Brendan Taylor breaks Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record
Zimbabwe's Taylor achieved the milestone when he played against Australia in first ODI
Zimbabwe veteran Brendan Taylor has surpassed India great Sachin Tendulkar to become the longest-serving player in men’s One-Day International cricket history.
Taylor achieved the remarkable milestone when he took the field for Zimbabwe against Australia in the first ODI at Harare Sports Club on Tuesday, extending his ODI career to 22 years and 146 days since making his debut in 2004.
The 40-year-old wicketkeeper-batter moved past Tendulkar, whose legendary ODI career spanned 22 years and 91 days between 1989 and 2012.
Tendulkar remains the format’s leading run-scorer with 18,426 runs and holds the record for most ODI appearances, having played 463 matches.
Taylor, meanwhile, has established himself as one of Zimbabwe’s greatest cricketers. He entered the Australia series with 6,704 ODI runs from 205 innings, just 82 runs short of Andy Flower’s national record of 6,786 runs in 208 innings. He has also scored 11 ODI centuries, the most by a Zimbabwean.
All three formats
Taylor has represented and captained Zimbabwe across all three formats and was one of the team’s standout performers at the 2015 ODI World Cup, where he scored two centuries, including one against eventual champions India.
His career has been marked by several dramatic twists. Taylor initially stepped away from international cricket after the 2015 World Cup to take up a three-year Kolpak deal with English county side Nottinghamshire. He later returned to Zimbabwe before announcing his international retirement in 2021.
His retirement, however, was not the end of his international career. Taylor subsequently revealed that he had been approached by individuals seeking to corrupt him in 2019. He said he was offered cocaine and later blackmailed after delaying his report to the International Cricket Council.
The incident resulted in the ICC imposing a three-and-a-half-year ban on Taylor in 2022 for breaches of its Anti-Corruption and Anti-Doping codes.
After serving his suspension, Taylor made a surprise return to international cricket in 2025 as Zimbabwe looked ahead to the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
