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Stanford Chiwanga, Online News Editor
FRIENDS, Zimbabweans, cricket lovers, lend me your ears. I come to bury Brendan Taylor, not to praise him for his decision to expose his indiscretions.

While many sympathise with Taylor and praise him for his decision to confess his sins and apologise, I say the confession and apology is not sincere.

Taylor had almost three years to come clean, but he chose to remain silent in the hope that the International Cricket Council (ICC) would bury his sins and international career in silence.

He even admits this as he opens his long statement with the words: “To my friends, family, supporters. I would like to make a statement regarding a finding made by the ICC, which is soon to be released.”

While many credit Taylor for approaching the ICC on his “own terms” four months after he was blackmailed, one thinks he reported the “offence and interaction” after realising that the hole he had dug was too deep for him to climb out without assistance.

Taylor hoped the ICC would understand the delay and says it is unfortunate that they did not. The unfortunate thing here is that he ignored the advice of the “many anti-corruption seminars” he attended.

Taylor was a prisoner of the shadowy Indian businessman and the individuals that recorded a video of him snorting cocaine. Taking the US$15 000 “deposit” for spot-fixing after being “cornered” is understandable because the six individuals could have harmed him.

But not surrendering the money to Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) raises a lot of questions about his sincerity because, as he admits, “time is of the essence when making reports”.

The brilliant former Chevrons’ skipper also claims that he has “never been involved in any form of match-fixing”, apparently because his “love for the game of cricket far outweighs and surpasses any threats which could be thrown his way”.

He goes on to say he has always been honest and transparent, but his inability to speak out in 2019 makes these claims hard to believe. We won’t say he is a liar, but the truth is not in him. In an effort to gain sympathy, Taylor reveals that he was so stressed that his health became compromised and was diagnosed with shingles. We are relieved that the strong anti-psychotic medication that he was prescribed helped him heal from the illness. But how will the country and cricket heal from his ill-judgements?

The scars of the racial sins of Mark Vermeulen are still fresh in local cricket. Zimbabwe is still to come to terms with another former cricket great Heath Streak’s bitcoin and iPhone corruption scandal, again at the hands of a shadowy Indian businessman.

And who has forgotten Hamilton Masakadza’s run out fail at the T20 World Cup in 2016, which should have been investigated?

Now we have to deal with this. To make matters worse, Taylor confesses that his fall from grace to grass was a result of his decision to snort cocaine at a celebratory dinner at a hotel in India. What exactly was he celebrating? In what capacity did he fly to India to negotiate the proposed launch of a T20 tournament in Zimbabwe?

And again, how long has Taylor been doing drugs? Did this particular businessman know that Taylor was a cocaine snorting cricketer? Chances are high (pun intended) that his blackmailers had some information and they used it to lead him to the valley of the shadow of match fixing.

Suspicions that Taylor used substances are founded on his announcement that he will “attend a rehabilitation centre to get clean” to get his life back on track.

This suggests that Taylor had indeed fallen off the wagon, because if he was only a one-time user, there would be no need for him to attend rehab.

Taylor was a loved player, not without cause — he is a hero of Zimbabwe cricket and he served the country well.

Among the many cricketers, who got their chance after the rebel Zimbabwean players protested against the board in 2004, Taylor was probably the most talented to come through. He played 34 tests, 205 one-day internationals and 45 T20 games for Zimbabwe over a 17-year career from 2004 to 2021.

The 35-year-old is one of Zimbabwe’s best players and is fourth on the list of the country’s top run-scorers in Test cricket and second on Zimbabwe’s ODI list. He amassed 6 677 runs. What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?

That said, Taylor must not be buried alone.

Zimbabwe Cricket must have known about Taylor’s indiscretions, but it chose the convenient silent route. The decision by the board not to issue a farewell statement when Taylor retired from international cricket raised eyebrows.

We should have known.