Taylor eyes int'l comeback after sanction ends

Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor, currently serving a three-and-half-year ban for breaching the ICC's anti-corruption code, is eyeing an international comeback when his sanction ends in July, reports espncricinfo.com.

Taylor, 39, had initially considered a move into coaching but has been convinced to resume his playing career by Zimbabwe Cricket's MD Givemore Makoni, with a view to playing the 2027 ODI World Cup, which Zimbabwe will co-host. Taylor will be eligible to play again on July 25 this year.

"I still want to play and I believe I could make an impact as a player," Taylor told ESPNcricinfo. "I look at where I'm at physically and mentally and if I didn't feel I could do it, I wouldn't bother. Givemore has really supported me on this. He sort of shut down the coaching role for now and said, 'Can you play and try to push yourself up until the 2027 World Cup?' Granted I'll be 41 then but with sobriety, I'm living my truest form."

Taylor admitted to drug and alcohol addiction problem at the same time he revealed an approach by match-fixers to spot fix after they filmed him using cocaine. He was threatened with the video being made public if he did not cooperate with them. Instead of going through with the fix, Taylor abruptly retired from international cricket in September 2021 and did not reveal the reasons. He only reported the incident to the ICC four months later and made the story public in January 2022.

At that point, Taylor also checked himself into a rehabilitation centre in Zimbabwe's Nyanga region on the Mozambique border.