Jerome Taylor bowls during a net training session. - File

Fast bowler Jerome Taylor who was forced to quit both West Indies and Jamaica duties after breaking down due to injury, on tours last year, appears back to his best and is raring to confirm that clean bill of health when he lines up as one of Jamaica's main bowlers in the Caribbean Twenty/20 championship.

The team jets off to Antigua later today, with high hopes under a new captain and coach to do better than their semi-final placing last year. Taylor, who is making a return to first-class cricket, was one of the main stars in Jamaica's squad for the final practice match in St Elizabeth against a Ballards' Valley invitational on Wednesday.

Both the 26-year-old Taylor and Gibbs Williams, the man now in charge of Jamaica's physical readiness, are confident that the injury concerns have improved enough for his fans and the general cricket fraternity to expect to him hang around in competitive cricket.

Taylor confirmed that his last competitive outing was six months ago, but has no concerns about whether he will last this time around.

raring to go

"Within myself, I am pretty much okay and raring to go," said Taylor shortly after turning a spell of two overs of quick pace, and hitting the stumps three times for a mere four runs in the match.

In the game itself, his arm looked strong throwing balls from the boundary, and the 16 runs he tallied in forging an eighth-wicket partnership with top scorer Shawn Findlay was crucial in taking Jamaica past 100 and their eventual total of 123.

"I only missed one of the practice games, and I've been practising all facets of the game, fielding, bowling and batting and I am feeling just fine," Taylor, a native of St Elizabeth, added.

Following the game, Williams put Taylor through rigorous warm-down exercises, and the speedster displayed no grimace. He then gave Taylor the thumbs up.

"Physically, he is in good shape; he just needs to do more bowling to get match fit."