BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies fast bowler Jerome Taylor says he opted for the Indian Premier League in order to erase the uncertainty surrounding his future.
The 26-year-old failed to land a central contract with the West Indies Cricket Board last year and was also left out of the preliminary squad for the World Cup which ended last month.
Taylor, who is playing for IPL side Pune Warriors, was also not selected for the current Pakistan series in the Caribbean.
“I asked the WICB for an NOC (no-objection certificate) since I wasn’t a contracted player with the WICB,” the Jamaican told ESPNcricinfo.
“I didn’t get selected in the 30-man preliminary squad for the World Cup, which none of the selectors said anything to me about, even though I was fit enough to be preparing for the domestic first-class competition.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be selected so I had to keep my options open. It was a case where I didn’t want to be at home, waiting to be selected, not get picked and let this opportunity pass me for a third year in a row.”
Questions were raised when Taylor turned out in the IPL but yet was not selected for the One-Day International series against Pakistan which West Indies lost 3-2.
Taylor said he had picked up a back injury playing for Jamaica in the Regional First Class Championship but claimed the WICB never contacted him about it until he reached India in early April.
“I had a chat with [selector] Robert Haynes during the four-day competition and an exchange of emails with the WICB CEO, Dr Ernest Hilaire, about the NOC, but no one contacted me about my injury before I came here [to India],” Taylor explained.
“The Jamaica Cricket Association sent me to see Dr Akshai Mansingh, who is on the WICB medical panel … he told me the injury was nothing to keep me out of playing for too long. That’s why I opted to come here.
“On April 7, 2011, after I had arrived in India, I received an email from Dr Hilaire – and the Pune Warriors management and medical staff also let me know – that he needed a report on my medical status for his purposes of informing the IPL [about my fitness].”
Taylor has not played for West Indies in almost a year and has not featured in a Test since limping out of the first match of the three-Test series in Australia in late 2009, after sending down just nine overs.
In not offering Taylor a central contract last August, the WICB said they were disappointed by the player’s “lack of commitment to his own rehabilitation”.
Taylor is one of two key players to miss the Pakistan series and play in the IPL, with fellow Jamaican Chris Gayle also taking up a contract with Royal Challengers Bangalore.