Bruce Taylor (cricketer)


Bruce Richard Taylor is a New Zealand former Test and One Day International cricketer who played 30 Tests and 2 ODIs between 1965 and 1973. He is the only cricketer to score a century and take a five-wicket haul on debut in a Test match.

International career

Taylor scored 105 and took 5–86 for New Zealand on Test debut against India at Calcutta in 1964–65, becoming the first man to have completed this all-round feat on debut. Taylor, who had never scored a first-class century before, and had played only three first-class matches, came in at No. 8 and slammed 105 in 158 minutes with 14 fours and three sixes and helped Bert Sutcliffe add 163 for the seventh wicket.
He also scored New Zealand's fastest Test century in 1969, a record that stood until Daniel Vettori broke it in 2005. In the First Test against the West Indies at Auckland, Taylor came in with the score at 152 for 6 and hit 14 fours and five sixes. His 50 came up in 30 minutes, and his century in 86 minutes. He finished on 124. This second Test century was, remarkably, also his second first-class century.
His outstanding series was in the West Indies in 1971–72. In a batsman's series, in which all five Tests were drawn, and no other bowler on either side took more than 14 wickets, Taylor took 27 wickets at 17.70 in four Tests. His best Test figures came in the Third Test in Bridgetown, when he took 7 for 74 to dismiss the West Indies for 133 before tea on the first day, bowling, Wisden said, "quite superbly". Of his overall performance in the series, Wisden said, "Tight control allied to a high action enabled him to extract any bounce going and there was no greater trier in the entire New Zealand party." He played his last Test on the tour to England in 1973.

Domestic career

His highest first-class score came in 1972–73, when he hit 173 against Otago at Dunedin, after coming in to bat with the score on 42 for 4. He played his last first-class match in 1979–80.

After cricket

Since finishing as an active player Taylor has served as a selector for the Wellington, Otago and national teams.
In early 1993 he resigned his job as bursar at John McGlashan College in Dunedin following allegations of financial irregularities. In the grip of a gambling addiction, he had stolen $360,000 from the school.