Taylor turns sights towards Caribbean

Claire Taylor is looking forward to the ICC World Twenty20 in April after receiving her MBE from the Queen

Claire Taylor today received royal recognition for her remarkable achievements over the past 12 months, but she is eager to begin the next chapter in her England career.

Taylor capped an illustrious year, in which was voted player of the tournament in both England women’s victorious World Cup and the World Twenty20 campaigns, by receiving an MBE from the Queen at Windsor Castle.

And after a six-month break from the game, she is counting down the weeks before she can resume her international career in the World Twenty20 in the West Indies in April.

“I’m feeling strong and in quite good form with the bat, but obviously I’ve had no match practise under my belt or anything, so I’ll keep working for the next few weeks,” she told ecb.co.uk.

"When the girls get back from India we’ll be able to do some good training together.

“Any opportunity to put the shirt on and wear the three Lions, but also to get back out there and rekindle some of the squad feelings that we had last summer, is always a challenge.”

Taylor, who was awarded her gong on the same day as rugby legend Ian McGeechan became a Knight, was the first woman to be named Wisden Cricketer of the Year last April and was named Women's Cricketer of the Year by the International Cricket Council in October.

And she relished her trip to Windsor Castle. “It was a really lovely day,” she said. “The ceremony was amazing and the setting is amazing.

“It was all over within 30 seconds so it was all very quick, but it was great to be part of.

“We talked (her and the Queen) about the West Indies, which is the next time I’ll be playing for England, I hope, in April. So we talked about that - whether it will be warm or whether it I’ll be the rainy season.”

In her absence, England struggled to maintain their form. They were beaten by West Indies at the end of last year and lost the current one-day series in India.

But Taylor believes it was inevitable that the side would go through a lull in form, and it is important they now show signs of progression in the Caribbean.

“After a really good summer, to continue playing very good cricket you need to start to build either technically or tactically,” she said.

“And you need to start to blood new players, so it was always going to be a pretty tough time.

“What we need to do is to play some really good cricket in the West Indies in April and retain our Twenty20 cup and then go on to the Kiwis in the summer.

“Last year was last year. I don’t think we are going to have a year where we have two world competitions, the Ashes and a one-day series against Australia.

“So we looked to peak at that point in time and the next set of players to come through will come into the squad and we’ll look to peak again for one-day cricket in 2013.”