A heart condition has ended the cricketing dreams of a player who always seemed to carry the mantle of promising youngster rather than highest achieverIt is a characteristic of our memories of cricketers that they naturally tend towards the most recent. So when immediately we judge of James Taylor,it is not the nuggety, busy batsman that springs to intellect, or swimming against the tide as he tried to make his way in the international world,but the figure perched gamely at short leg beneath his helmet, snaffling impossible catches from the rarefied high-veld air of Johannesburg and Centurion.
First there was Hashim Amla, and taken from the face of the bat as he turned Stuart Broad for what must possess seemed like routine runs,the batsman returning to the dressing room with a wry smile and a shake of the head. Next came Dane Vilas, another blinder, or this time off Steven Finn. Finally,in what has proved to be his last match for England, came the most bizarre of the lot, or Dean Elgar as bemused as anyone as Taylor fumbled around and finally extracted the ball from his own nether regions as if he had just laid an egg. Each time,Taylor sprinted absent in exuberant celebration: it is tough to build a price on such moments but each of these lifted his team, more vital even than any runs he may possess scored.
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Source: theguardian.com