Christopher Glyn Taylor (born 27 September 1976) is an English former professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who now coaches the game as a specialist fielding coach. Chris Taylor played a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler for

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, founded in 1870, is one of 18 first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, hist ...

. Since leaving Gloucestershire in 2011, Taylor has taken up an array of coaching roles, most notably joining England as fielding coach in 2014.

Playing career

Taylor's first opportunity in first-class cricket came against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

in 2000, where he hit a century on his debut for the side. Covering extensively as a wicket-keeper throughout his first year of cricket, he found himself in one of his first cricket matches up against a touring

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

team. Having aided Gloucestershire through five seasons of Division Two cricket, he was instrumental in their rise to Division One of the County Championship for 2004, the year he was made captain of the four-day side by player-coach Mark Alleyne. Despite managing to keep a strong hold on his middle-order batting position during his first season in the top division, he was unable to stop his Gloucestershire side from dropping to Division Two once again in the year 2005. For 2006 he lost the position of captain to Jon Lewis. He scored over 1000 runs in 2007 and 2011. Despite having a successful career at Gloucester, which included winning seven one day trophies with the club, his departure was controversial and he took the county to a tribunal for unfair dismissal after his contract was not renewed after 2011. A settlement was eventually reached and Taylor retired from playing to focus on coaching.

Coaching career

Taylor's first move into coaching came in 2008 when he was appointed Gloucestershire fielding coach in 2008 while still playing for the club. He left in 2011 when his contract with the club expired. He spent the 2013 season with Somerset working as assistant coach, before moving to Surrey as fielding coach for the 2014 season. Taylor worked with the England Lions as fielding coach on and off from 2008 to 2014. During this time he also had a brief spell with the Denmark national side, acting as a consultant coach. He was the fielding coach for the

England cricket team The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

between 2014 and 2017 before returning to Surrey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Chris 1976 births English cricketers Living people Gloucestershire cricket captains Gloucestershire cricketers Gloucestershire Cricket Board cricketers First-Class Counties Select XI cricketers Cricketers from Bristol