In the Essex dressing rooms of yesteryear, famous for their characters, none was bigger or more boldly defined than Brian ‘Tonker’ Taylor, who died last week at the age of 84.
Captain of the county from 1967-72, Taylor, a wicket-keeper/batsman of great determination, dragged an underachieving county to the cusp of greatness it would later achieve. Just as Nasser Hussain’s England side laid the foundations for the success it achieved under Michael Vaughan, so too did Tonker’s Essex pave the way for the glories under Keith Fletcher and Graham Gooch.
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