Mark Taylor says spend TV rights cash on developing batsmen Former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor. MARK Taylor wants Cricket Australia to spend a large chunk of its half billion dollar television rights deal on developing quality batsmen. Returning as a CA board member today following a year's absence, Taylor claims that the cash bonanza has now put cricket on a level playing field with the AFL and NRL in pursuit of the best young talent. The former national captain is back on CA's new streamlined board thanks to strong leadership from new Cricket NSW chairman John Warn, who convinced his state association to change its constitution so it could again be represented by one of cricket's leading statesmen. Taylor was the victim of political machinations that tore NSW apart when the CA board was reduced to just one representative from each state and three independents. "The idea of getting the board smaller and a bit more streamlined I think was a good thing," Taylor told News Limited. I was prepared to roll over and die for it. Now back in his rightful place at the board table, Taylor wants Australian cricket back at the top. "We have to look very closely at how we spend that money so we can get our team back to the best in world cricket," Taylor said. We're going to have a really close look at our younger age groups to see if they're producing the necessary talent coming through. At the moment, to be absolutely frank, I don't see the batting talent coming through that I'd like to see in Australian cricket. We've got to do something there. I don't have any answers at this stage but I think it's an area we have to keep exploring. Taylor is in no doubt that cricket is now one of the best options for young sports men and women in the country. "The one big positive about the T20 revolution is that it (the television deal) has made playing cricket at the top level very attractive to young people," he said. There was a time not so long ago that there was really only the top 12 to 20 players who could call themselves full time cricketers. It's probably now up towards a hundred and that number may well grow. However Taylor believes Twenty20 cricket has become a double-edged sword when it comes to producing quality batsmen. "As much as people tell me you can switch from one to the other you can't help but think that the idea of batting a session individually for 20 runs has almost gone out the door," he said. That tough period of grinding it out, I think batsmen still do that but they length that they tend to survive for before they play that big shot is shortening all the time. Maybe that will always be the case. I can't help but think if I was a young guy at 14 or 15 wondering, `what am I going to do', I'd be thinking, `yes, I want to play for Australia, but boy I want to play that T20 stuff. That looks like a lot of fun and there's good money in it'.