting into the team, but it was a strong batting line-up. My first senior game of the summer, curiously enough, was also against Surrey and I remember facing Alex Tudor bowling very quickly down the hill, while Saqlain Mushtaq was turning it a lot at the other end. It was a tough baptism, but I got an unbeaten 52 and was thrilled with that, even though we were beaten by an innings and plenty.

In the next match I opened the batting against Warwickshire at Headingley. They had New Zealander Shane Bond as the overseas pro and he'd recently been 'clocked' at 95mph in a Test match. His first ball was a bouncer to my opening partner, Vic Craven. It went over his head and over that of wicket-keeper Keith Piper, going for a one bounce four byes.

Neil Mallender was umpiring at my end. He turned to me, pulled a face and said 'Jesus...that was quick...'

I managed another fifty against an attack that included my future Derbyshire team mate Mo Sheikh and was quite pleased with myself. Then I got to play in the Roses match, live on Sky and was out for a duck in each innings, second ball each time. Not one of my better memories!

Over the following three summers, you only got eight first-class matches. That must have been a frustrating time in your life?

Yeah, the most I got was three consecutive games, but the batting was very strong. There was Vaughan, Lehmann, White, McGrath, Lumb, Blakey – it was tough to break through into that side as a young player.

There were precious few one-day opportunities there either, fairly strange in the light of your form for Derbyshire in the format. Why was that – was it ever explained?

I was very much seen as a potential opener in the four-day game and advised to concentrate on that. I think I scored 34 centuries for the second team, and three double hundreds, yet no one at any point seemed to consider that I could adapt my game to play in the shorter formats.

In the winter of 2005-6, you moved to Derbyshire. How did that come about?

It came to a head at Yorkshire in 2005. I had a poor run with the bat, but I got engaged to Charlotte, which was the only bright spot of the summer. Then, all of a sudden, it went right and in three innings for the seconds I had consecutive scores of 160, 210 and 140-odd.

Former England skipper, Ray Illingworth was always my mentor. At that time he wrote or 'ghosted' a column for the Yorkshire Post and he missed few opportunities to bang the drum for me. Yet no matter what I did or what he wrote, David Byas, the coach, didn't seem to rate me.

The next time I met Illy I told him I was giving serious thought to packing it all in. He told me to wait a while and give him a few days. Apparently he gave Dave Houghton a ring at Derbyshire and a couple of days later, Dave phoned me, completely out of the blue. He told me some nice things, the sort that you always want to hear, and said that he saw me as number three at Derbyshire in all forms of the game.

He invited me down to the club and that invitation extended to my family, who all had a nice day out. It was in stark contrast to Yorkshire, where families were usually not welcome and were regarded as a distraction!

Then, all of a sudden, there was the offer of a two-year deal at Yorkshire, but I'd had enough of it by that stage and was happy to go to work with a man who had a proven reputation as a coach and man manager.

 What were your early impressions of your new team mates? There were two Tasmanians in Michael di Venuto and Travis Birt for starters...

It was great. Dave Houghton was a terrific coach and I liked what he had to say. At Yorkshire it was all about Trueman, Close and Boycott – the legends. Here, the environment was much more friendly and exactly what I needed at the time.

There were a few new guys. Steffan Jones, Graham Wagg, James Pipe – we all came in together and bonded really well. From a personal point of view, it was nice to be told to pad up and face the bowling machine and bowlers at the start of a net session, rather than being tagged on to the end as an afterthought.

Charlotte, my wife, quit her job as a trainee solicitor and became Personal Assistant to Peter Gadsby at Derby County. We moved into a rented flat at Mickleover and were very happy.

I was lucky enough to get runs from the start and got a hundred in my first innings for the county in the Parks against Oxford University. When I got to my century, I launched into a mad celebration that 'Pop' Welch still ribs me about today. It just felt so good, though, so right at Derbyshire.