'I should have died' - Taylor on 10 years since forced retirement

Taylor played seven Tests and 27 one-day internationals for England before his career was cut short [Getty Images]

It is 10 years since the day that changed James Taylor's life forever.

Having been taken ill during a pre-season match for Leicestershire against Cambridge University, the England international batter drove back to Nottingham for a hastily arranged doctor appointment he hoped would clear up the issue.

"I should have died on that journey," he tells BBC Sport.

"My body is packing up over the course of the next five hours. I'm grey and cold but sweaty too. I'm crawling because I can't walk.

"I tried to get up some stairs but my body is packing up so I'm being sick everywhere.

"I get into bed in the fetal position and my shoulder is absolutely killing me."

Taylor would soon be diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) - the heart condition that forced him to retire aged 26.

He had only been completing some throw-downs before the start of play, something he had done hundreds, probably thousands, of times before.

"I'm not even joking, I could physically see my shirt moving from my heartbeat," he says.

"It felt like I was incredibly anxious but obviously I shouldn't be.

"I make my way off the field because I think I'm going to be sick, think I'm going to pass out. I stuck my head down the loo and I'm not sick but I can't breathe now.

"This was probably the only time in the whole process that I actually thought I might pass out or even die."

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On arriving home, Taylor called his doctor, who advised him to get to hospital as quickly as possible.

"Don't wait for an ambulance, you haven't got enough time," he was told. It was later made clear his body was trying to save his vital organs.

"They put me on to this machine and I'll never forget the sound that it made, going at 265 beats per minute," Taylor says.

"It was also completely out of rhythm so it was incredible that I survived that.

"You're meant to only be able to be conscious for 10 minutes of that and I'd gone nearly six hours.

"They said that what my heart had been through was the equivalent of five to six marathons."

That winter Taylor had secured his place in England's Test side throughout their series in South Africa, having scored his first international hundred at the end of the 2015 summer.

The diminutive middle-order batter took two sensational catches at short leg against the Proteas in Johannesburg.

Some were even talking about the former England Lions captain leading his country one day.

"I was so focused on keeping my place that I said to the main doctor, who luckily knew and loved his cricket, they just needed to get me right for three weeks' time which was England against Sri Lanka at Lord's," says Taylor, who averaged a respectable 42.23 after 27 one-day internationals in addition to his seven Tests.

"I said, honestly at the bed side when I was dying, 'just get me ready for that game because I have worked so hard to get to this position and I have finally cemented my place in this Test team - I'm not giving up for anything'.

"Obviously then he told me that I had pretty much had a heart attack, not exactly but there or thereabouts, and that was when I kind of knew that my life was going to change forever."

Taylor took two stunning catches at short leg during the third Test against South Africa in 2016 [Getty Images]

Taylor's retirement was announced six days after the initial incident but he remained in hospital for three weeks.

He was told his condition, similar to the one which affected footballer Fabrice Muamba, was usually only revealed post-mortem.

"I had a round table with a load of cricket media and journalists and they mentioned all my hard work, graft and what it took to finally cement my place in an England team and honestly, I just burst out crying in front of them all," Taylor says.

"It had meant so much to me, it meant so much to so many people and that really, really hurt, not being able to do that any more."

In the years after his retirement, Taylor channeled his professional juices into golf, becoming a scratch player within three and a half years.

He also worked as a commentator for Test Match Special and then became a selector with England in 2018.

"At that stage, I just wanted to do things that I enjoyed and that I could make a difference in," he says.

"It was an opportunity that I couldn't turn down.

"I felt like I could make a difference and ultimately we did, we had a great time becoming number one in the white-ball game and winning the World Cup [in 2019], we were also tasked with winning Tests away from home which we did."

Taylor stood down in 2022 after director Rob Key, who had just appointed Brendon McCullum as Test coach, implemented a new structure.

"Of course, [the job] is stressful," Taylor says.

"If you don't have the right process when it comes to decision-making, and if you let emotion get in the way or you're not being honest or communication is poor, that makes it hard and that can be stressful.

"But if your process is as good as it can possibly be, it does make things easier because you've done everything you can to make the best-informed decision.

"You're dropping and hiring players in the elite end of international sport but you're working with great people and I was making the right decisions at the right time in my head, so I could sleep at night."

These days Taylor is an assistant coach back at Leicestershire, where he became the youngest batter to make 1,000 County Championship runs in a season in 2009.

He has an internal defibrillator, has medication for his heart issue and tries to keep stress to a minimum.

"Like if my football team loses, it's not the end of the world to me," he says.

"I try to have fun with what I do and I don't get too het up and bothered about things.

"I wish I was more passionate about things sometimes and that I could get more riled up about things but I just don't, and I've learnt not to and that I can't.

"I guess I've just taught myself to be more laid-back."

Armed with that mindset, Taylor and Leicestershire are back in Division One for the first time in 22 years this season after being promoted.

He also points to the help he gained from speaking to friends and family at his most difficult moments.

"I have lived a great life over the past 10 years when I shouldn't have, and I've been so lucky, and I am extremely grateful for the experiences," he says.

"I've trusted some great people who have allowed me to get things off my chest which is so important because physically we can't control what happens to us, but mentally we can, and it's so important to speak to people you trust instead of battling with yourself."