‘A Rajasthan owner slapped me 3-4 times’- Ross Taylor makes shocking Allegation Against Indian T20 League Team Owner
Former New Zealand player Ross Taylor revealed in his recent autobiography “Ross Taylor: Black & White” that he was meted out harsh treatment and was slapped across his face by a Rajasthan team owner when he got out for a duck in an Indian T20 League match against the Punjab side in Mohali.
“Rajasthan played Kings XI Punjab in Mohali. The chase was 195, I was lbw for a duck and we didn’t get close. Afterwards, the team, support staff and management were in the bar on the top floor of the hotel. Liz Hurley was there with Warnie. One of the Royals owners said to me, “Ross, we didn’t pay you a million dollars to get a duck” and slapped me across the face three or four times. He was laughing and they weren’t hard slaps but I’m not sure that it was entirely play-acting,” Taylor revealed in the book.
“Under the circumstances I wasn’t going to make an issue of it, but I couldn’t imagine it happening in many professional sporting environments,” he added.
Ross Taylor had played with the Bangalore side in the foundation years of the Indian T20 League but the Rajasthan franchise had bagged him for $1 million in 2011. Taylor, however, said that he would have preferred to stay with the Bangalore franchise rather than Rajasthan.
“When you fetch that sort of money, you’re desperately keen to prove that you’re worth it. And those who are paying you that sort of money have high expectations – that’s professional sport and human nature. I’d paid my dues at RCB: if I’d had a lean trot, the management would have had faith in me because of what I’d done in the past. When you go to a new team, you don’t get that backing. You never feel comfortable because you know that if you go two or three games without a score, you come under cold-eyed scrutiny,” he said.
Taylor, who is of Samoan lineage, had also recently said that he had to deal with racism during his 16-year career in New Zealand cricket and describes racist locker room “banter” and casually racist comments from some New Zealand team officials.
“Cricket in New Zealand is a pretty white sport,” Taylor writes in his book. “For much of my career I’ve been an anomaly, a brown face in a vanilla line-up. That has its challenges, many of which aren’t readily apparent to your teammates or the cricketing public.”
Taylor said many people mistook him for being of Maori or Indian heritage because Pacific Island representation in New Zealand cricket is so rare. He said locker room banter sometimes was racist and hurtful but he was concerned that raising the issue might worsen the situation.
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