Former England boss Graham Taylor told Cricket AM that cricket is his number one sport, not football!
Cricket's my number one sport... not football.
Former England football manager Graham Taylor gave Cricket AM an exclusive as he revealed that he was more in love with cricket than the beautiful game!
Despite being involved with football on a professional level for more than 40 years, as both a player and a manager, Taylor admitted that his heart really belonged to cricket.
"It's a tremendous game, cricket," said Taylor. " It's my favourite sport above football."
Taylor explained his love for cricket came from his farther, who was a sports journalist and an avid fan of County side Kent.
Although brought up in Lincolnshire, Taylor naturally followed his father's team and was particularly inspired by Kent wicket keeper Godfrey Evans, who was described by Wisden as "arguably the best wicket keeper the game has ever seen".
"All of my cricket, even though I was brought up in Lincolnshire, was all about Godfrey Evans the wicket keeper," he said.
"I'll tell you, I don't care whoever becomes a wicket keeper, no one will ever be better than Godfrey Evans."
Charity
The former Watford and Aston Villa manager is currently involved with the charity, Chance to Shine, which aims to bring competitive cricket back to state schools.
Last year the charity encouraged 10,000 matches between state schools and Taylor said he was proud to be a part of the initiative.
"The whole business of a Chance To Shine is very, very good," he said. "I'm pleased and proud to be helping as much as I can to get people involved in cricket."
The England cricket team were filmed taking penalties last week, as they prepared for the second Test against new Zealand and Taylor told Cricket Am that he also used to encourage the cross over of the two sports when he was a manager.
"In pre season we used to have a lot of cricket matches, which was down to me," he said. "John Barnes, who we all know, used to open with myself and he was first class.
"He could play in the Indian Premier League right now because he just hits it, whereas I would be in there building my innings ."
