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Jack Taylor Blog Part Two

21 February 2014

In the second part of his fascinating blog, Jack Taylor describes more of the obstacles he had to overcome to remodel his bowling action and save his career as a professional cricketer.

The off-spinner is looking forward to playing a full part in Gloucestershire’s season, having had his suspension for an illegal bowling action lifted by the ECB following a rigorous testing process at Loughborough University earlier this month.

That followed months of hard work and some dark days for Jack after the ban was imposed last May, as he honestly recalls in the concluding part of his blog.

He writes:

I found being around the team on match-days hard as I felt out of the loop just playing in the second team as a batsman and knowing that I wouldn't play a first team game for the rest of the season.

Motivating myself to go out and field while not being able to bowl was also tough and some long days knowing that I couldn’t contribute in the usual way was something I found hard to stay positive about. But I didn’t want to let the other guys down as they were all pushing to get in the first team, so I tried not to let anything show and put on a front.

By mid August I was in a better place mentally and, along with the coaches, I felt I might be in a position to retake my bowling analysis test by the end of the season. Unfortunately, in a second team game against Glamorgan in late August I caught a ball above my head and dislocated my shoulder for the second time.

It popped straight back in so we all thought I may only be out for a couple of weeks and that it would prove not too much of a setback. But when I went for a scan I found out that I required surgery or there was a big chance that it would keep happening.

This put me on a real downer and I really found it hard to keep positive. There were a few weeks where I found it hard to cope. However, by the end of September I had undergone the operation and was looking towards recovering from it to be back bowling by mid November.

I had about five weeks back at my parents’ house during October, two of which I spent in a sling not able to do much. All I wanted was to get back bowling and training again Then I started to rehab my shoulder gradually and by the time everyone reported back for winter training I was ready to start doing some light bowling drills.

The last two months have been mainly focused on my bowling because everything hinged on getting it right. Around that I have been training with all the other lads fielding, batting, and getting back to full strength and feeling back part of the squad.

The re-test of my bowling action was booked for the February 4th. During the week leading up to it the nerves really started to kick in. I kept thinking that in a fortnight I would know whether or not I could carry on playing professional cricket - and that was a daunting thought.

The night before the test, myself Richard Dawson and Chris Bodman went up to the University of Gloucestershire again to go through a mock test of what I would do in Loughborough the following day. The university has been a massive help throughout the process and being able to use their facilities was a major factor in me passing the test, so I can’t thank them enough.

Now I’m in a great position mentally and physically, so I can concentrate fully on training hard for pre-season and getting back in the frame of mind for first team selection at the start of the summer.

I can’t thank everyone at the club enough for supporting me throughout this tough time and I hope I can repay you all with some match winning performances in 2014.

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