Clare Taylor played at the World Cup for England in football and cricket. She had a longer career in cricket, in which she claimed more than 100 international wickets with her pace bowling. The 61-year-old is now a part of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit. Excerpts from an interview Taylor gave The Hindu at Old Trafford, during the T20 Women’s World Cup:
Your earliest memories of sport? Are they from football or cricket?
Definitely football. Just where I lived, Huddersfield, we had a grass area. And I have to admit to being a Liverpool fan; we had players like Kevin Keegan, Terry McDermott…
And later on, along came Ian Rush…
Yes, Liverpool has had some great players. Where I lived, it was mainly boys that played. I joined them.
What position did you start at?
Centre-forward. Everyone wants to score goals. And then later on, just kept moving back and ended up as sweeper or centre-half, which I really liked. I think my one skill was reading the game.
Who discovered your talent in football?
Well, I got into the boys’ team at school. The Physical Education teacher, Ian Mackay, was the one who encouraged me. And then that was a big thing in the local paper, which had said, ‘Future Pele can’t play. She is a girl.’ Well, the local FA also said, ‘You can’t play. You are a girl. Because there is no insurance if you get injured.’ So my parents took out private insurance just so I could go and then I played for a team in Bradford. And then you just get selected for representative things.
I moved from Bradford, where I played for Bronte Ladies. Then I moved from there to a team called Knowsley, which is near Liverpool. And with the start of the National League, Liverpool men’s team took over the running of Knowsley. So I ended up playing for Liverpool, which was like a highlight for me. So once that got, you know, a little bit more professional without being professional, that’s when I realised there was probably more opportunities.
Cross fit: Football helped Taylor’s cricket. ‘I was fitter,’ she says. ‘The cricket team did the beep test, and girls were dropping out at five, which is like a quick walk. I was up at 11, 12.’
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How do you look back at that football World Cup in 1995?
It was in Sweden. And we ended up on overnight trains to get between destinations. So it wasn’t, you know, first class travel and things like that. And going to the stadium and nobody was in the ground. We played Canada in our first game. And I would say there were about 200 people in the ground. And then you look at the grounds now and, you know, the Lionesses play in front of 40,000 or 50,000.
Them winning Euro 2022 was a catalyst, wasn’t it?
Absolutely. England is quite a fickle place and the media tend to sway a lot of things.
To go back to your own football World Cup…
We had four group games and then we got through to the quarterfinals. And then we did what England do: we lost to Germany in the quarterfinals.
Gender no bar, then, when it comes to football and Germany?
No, no. We just don’t do well, male or female.
You must have more pleasant memories from the cricket World Cup, which was played here in England in 1993.
We had lost to New Zealand in the round-robin phase. They just put a ring field and we played 60 overs and just didn’t have the power; we had a lot of technically good players, though. They just stacked the offside; so it was covers: dot ball, dot ball. So we lost to New Zealand. We went back and I said, look, we have got to start, the term I used was hoiking, which means cow shot. Get your bottom hand in.
So, I remember all the girls went into the nets and practised it. Even girls like Janette Brittin, who was class. Carole Hodges… you know, they practised it. And then we played Australia and we had never really beaten Australia. And we absolutely hammered them.
In the final, we played New Zealand again. It was at Lord’s. The ground, it was a third full. But for us, that was quite frightening because, you know, you weren’t used to people. Then there was a pitch invasion once we had won.
We had a crowd of eight or nine thousand. That was massive [for us]. The media were up at Headingley, as the men were. And they just lost the Ashes up at Headingley. They got bowled out. So the BBC had some cameras down at Lord’s. The last half an hour, or 40 minutes, they did it.
Defining moment: Taylor (standing, fourth right) says the 1993 World Cup win was ‘massive’ because of the turnout at Lord’s and the media coverage.
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So they showed it live on TV?
Yes, and I think it was happening probably for the first time in women’s cricket. That made such a big difference because the next day we were in all the newspapers.
You have travelled to India several times for cricket.
The first time we went, I was just blown away with how big it was, how different from city to city, how different from the Western world it was. I also remember being amazed by watching — it might be at Hyderabad, I think — lots of women on the outfield with sponges and buckets. And literally, it was a human super sopper.
Players you like watching these days?
I love watching Ellyse Perry. Marizanne Kapp, too. Perry is brilliant because she just flatlines all the way through. There’s no show of emotion.
Apart from you, Perry is the only double World Cupper — and even scored a stunning goal — besides winning multiple cricket World Cups with Australia. She once told me every girl should try multiple sports before specialising in one.
Absolutely. I totally agree. Football helped my cricket because I was fitter. I had to be fit to play cricket.
And that was not the time when everybody was fit, as is the case today.
No, I remember the first time the England women’s team did the beep test, and girls were dropping out at five, which is just like a quick walk. But I was up at 11, 12. And everyone’s looking at me going, you know, but I don’t think it helped the other girls because they were saying, look, if she can be at this level, then you need to get to this level.
It is good to see women’s cricket is getting better and the girls can make a living out of it. And it is lovely watching some of them play, like Smriti Mandhana. She is class. You have got players who have brute strength, but she is such a touch player. It’s lovely to watch.
Was someone as stylish as her in your time?
Obviously not a left-hander, but Janette Brittin was very elegant.
