Taylor’s ODI career has now spanned 22 years and 148 days, surpassing Tendulkar’s 22 years and 91 days.
Zimbabwean wicketkeeper-batter Brendan Taylor has overtaken legendary India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to become the holder of the longest ODI career in men’s cricket, according to Cricinfo. The Zimbabwean achieved the feat after featuring in the first ODI of the ongoing three-match series against Australia in Harare on Tuesday.
Taylor, 40, made his ODI debut in April 2004 against Sri Lanka and went on to establish himself as one of Zimbabwe’s leading batters. Before Tuesday’s match, he had amassed 11 ODI centuries — a national record — in 207 appearances, with 6,704 runs to his name. Taylor retired from international cricket in 2021. Four months later, in January 2022, he revealed that corruptors had attempted to lure him into fixing matches in 2019 by offering him cocaine and subsequently blackmailing him. After completing his suspension, Taylor came out of retirement in 2025 as Zimbabwe began preparing for the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Zimbabwe’s neighbours South Africa and Namibia.
Because he feared for his family’s safety, according to Cricinfo, although Taylor stressed that he had never fixed a match, he admitted that he delayed reporting the approach to the ICC. He was eventually banned from all forms of cricket for three and a half years.
