Claire Taylor is the first woman to be named Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year. She remains the highest scorer, male or female, in an ODI at Lord’s. She was the Player of the Series when England won both the ODI and T20 World Cups in 2009. She studied mathematics at Oxford and left a well-paying job at P&G to be a full-time cricketer when there was no money in the women’s game. Excerpts from an interview Taylor gave The Hindu at Lord’s:
Women’s cricket has undergone quite a transformation since your playing days.
Transformation is the right word. There have been a number of incremental changes on the way, and the difference is huge between when I played 15 years ago and now. They are supported all the way through. They have their kit sponsors. Whether they are Indians or English, they get the best venues in their countries. They get the best coaches. What you are seeing is fully professional female cricketers. And they are paid to play.
You had to leave your job.
If I wanted to be a better cricketer, I had to make some sacrifice. It was a difficult decision. You know, the guy who I worked alongside, I would meet him two or three years later. He has a lovely job, a lovely house, a Porsche and everything. And I don’t have a job and I live at home with my mum and dad and I definitely don’t have a Porsche, right? So it was hard that I dropped off that career ladder. But it was easy as well because if I had wanted to stay on the career ladder, I would have had to go to Geneva or Cincinnati and they don’t play much cricket there, do they? But I wanted to be a brilliant cricketer. And I was part of teams that won World Cups. That is what it is all about, isn’t it?
Beating the old enemy: Taylor ’s 76 n.o. in the 2009 T20 World Cup semifinal ‘brought together everything’ she had been ‘working on to dominate ’ top teams like Australia.
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How do you look back at those World Cup wins in 2009?
Australia was a wonderful tour. Ahead of the ODI World Cup, we had some good warm-up fixtures and then beat Sri Lanka, had a good run, lost to Australia, but beat New Zealand in the final, which was just amazing. To watch Nicky Shaw come in late, take four wickets, and then Holly Colvin hit the winning runs through — shall we call it forward square or mid-wicket? — it was all great.
That whole period, we talked world domination. We were focused on winning the T20I World Cup at home, which we did, beating New Zealand again in the final, here at Lord’s. One of the really interesting things is for me to have that innings [76 not out off 53 balls] at the Oval, in the semifinal against Australia, which brought together everything that I had been working towards in terms of how to dominate another team and how to work with my batting partner and so on.
Because the bowlers felt so pressured by what had happened against Australia, who got 160-odd runs, and it made us look foolish. The bowlers came out here, we won the toss [against New Zealand], we put them in and Katherine Sciver-Brunt got three for six in four overs. It was a great spell of bowling from the Nursery End, got their captain out and we were only chasing 86 to win a World Cup final at Lord’s.
You had another memorable outing here back in 2006. Your 156 not out against India remains the highest ODI score at Lord’s.
I remember Jhulan Goswami was absolutely unplayable. It rained earlier that day. The pitch was a little bit green. I couldn’t get bat on ball. She was too good. If she had been worse, I might have got an edge on it. She was so tall. She was moving it a mile. She was metronomic. If there is a female bowler that you would compare to Glenn McGrath, it is Jhulan.
In 2009, you made history by becoming the first-ever woman to be named by Wisden as one of its cricketers of the year, breaking a century-old tradition.
It wasn’t something I ever expected. When Scyld Berry, the Wisden editor, said, ‘Come, can I meet you for lunch?’ I just thought he wanted to talk about the upcoming World Cup, which he did. Then he said, ‘Okay, the reason I asked you for lunch today is that I want to name you as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. What do you think?’ And I was like, ‘Sorry, you what?’ I didn’t really understand it, because you don’t think about that. That is not ever on your radar. It is not something you want to achieve.
It is a credit to him as well?
Indeed. It was incredible. To be named a Wisden Cricketer in 2009, you have to have had influence in 2008. I was basically never out. Every game we chased, we won. We were on our journey to world domination at that point.
Ruling Lord’s: Taylor’s 156 n.o. against India in 2006 remains the highest score at world cricket’s most famous ground.
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The batters that have influenced you?
I think you can divide my career into maybe three chunks. You can divide it into that first, trying to figure out what was going on and getting a bit of coaching and everything. Then maybe a period between 2001 and 2005 when I was trying to be one of the best players in the world. Rather than trying to emulate players like Belinda Clark, Charlotte Edwards or Jan Brittin, I decided I didn’t need to be them. I was never going to be as good as them, only a second-rate version of them. I wanted to be the best version of me. There are different ways of being brilliant. That is the amazing thing about cricket though, isn’t it? There is so much space in the game for all sorts of people.
I was influenced by two batters, one of which wasn’t a woman. I liked the way Debbie Hockley hit the ball to all parts of the ground. I also liked Ricky Ponting, who was just a little bit unorthodox. His bat didn’t come through perfectly straight in the same way that some other batters did. But he was incredibly effective. Because he would take the ball and he would hit it in slightly unorthodox areas. And never gave his wicket away. He minimised his weaknesses and he maximised his ability to score from elsewhere.
What is it with Taylor and England women’s cricket? Clare Taylor, the one who also played at the football World Cup, was telling me the other day, ‘We used to say if your name is not Taylor, you are not going to be selected’. And Sarah Taylor, the wicketkeeping great, was your teammate.
And there were Taylors in the team before Clare. Maybe someone in this England team should change their name and be a Taylor, so we could be World champions again.
Published – August 01, 2026 07:50 am IST
