Geelong City signs Northamptonshire bowler Tom Taylor for 2022/23 GCA2 season

Geelong City has landed arguably the GCA2’s biggest-ever signing, with a County bowler with 150 wickets agreeing to sign for the rest of the season.

Geelong City recruit Tom Taylor

Geelong City has sensationally landed one of the biggest signings in recent GCA2 history after securing the signature of Tom Taylor.

The English cricketer, who has taken 150 County Championship wickets for Northamptonshire, will spend the next seven weeks with the undefeated ladder-leaders before beginning a pre-season tour of Cape Town.

Geelong City coach Scott Lindsay said Taylor was a massive coup for the club.

Scott Lindsay has worked with new Geelong premier player Emilio Gay.

“He’s not going to play finals for us, but it’s not about that, it’s about him having some fun out here and educating our own club about how to get better and train better,” he said.

“Tom trained with us last night and trained well, so we’re hoping some of our guys can pick up on some stuff and become better players.

“It’s better for the league to be honest, if you can bring overseas players into the league and help improve the standard, it’s only going to improve the players around them as well.

“There’s no doubt he’ll open the bowling for us, but he’ll also bat in the middle order, probably around 4-6 and contribute well with both.”

The 28-year-old has taken 150 County wickets at an average of 31.11, with best figures of 6-47.

He has also belted 1358 runs at 19.4 in his 54 first-class matches, with a top score of 80.

Taylor is not the only Northamptonshire player to sign with a Geelong-based side, with Emilio Gay recently making his debut for Geelong’s premier team.

Emilio Gay has also come out to play in Geelong. Picture: Mark Wilson

Lindsay said a longstanding connection between himself and Gay helped land Taylor at Geelong City.

“There’s a bit of a connection there, I know Emilio (Gay) pretty well from last time he was here,” he said.

“I did some one-one-one work with him in the past, and I kept in contact with him and asked him if there were any guys that wanted to play some games for seven weeks.

“Emilio and I went to the Boxing Day Test together, I knew Tom was coming at that point, then Emilio decided to stay in Geelong because he had a lot of people he knew here.

“Tom and I spoke in November, we were going back and forth about coming over and playing some cricket, but he’ll be here until the end of February.

“The club is really excited to have Tom on board, as I said I think it’ll definitely help with training loads and improving in the nets, but also it’ll give our boys a line with a first class cricketer and it’ll show them what’s possible.”

Originally published as Geelong City signs Northamptonshire bowler Tom Taylor for 2022/23 GCA2 season