Taylor’s brush with death: Ex-Zim captain says Bob Woolmer tragedy ‘entered my head’

BY SPORTSCAST WRITER  

HARARE – Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Brendan Taylor, who is nearing the end of his suspension from the game, has revealed how he feared for his life in India at the hands of illegal bookmakers who attempted to blackmail him into match-fixing using a secretly recorded video of him taking drugs.

Taylor was in January 2022 banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for three-and-a-half years after admitting charges related to drug use and a match-fixing approach.

This stemmed from an ill-fated trip to India in October 2019 at the invitation of some Indian businessmen who turned out to be part of a criminal network of illegal bookmakers, to Taylor’s shock. Taylor was a special guest at an event in New Delhi purportedly to launch a series of cricket activities in Zimbabwe, being feted like a rock star by the so-called businessmen during his stay. He was to be paid an appearance fee of US$15 000 for the three day-event, on top of being unveiled as a brand ambassador for the project.  

In an interview last week with cricket broadcaster and journalist Dean du Plessis on his Podcast, Dean at Stumps, Taylor described how what had been a pleasant trip suddenly turned sour on the day of his departure back to Zimbabwe.

“It all ran very smoothly up until the last night, it was quite an intense two and half days and the final evening in New Delhi was a night of celebration, and looking forward to getting home,” Taylor told Du Plessis.

“And at that time, I was heavily drinking and I was really engaging in substances, particularly cocaine. I wasn’t aware that they were recording me under the table, and were going to use that as a leverage to get a return on their investment. So when I checked out the next morning, the same six guys (who were hosting Taylor) and their entourage knocked on my door when I was packing up to get home. They greeted me very friendly and they said ‘it’s great to do business with you, we hope that this can be an annual thing and here is your appearance fee’. And by the way, as they handed me their appearance fee, a guy presented me with video evidence of me engaging in substances, cocaine. So that was a terrifying moment. It was all about…okay, the first thing that went into my head was ‘it has taken 20 years to build all this up, maybe longer, and it’s all going to come crushing down in one moment of madness’. Granted, I had many moments of madness, but I’m in their backyard and I did not know how to deal with this.”

Taylor explained how he had then tried to turn down the fee, given the conditions of the payment.  In desperation, Taylor also brought out the matter of Zimbabwe’s international ban by the ICC at that time, pleading that he was unable to execute any fixing because of lack of matches.  But the bookmakers were unyielding, telling the Zimbabwe batting kingpin that they had “connections” to make it possible despite Zimbabwe’s ban.  

Cornered, and possibly exposed to harm, Taylor reluctantly took the money and started his journey back home aware that his life was about to take a dramatic turn.

Du Plessis suggested to Taylor in the interview that his life could have been in danger had he declined the payment and insisted on taking action against the bookmakers. Du Plessis remarked that “there may be a possibility you may not have come out of that room alive” had Taylor said “I’m not taking your money, I’m going to report you, I don’t care what your video evidence is.”

The former Zimbabwe skipper admitted to that fear, likening his situation in that chapter to the mysterious death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, who was found dead in his hotel room in Jamaican capital Kingston during the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

“I still remember, to this day, in 2007 sadly when Bob Woolmer died,” Taylor told Du Plessis.

 “We were in Jamaica for the World Cup and Ireland had famously beaten Pakistan (to knock them out of the competition). Bob Woolmer was the head coach and we woke up the next morning that Bob had passed away in his hotel room and that was one of the first things that entered my head (in India). It still hasn’t been proven, but the jury is out there that Bob was taken out. They seem to think that it was natural causes but a lot of people believe that Pakistan losing that (to Ireland) was detrimental and conspiracy theorists or…I just don’t understand how it hasn’t ever been clear-cut, or proven how Bob passed away. So that was a sad time. So that sort of popped in my head when, you’re in a foreign place…you’re are dealing with some really rough people here who have been good to me for so long and they’ve literally done a 360 (degree turn) on me. You know, it’s an underworld Mafia-type of syndicate running in India so common sense told me told just ‘get out’, that’s what it did told me to do.”

Taylor would later report the India fiasco to the ICC, but he was slapped with a ban at the beginning of 2022 due to the delayed reporting and other related charges.

The suspension ends in July and at the ripe age of 39, one of Zimbabwe’s best cricketers of all time has decided to return to the game as a player again, following a resolute recovery process that included a 90-day stint in a rehabilitation centre.  

Taylor credits his comeback decision to the Managing Director of Zimbabwe Cricket, Givemore Makoni, as well as the longevity of some of the Zimbabwean team’s senior players.

“Givemore is a soft-natured guy, deep inside, I’ve learnt that about him in the last couple of years and you know, I was quick to judge him when I was the one who is having the problems,” said Taylor.

“I realised I’ve been wrong there, and he’s really backed me here. He has a big belief in senior players, that he can mix that core between junior, senior players and it seems like we’re getting that right.  We have a good blend of that – the Bennetts and Campbells and Madheveres and Marumanis coming through. It’s a mixed bag with Craig (Ervine), Sean (Williams), (Sikandar) Raza, and those three senior guys are still top performers. So that inspired me and we are all of similar age. So I said to him (Makoni) ‘I wouldn’t mind coaching’. He said ‘I want you to play, can you play 2027 World Cup?’. That created a sort of shift in my mindset.  I’m sober, I feel young, I feel sharp. Why not? Why not? It’s good to chase something, I guess we are all competitors. It was nice to have his backing and support.”

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