Brendan Taylor Admits to Taking Drugs and Bribes to Match Fix, Former Zimbabwe Captain Faces Cricket Ban

Brendan Taylor Admits to Taking Drugs and Bribes to Match Fix, Former Zimbabwe Captain Faces Cricket Ban

Byron Pillay
updated at April 12, 2023 at 7:54 PM
  • Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor is facing a lengthy ban after he admitted to taking drugs and a bribe
  • Brendan Taylor released a statement in which he explained how an Indian businessman bribed him to match fix
  • Social media is sceptical after the Zimbabwean cricket player admitted that he developed a drug problem after the meeting with an Indian businessman

Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Brendan Taylor faces a lengthy band by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after he admitted to taking drugs and receiving a bribe to fix matches.

Brendan Taylor, Zimbabwe, Bribe, Drugs, Sport, Cricket
Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor has admitted to taking drugs and bribes to match fix but insists he didn't fix any games. Image: Nigel Roddis/ Seb Daly
Source: Getty Images

Taylor took to his Twitter to release a statement in which he detailed the events which led to him taking drugs and receiving money to fix games by an Indian businessman in 2019.

In his statement, he explained that he was invited by an Indian businessman to discuss sponsorship opportunities. The meeting involved drinks and at one stage Taylor was offered drugs which he accepted. He added that the next morning he was shown the video of him taking drugs and warned that if he did not fix matches, the video would be circulated. He was then given the $15 000 bribe.

Taylor added that he would humbly accept any punishment that the ICC imposed and stressed that he did not fix any matches despite taking the money, SuperSport reported. Taylor will now book himself into a rehab centre to deal with his drug problem

Despite his pleas of innocence, social media has shown little sympathy for the former Zimbabwean captain who represented his country for 17 years. Many were sceptical that Taylor had developed a drug problem only after taking the drugs, believing that he had a drug problem before.

@AdamTheofilatos:

"A big question remains unanswered regarding the Brendan Taylor saga: what happened to the money?"

@Tjenisani:

"Brendan Taylor is in quite a fix. He put his nose in the wrong business"

@iplthebest:

"The reason I am not sympathetic to Brendan Taylor is not because of the incident itself. Holier than thou isn't my thing. But I just don't believe the story panned out exactly the way he has narrated. Never jump to conclusions based on one side of the story."

@banglani:

"I don't see Brendan Taylor as a victim at all. He made poor judgment calls - traveling to India on a rather transparent ruse for a cash incentive, engaging in "discussions" with shady characters, doing drugs with them. This is more than an approach he failed to report."

@addial:

"Brendan Taylor announcing he has a drug addiction problem at the same time he's about to be outed as a match-fixer."

South Africa claim series victory against India, social media in awe of whitewash 50-over victory

The Proteas put on another impressive display against India in the third and final one day international (ODI) to claim the match and series victory. South Africa beat India 3-0 in the series to add to their test match series victory, Sports Brief reported.

Quinton de Kock was once again in devastating form as he scored 124 to lead the Proteas to 287 all out, Sport24 confirmed. De Kock would go on to claim the man of the match and man of the series trophies.

India then came extremely close to chasing down the total, losing in the end by just four runs CricInfo reported. The match went down to the final over and could have gone either way but India were bowled out.

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Byron Pillay
Byron Pillay is a sports writer and Head of the Department at Sports Brief (joined in 2022) with over 10 years of experience in community journalism and a degree in journalism from Caxton's Cadet School.
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