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Cricket Players'Never got on that well': James Taylor on relationship with Kevin Pietersen
James Taylor, who made his debut for England in 2012 against South Africa, said he has all the respect for Kevin Pietersen as a cricketer but he can’t quite say the same about Pietersen as a person.
Former England batsman James Taylor opened up on his relationship with Kevin Pietersen and said that the former England cricketer wanted ‘other people in the team’ in place of him in the Test side.
Taylor, who made his debut for England in 2012 against South Africa, said he has all the respect for Pietersen as a cricketer but he can’t quite say the same about Pietersen as a person.
“I was 21, making my debut, and there was so much noise. KP had obviously said stuff about me and abused me but when I heard about it… Usually when somebody’s abusing you or you’re being bullied at school your heart would sink because someone’s being nasty to you, and nobody likes that. But honestly, I didn’t care. Not in an arrogant way, but I’m really proud of myself,” Taylor told the Giving The Game Away podcast according to Sky Sports.
In that Test match in Leeds, Pietersen and Taylor had put on a 147-run stand for the fifth wicket to bail the hosts out of trouble against a quality South African attack. Taylor had scored a patient 34 on debut while Pietersen had slammed a swashbuckling 149.
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“Me and KP put on 150 or something like that. That was my first partnership,” Taylor said adding that his gritty innings was perhaps overshadowed by Pietersen’s brilliance.
“I like to think my innings got overlooked because he was so unbelievable and played that phenomenal innings which was one of the best innings you’ll see. Arguably, if he’d played to the situation he wouldn’t have played anything like that innings.
“It was a phenomenal innings against one of the best attacks and I just blunted it up the other end, tried to get him on strike, but nobody remembers that I was playing the situation.”
“I will never use it as an excuse, but people say I didn’t play more than initially because people thought I was too small. KP obviously jumped on that bandwagon and said stuff about me because he wanted other people in the team other than me,” said Taylor, who played 7 Tests and 27 ODIs for England.
Taylor said he never quite got along with Pietersen who always used to say things to him.
“I didn’t know KP. For some reason we never got on, not that I didn’t like him initially because I didn’t know him, he just took it on himself not to be a decent bloke to me or with me around for some reason.
“If Alastair Cook or Andrew Strauss had been going ‘that little James Taylor, he’s rubbish, he’s no good etc etc’ your heart would sink. But honestly, I had no feelings, nothing inside, because I didn’t respect him at the time because I’d seen how he was and what he’d been saying and how he’d behaved – I didn’t respect him as much as I should.
“As a cricketer – legend, brilliant, love watching him. But as a person at the time and what I saw I didn’t respect him that much so it didn’t hurt me as much,” Taylor added.
