Captaincy is an unrewarding job: Ross Taylor

Former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has admitted the national team leadership came to him a couple of years too early. Ross was made the skipper in all formats in 2011. But, his captaincy stint last for just 18 months.

“I enjoyed captaincy, it brought the best out of my game, but it’s an unrewarding job. Heath Mills, from the New Zealand Players Association, always said it was unrewarding. He was right,” Ross Taylor says.

He had been appointed after a curious process in which he and McCullum had to go through an interview to get the job. They were interviewed by then national coach John Wright, the then director of cricket John Buchanan and acting national selection head Mark Greatbatch.

“I don’t know many people who would have to interview to become the national team captain, so that was a strange thing to deal with. It was bizarre, very bizarre,” Taylor said.

“It was an honour and a privilege to get the job but I really don’t know how to describe it. I guess when I write my book I’ll go into depth a bit more, but it was different. At least when I finish my cricket career I can say I’ve had one job interview!”

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Taylor was replaced by Brendon McCullum late in 2012 in one of the most acrimonious periods in recent New Zealand cricket history.

“I guess yes and no, on it [captaincy] being a childhood dream,” he says. “I always thought I could do it but it came a couple of years before I was ready. I was just getting into a bit of form and then had the added responsibility of being captain,” Taylor said in an interview with EspnCricinfo.

“Until you do the job, you don’t realise how much there is involved in it. Your brain is ticking the whole time. The only time you aren’t thinking cricket is when you aren’t playing. And with the amount of cricket being played now, that’s not very often.”