Samantha Claire Taylor (born 25 September 1975) is a former cricketer who represented England more than 150 times between 1998 and 2011. A top order batter, Taylor was the first woman to be named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Along with Charlotte Edwards, she was the mainstay of England's batting during the first decade of the 21st century, and played a key role in the team's two world titles in 2009.
Taylor did not play cricket until the age of 13, but four years later made her county debut. Initially considered a wicket-keeper with limited batting ability, Taylor struggled to break into the England team. She made her international debut in 1998, and within two years was a regular in the team. After an unsuccessful World Cup in 2000, Taylor left her job to become a full-time cricketer. Over the subsequent five years, she developed into one of the leading batsmen in women's cricket, but after another failure in the 2005 World Cup she resumed her career alongside cricket.
Despite her struggles at the World Cup, Taylor continued to improve as a batsman, and in 2006, she scored 156 not out, the highest individual total in an ODI at Lord's Cricket Ground. Her batting successes resulted in her being short-listed for the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year in 2007 and 2008, and she won the award in 2009. After being the leading run-scorer in the 2009 World Cup, and player of the tournament in the World Twenty20 later that year, she was less consistent from 2010, though she performed well in the pair of quadrangular tournaments played in England during her final summer of cricket, and completed her career with batting averages in excess of 40 in both Test and ODI cricket. In July 2018, she was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
Early life and career
Samantha Claire Taylor was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire on 25 September 1975, as part of a sporting family: her father played rugby, and her mother played hockey. She attended Dolphin School in Hurst, Berkshire, where she initially played softball, participating as the only girl in the school team. Taylor did not play cricket until a summer camp at the age of 13, but thereafter improved to such a level that she captained the Dolphin School cricket team, playing alongside the boys. She subsequently moved to The Abbey School, Reading for a short time, and finally Kendrick School. Although she primarily played hockey as a teenager, at which she represented England at Under-17 and Under-19 as a forward, she began playing women's county cricket for Thames Valley, making her debut for the side in May 1993.
Taylor was awarded a place at The Queen's College, Oxford to study Mathematics in 1994. At Oxford, Taylor earned three blues for hockey, and three half blues for cricket. She also played for the college men's cricket team, which included Iain Sutcliffe, who later played over three hundred county cricket matches. During her time at Oxford, Taylor continued to play for Thames Valley, and scored her maiden century in the women's County Championship, scoring 109 runs against Lancashire and Cheshire in July 1996. Her highest score prior to that innings had been 37. The following year, having graduated from Oxford with a second-class honours degree, Taylor scored successive half-centuries for Thames Valley, reaching 97 against Sussex, 77 against Lancashire and Cheshire, and an unbeaten 62 against East Midlands. She had been making intermittent appearances for England at various age group levels for the previous five years, and in September 1997, she scored 85 for England Under-21s against the touring South African side. Even so, she was not included in the team for the 1997 Women's Cricket World Cup, but she was named as a non-travelling reserve, something that Taylor said "confirmed to me my breakthrough into the senior squad."
