Johensberg, September 30: Some three decades ago a cricketing star was announced to the world when the sages of the Cricket Writers’ Club named a blonde, mop-topped Leicestershire batsman as their young cricketer of the year.
The year was 1978 and a rookie left-hander named David Gower had captured the imagination of the nation’s press-box luminaries to win their landslide vote for the best under-23 cricketer in the land.
Gower, then only 21, had just traded the wing-collared shirt of his King’s School Canterbury uniform for a green county cap emblazoned with Leicestershire’s red fox when he won the first major award of an ultimately illustrious career.
Inevitably, the Cricket Writers’ top young cricketer for 2009, Leicestershire’s 19-year-old James Taylor, will attract comparisons to the enigmatic Gower. Like Gower, Taylor plays his well-honed strokes at the aptly named Grace Road. Yet characteristically, the pair are worlds apart. While Gower won infamy and fortune for champagne moments, airy leg-side flicks and buzzing tour colleagues in a bi-plane, so Taylor has already won the respect of seasoned colleagues simply for his dedication.
–Agencies