Even as he performed his stage-managed role to add gravitas and happy history to Australia's Ashes squad
Taylor and his successor Steve Waugh were present in Sydney to provide a
Cricket Australia-approved reminder that teams past had flown to
England with modest billing but returned home as heroes. The spirit of
the 1989 Ashes
tourists, unfancied almost as much as Michael Clarke's team but
ultimately the inflictors of a right royal 4-0 hammering, was invoked as
though a holy rite.
But Taylor was blunt in saying the hunger of Australia's cricketers for
Tests, particularly their batsmen, had been sapped by the riches on
offer in T20, specifically at the IPL currently buzzing across the
subcontinent. Frank and clear-eyed as ever, Taylor said no amount of
wistful talk about baggy green caps and representing one's country could
counter the cash on offer to players prepared to forego their best
batting technique in order to chase sixes and switch-hits in India.
"If you look at the IPL and the money that's going around there, that's
got to be a big influence I think. As much as they all say 'Test
cricket's the No. 1', a million dollars is very distracting," Taylor
told ESPNcricinfo. "You look at Glenn Maxwell getting US$1 million to go
play in the IPL and he's not even playing. How do you compete with
that?
"How do you tell a young player making the next Australian Test team is
more important? Knock back an IPL contract and spend two years working
on your batting technique to get in for a Test match, and throw away $2
million? It's easier said than done."
There was some disquiet earlier this month when thlist of CA contracts
omitted numerous Ashes aspirants, partly due to a system that
recognises all formats. Taylor said the system had improved a good deal
since 1989, or even the late 1990s, when an industrial dispute with the
board pushed the players to the brink of a strike. But he still doubted
how any national contract could now dissuade a young player from
considering the IPL's riches ahead of Test cricket's more archaic sense
of loyalty.
"The idea of the contracts system going back to my time was to give
players security, and they've now got that," he said. "I think the CA
contracts and even the state contracts give players good security, much
more than there was back in the 1990s, and that's what should happen.
"But I'm not sure any of these contracts can ever make up for an IPL
contract. There's probably no security in the IPL, but if you get a $2
million contract you don't need a lot of security. And that's impossible
to compete with."
In 1989, Taylor accumulated no fewer than 839 runs in the six Tests, while Waugh crashed cavalier hundreds at Headingley and Lord's
and returned home with a series average well beyond 100. They were
hungry young batsmen, offered only the most rudimentary of playing
contracts, and still playing at a time when numerous Australian
cricketers still held down day jobs.
Notwithstanding the current crop's vastly different financial
circumstances, Taylor challenged the batsmen selected other than Clarke
to rise above their mediocre records and make the sorts of scores that
would make a statement about Australia's intentions, much as he and
Waugh had done in Leeds.
"Trent Bridge and Lord's, the first two Tests, are very important,"
Taylor said. "If you go back to '89 we won at Headingley where no one
gave us a chance, then we won at Lord's. All of a sudden you're 2-0 up.
If Australia can start something like that, it will start with someone
like David Warner or Phil Hughes, or Cowan, or Watson, making 150, a big
score.
"At Headingley I made 136, Steve made 177 and AB [Allan Border] made a
quickfire 66. It'll start with someone almost out of the blue making a
big score and saying 'we're here to compete'. That's what this side
needs to do. Look at Warner, Watson, Cowan, Hughes. Four opening batsmen
really, they're all averaging in the 30s. That won't get it done. One
or two of them over there have got to average 70 in this series or more.
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